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Paxton, Cornyn Battle in High-Stakes Texas GOP Primary

The Republican Senate primary in Texas is turning into a showdown between the GOP establishment and the party’s MAGA base, with President Donald Trump holding the potential deciding card.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, faces a fierce challenge from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, with U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt also in the mix.

 Most analysts expect no candidate to clear 50%, setting up a May 26 runoff between the top two finishers.

The race has become the most expensive Senate primary in U.S. history, with more than $120 million in ad spending and reservations, underscoring its national significance.

Republican leaders in Washington are pouring tens of millions into pro-Cornyn efforts, concerned that nominating Paxton could give Democrats an opening in a state the GOP has dominated for three decades, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

Cornyn, 74, a four-term senator and former member of GOP leadership, is backed by Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and national Republican groups.

Allies argue he is the strongest general election candidate and the safest bet to keep Texas red in November.

But Paxton, 63, a Trump ally and conservative firebrand, has surged with grassroots voters.

He built his reputation by suing the Biden administration, backing Trump's 2020 election challenge, and leading on issues from abortion to religious liberty.

Despite past legal battles — including a 2023 impeachment by the Texas House that ended in acquittal by the state Senate — Paxton has repeatedly won statewide.

An Emerson College Polling survey showed Paxton leading Cornyn 40% to 36%, with Hunt at 17%, making a runoff likely.

Paxton leads among Election Day voters and 2024 Trump voters, while Cornyn performs best among older Republicans and early voters.

The contest has grown increasingly personal.

A Cornyn-backed group launched an ad attacking Paxton's ethics controversies and divorce, labeling him a "fraud."

Paxton allies counter that Republican voters have already looked past those issues, pointing to his past electoral victories.

Axios reported that GOP operatives fear a scenario in which a Paxton nomination is paired with a strong Democrat challenger such as state Rep. James Talarico, whose "progressive Christian" message could appeal to moderates.

Democrats are energized, and early voting suggests strong engagement on their side as well, according to The Texas Tribune.

Still, Texas hasn't elected a Democrat statewide since 1994, and many Republicans believe the state remains fundamentally red.

The real question is what kind of Republican primary voters want: A battle-tested conservative insider with decades of experience, or a combative MAGA warrior promising to shake up Washington.

Trump, who has praised all three GOP contenders, has so far declined to endorse. But if the race heads to a runoff, his backing could prove decisive.

Watch: Pro-Khamenei Pakistanis Storm U.S. Consulate, Quickly and Violently Find Out

With U.S. and Israeli strikes continuing against Iran, pro-regime protesters in other countries are beginning to lash out. In Pakistan, hundreds of people gathered outside the Karachi-based American consulate in response to the killing of Iranian leader Ayatollah Khamenei, and things quickly escalated. 

 Videos showed the Islamists first breaching the main gate and then using pieces of wood and various tools to breach the inner part of the compound. 

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Related: Trump Warns Iran That Retaliation Would Be Very Costly 

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At some point, the mob pushed too far into the perimeter, and defensive gunfire erupted. Both Pakistani security forces and U.S. Marines were on the scene to protect the consulate, and it wasn't immediately clear if both groups opened fire or just one or the other. According to reports, 10 people were killed, with dozens more wounded. 

At least nine people are dead and more than two dozen injured after violent clashes outside the U.S. Consulate in Karachi, Pakistan.

Hundreds of protesters stormed the diplomatic compound in a sharp escalation of anti-American demonstrations.

The unrest followed reports that Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed in a joint U.S.-Israeli strike, sparking anger among Shiite Muslims in Pakistan.

Witnesses told The Associated Press that many of the protesters were Shiite Muslims who expressed outrage over Khamenei’s reported death and alleged U.S. involvement. Protesters chanted anti-American and anti-Israel slogans, and attempted to breach the consulate’s perimeter.

Some on the left oddly tried to compare the situation to Benghazi, but notably, no Americans were harmed in this situation. Preparations to protect embassies and consulates in these hostile areas were no doubt taken over the last few months. Further, the Pakistani president, no matter how much he praises now-dead Khamenei, wants no part in angering the United States. 

Some in the Pakistani government did condemn the shooting, though. 

This isn't complicated. Don't storm American consulates, and no one will be hurt. Some lines simply can't be crossed, no matter how outraged Islamists in places like Pakistan get that Iran's terror regime is being decapitated. Given that the mob was allowed to breach the gate without consequence, it's obvious some restraint was shown. The moment they went too far, though, action had to be taken. 

Let this be a lesson to any other pro-Islamist groups looking to lash out. If you do so by attacking Americans, you will pay a heavy, perhaps permanent price. The Trump administration isn't the Biden or Obama administration, and they aren't playing around. 

 

CA Governor Tries to Troll Trump Over Fuel Prices, but Is Savagely Brought Back to Reality by Gas Assoc.

Many in the Democrat party are lining up to criticize Operation Epic Fury, the joint U.S.-Israel airstrikes that took out Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and almost the entire slate of leaders of the Islamic Republic regime early Saturday morning. 

 They’ve been calling the mission “illegal,” “dangerous,” “criminal,” and any other ominous words they can find in their thesaurus.

Leftist California Governor Gavin Newsom, who’s long been rumored to be plotting a run for the presidency, has seen his stock plummet in 2026 after a series of gaffes, so he (or his juvenile communications team) evidently thought he could take advantage of the overseas battle by trolling the president.

It went extremely badly for the team, and the "pajama boy" who came up with the post was savaged, as you'll see.

The one thing an advisor should immediately tell Mr. Newsom is that he should never, ever bring up gas prices, because his state routinely has the highest in the nation — by a wide margin — refineries are ditching California as fast as they can, and even more residents could potentially head elsewhere if a proposed mileage tax gets imposed.

But the cocky-for-no-apparent-reason team couldn’t help themselves:

“We’re watching this space. Closely,” the official, taxpayer-funder Governor Newsom Press Office account said on X. 

What "space" will you be watching? X feeds? Shouldn’t you be running the state instead of doomscrolling on social media?

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MORE: As Gavin Newsom Stacks Up the Disasters, His Comms Team Is Melting Down

Schiff's No-Go on Iran: Ignores Global Attacks, Calls Strike Unjustified

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The governor may want to have a little talk with the team, however, because if he keeps getting (virtually) pummeled like this online, he’s going to need a respirator. The US Oil & Gas Association’s response was epic and well-deserved:

Their tweet continues (hoo boy, does it):

According to the California Energy Commission here is the typical break down of where that foreign-sourced crude supplied to California refineries comes from:

Iraq: ~21% 

Brazil: ~20% 

Guyana: ~16%.

Ecuador: ~14%.

Colombia: ~6% 

Canada: ~4% 

Mexico: ~4%

United Arab Emirates (UAE): ~2%.

Others like Saudi Arabia will total the rest of the 100% foreign share.

The only state worried about rattling foreign markets is California because you have let yourselves become dependent on foreign supplies.

You've done this to yourselves.

Truth, Oil and Gas Association. 

They, meaning California progressives and most of all, Gov. Hair Gel, did it to themselves and all of their residents.

Look at Gavin’s reality before Operation Epic Fury:

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California Gas Prices Jump 40 Cents to $4.58, Now $1.66 Above National Average

California Fuel Prices Poised to Hit New Heights Due to Refinery Losses

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Prices have gone down somewhat in the Golden State — mostly because Trump is in office — but look what Gavin, Joe Biden, and Co. hit us with in 2022 with their ludicrous energy policies and war on proven fuels:

There are some subjects Newsom just plain shouldn’t brag about: homelessness, affordability, betrayal, and of course, the price at the pump. Somebody might want to alert his comms team.

Editor’s Note: Gavin Newsom wants to turn America into one big version of California - a failed, overtaxed, dystopian nightmare.

Be Armed and Ready – the Asymmetrical Battlefield Could Be Here at Home

Asymmetrical warfare means applying the strengths you have against an overwhelming enemy’s weaknesses.

 The goat sex pest mullahs have been utterly humiliated by America's and Israel’s overwhelming military superiority in conventional forces, with our airplanes, drones, and other systems traversing their airspace at will after we established total air supremacy. Our ships sail the seas, unthreatened and unchallenged, while most of the Iranian Navy morphs into submarines. But that doesn’t mean that they don’t have the capacity to strike back, and that doesn’t mean that we don’t have potential weaknesses. Everybody has weaknesses. Ours is located in the United States itself, our homeland, where we’re at. It's already happening on a small scale, with open immigration poster child Ngdiaga Diagne 

 

shooting up a bar in Texas for Allah. We’re vulnerable here, and you are potentially on the front line of this war.

Time to be ready. Time to be armed. Time to get some.

What’s our vulnerability? Civilians, normal Americans, who Iranian proxy terrorists could murder in heaps. Until Donald Trump came back, we had four years of wide-open borders where every Third World indigent with shoes and a dream was able to sashay into our country, unimpeded and often subsidized by President Eggplant and his Democrat administration. We know the Iranians have agents in the United States – that’s open source, and everybody gets The FBI is on full alert, now that it protects American citizens again instead of oppressing them. This is not wolf-crying. The Iranian mullahs tried to murder Donald Trump and others and have caused lots of other mischief outside their borders. Now, the Iranian jihadis are not superstars, and they’re not super-geniuses. They are cunning and relatively competent at times in doing what they do, and what they do best is attack innocent civilians. As we can see, when they come up against soldiers, they die a lot. Well, there are lots of innocent civilians here in the United States, and it is not unreasonable to assume that the Iranian Republican Guard Corps has infiltrated sleeper cells into the United States. Once activated, they have the potential to go on a murder spree unparalleled in American history, one that would make Saturday night in Chicago look like a picnic with the Muppets.

I wrote about this in my bestselling novel, published not long after October 7, because October 7 is the asymmetrical terrorist mass assault template, called The Attack. The Iranian thugs helped plan and approve the Hamas massacre of innocent Israelis (as well as some Americans), which is more of the reason that they’re getting nothing but what they deserve right now. The idea behind an asymmetrical strike is simple. You send in minimally trained but maximally indoctrinated killers through the open border, and they wait. They wait in small groups, taking no action until activated. It’s not hard for them to get weapons into the United States, and part of the beauty is that you don’t need complex weapons. The AK-47 family of assault rifles was designed so that Siberian peasants would have an effective weapon system they could operate, even if they came from a village still baffled by devices such as the wheel. You can buy ammunition in the United States, and magazines, and recently, it was not that hard to ship fully automatic weapons across the border. Until Trump closed it, there was no shortage of cocaine, heroin, and fentanyl. The cartels would eagerly assist, for a price paid out of the pallets of cash that Barack Obama and Ben Rhodes dropped on them.

The advantages of this are obvious. Under Biden, nobody was looking for them. We didn’t do any interior enforcement. Now we famously are, and we can only hope that getting Iranian-adjacent illegal aliens out of the country is one of ICE’s top priorities. Of course, neurotic wine women and femboy libs will have a conniption over us deporting these potential terrorists, but we need to do it, no matter how hard they blow their whistles.

Just remember that the killers don’t have to be Iranian. They can be from Chechnya, Egypt, Afghanistan, Turkistan, or some other random -stan. The Iranians aren’t picky about who they work with. Iranians are Shia and Hamas are Sunni, but that didn’t stop them from getting together to murder Christians and Jews. Anybody from the Middle East who’s over here illegally, and some who are here legally, absolutely have the potential of acting for Iran if activated. We've already had jihad murders here, like the Pulse nightclub and San Bernardino shootings. We hear less about them lately because Muslim murderers have had the limelight stolen by trans deviants who've gone on killing sprees over their pronoun gripes, but that doesn't mean they are gone, as totally as real Americans as you and me, Ndiaga Diagnes demonstrated.

The beauty of this scenario for our enemy is that it is a quintessential asymmetrical attack. It takes the weaknesses of the Iranians, like the inability to coordinate forces, lack of logistical and administrative support, the absence of command and control, and paucity of concurrent communications, and turns those into strengths. When those don’t exist, the cells are hard to locate. If you have small groups of fanatics, whose sole purpose is to go to a given location at a given time, and kill everybody they see until they themselves are killed, you don’t need any kind of support. They are akin to drones – meat drones that their overlords can fire and forget. And since American forces tend to look at the enemy support systems to find weaknesses, which is one of our advantages because we do it so well, you end up neutralizing the American advantage. Americans want to beat the enemy long before there’s an actual gunfight. In this way, against an Iranian enemy, an asymmetrical attack would ensure lots of gunfights, giving Iranian proxies the ability to cause significant casualties where they wouldn’t have the ability to do that otherwise.

In The Attack, thousands of these little cells are activated and strike, murdering scores of Americans before the government is able to form a coordinated response. But, as in reality, in the book, we see what I suspect we would see if the Iranians attempt something like this in real life. What we would see is normal Americans fighting back.

You see, if the homeland becomes a battlefield, we all become soldiers. We have a great counterintelligence team, and the FBI is back to protecting the American people instead of the Democrat elite. Still, they, along with our great law enforcement first responders, can’t be everywhere all the time. We citizens, can. All of us could be face-to-face with the enemy, whether another Ndiaga Diagne at a bar or a bunch of like-minded psychos in a church, a school, a shopping mall, or at a militantly cis-gender hockey game; their goal would be to bring the war to us, and our obligation would be to fight it and win it. But how do normal citizens do that?

You buy guns and ammunition. You train with them. You carry them legally. You get into the mental mindset that bad things can happen, and you need to be ready. Except in the blue states, where they put up hurdles to stop you from defending yourself, your family, your community, and your Constitution. Gavin Hairstyle and his ilk would rather you die than upset the aforementioned neurotic wine women and femboy libs who fear guns and manhood.

This admonition that you must be a warrior too is not some hooah big talk. That’s reality. As everybody knows, except liars and fools, armed citizens have long been able to intervene to stop crimes with their lawfully carried weapons. What we’re talking about here is something even more sinister than some gender goblin with a grudge over his unwanted penis shooting up a preschool; it’s terrorists shooting up everything as part of a plan to commit mass murder as terrorist retaliation against the United States for taking out their pals in Tehran. You’ve got to be ready. If you can legally carry a weapon on you, you should, and a long weapon in the truck provides you with critical combat options if this goes down. But you should also practice with your guns. And don’t forget the other component of this – medical training and gear to stop the bleeding should you find yourself in the middle of a terrorist attack.

You didn’t ask to be a hero, but you are an American citizen, and that makes you hero-capable. It is your duty as an American citizen to do your best to protect your fellow citizens. If you can fight, you’ve got to be ready within the guardrails of your abilities and the law.

Our great troops are fighting this battle overseas as we speak. There is a non-zero chance we will have to fight this battle in America. Some people will dismiss this warning as silly. Some people will dismiss this as paranoid. They will run when it happens. You need to decide in advance that you won’t.

If it doesn’t come to fruition, that’s more than fine with us. We don’t want a fight, but, dammit, if those b******s start a fight in our home, we need to be ready to finish it.

 

Here's the Geopolitical Mistake Iran Made That Only Led to More Nations Lining Up Against Them

Iran had to act, but it only worsened their situation: the Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, was dead, and their military leadership was eliminated. They responded with missile strikes against Israel and other Gulf nations. The idea was that this would turn those countries against the United States and pressure them to stop the air campaign. However, it backfired, causing the entire region to turn against Iran—Saudi Arabia, in particular, sided with the US, which is expected. While the kingdom often follows a narrative to placate anti-Israel sentiments, it remains a rival of Iran both geopolitically and religiously—the Saudis are Sunni and the Iranians are majority Shiite, two branches that aren’t too cozy with one another  

 The Iranian regime, decapitated in the first hours of the U.S.-Israeli campaign that started on Saturday, has responded by striking at least nine countries across the Middle East, unleashing a truly regional war. 

The apparent calculation was that, by targeting rich Persian Gulf monarchies that hold sway with the Trump administration, Tehran could force Washington and Israel into a rapid de-escalation. 

Iran’s expectation was that, by squeezing oil shipping through the Strait of Hormuz and disrupting air traffic, it would cause unbearable pain to the Gulf nations that depend so much on expatriate workers, tourism and overseas trade. 

So far, this calculus seems to have backfired. Gulf states, rattled by volleys of Iranian drones and missiles targeting their hotels, ports and airports, are concluding the Iranian peril must be confronted. Rather than seeking an offramp, the prevailing mood in the Gulf—at least for now—is that the Iranian regime can’t be allowed to get away with this unprecedented onslaught on its neighbors.

The subplot to Iran’s nuclear ambitions was Saudi Arabia’s declaration some 20 years ago that it would start its own nuclear weapons program if Tehran acquired the bomb. No one wants a nuclear arms race in the Middle East. 

[…] 

Iran has struck all six of the oil-rich Gulf Arab states, including Oman, which had mediated nuclear talks between Tehran and the Trump administration. It also hit Jordan, Iraq and Israel. At first, all the Gulf states publicly opposed the U.S.-Israeli assault on the Iranian regime, which has already resulted in the death of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the killing of many Iranian military and intelligence commanders.

The mood changed quickly once the brunt of the Iranian response targeted cities such as Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the U.A.E., Doha in Qatar, and Manama in Bahrain, inflicting widespread damage to infrastructure and civilian casualties. In the U.A.E. alone, Iran killed three people and injured 58 after firing 165 ballistic missiles and 541 drones, most of which have been intercepted, according to the Defense Ministry. 

[…] 

“Many people in the Gulf woke up Saturday pissed off at the United States and Israel, and went to sleep pissed off at Iran,” said William Wechsler, director of Middle East programs at the Atlantic Council in Washington and a former U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense. 

Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E., which were engaged in an acrimonious diplomatic quarrel until the weekend, put their disagreements aside for now as they showed a united front against Iran. 

Also, before the strikes, the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) reportedly spoke with President Trump privately, urging military action against Iran (via WaPo): 

President Donald Trump launched Saturday’s wide-ranging attack on Iran after a weeks-long lobbying effort by an unusual pair of U.S. allies in the Middle East — Israel and Saudi Arabia — according to four people familiar with the matter, as Israeli and U.S. forces teamed to topple Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei after nearly four decades in power. 

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman made multiple private phone calls to Trump over the past month advocating a U.S. attack, despite his public support for a diplomatic solution, the four people said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, continued his long-running public campaign for U.S. strikes against what he views as an existential enemy of his country. 

The combined effort helped lead Trump to order a massive aerial campaign against Iran’s leadership and military, which in its initial hour led to the death of Khamenei and several other senior Iranian officials. 

We learned Sunday that Iran is basically a rogue state right now, with no one in charge; everyone who could lead it is dead. 

3 US warplanes shot down by Kuwaiti air defenses, pilots bail out in friendly fire incident, CENTCOM says

Three U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagles were shot down in a friendly fire incident over Kuwait late Sunday during active combat operations tied to Operation Epic Fury, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said.

The aircraft were mistakenly engaged by Kuwaiti air defenses amid a complex battle environment that included attacks from Iranian aircraft, ballistic missiles and drones. 

 All six aircrew members safely ejected, were quickly recovered, and are reported to be in stable condition.

Kuwaiti officials have acknowledged the incident, and an investigation is underway to determine the cause.

A burning aircraft falls from the sky in Al Jahra, Kuwait, in this still image obtained from social media video released on March 2, 2026.

 

Nancy Mace Praises Trump’s Bold Leadership on Newsmax

Rep. Nancy Mace’s remarks on Newsmax are exactly the kind of plain-speaking patriotism Americans are hungry for: she told viewers she trusts President Trump and argued his decisions have been decisive in a dangerous world, insisting the legacy media can’t be trusted to tell the truth. Her defense of the administration’s response to Iran and her blunt dismissal of the mainstream press underline a crucial conservative point — leadership matters in moments of crisis, and Mace isn’t afraid to say so.

 Mace’s comments didn’t come in a vacuum; they were made on a program where she pushed back on media spin and praised the president’s choices, reminding voters that weakness invites danger and strength secures peace. Hardworking Americans from small towns to big cities want representatives who will stand up for the country and back commanders-in-chief who act, not navel-gaze.

She’s hardly alone in that assessment — House Speaker Mike Johnson has publicly said he believes President Trump will be one of the most consequential leaders of the modern era, a prediction rooted in the urgent reforms Republicans are pushing to restore order at home and strength abroad. When party leaders and rank-and-file members alike acknowledge the scale of this presidency, it’s proof the conservative movement is unified around real results, not just rhetoric.

Conservative lawmakers point to concrete achievements — sweeping tax relief, border-security measures, and major legislative wins packaged as the “One, Big, Beautiful” bill — as the foundation for a legacy that will be judged by history, not by hostile anchors. Those victories aren’t accidental; they’re the product of a deliberate America First agenda that puts families, jobs, and national sovereignty ahead of globalist handwringing.

Meanwhile, the same media that downplayed successes and echoed foreign talking points now scramble to rewrite the record, and Nancy Mace is right to call that out. Conservatives must keep pressuring the narrative — fact by fact, vote by vote — until the truth of what this administration accomplished is widely understood and properly credited.

Patriots know history is written by results, not by late-night pundits or anti-American elites. If Republicans hold the line and continue delivering for the American people, future generations will look back and recognize what leaders like Mace and others are saying today: this presidency reshaped the country for the better, and conservatives will proudly stand and defend that legacy.

 

Operation Epic Fury Crushes Iran's Nuclear Ambitions

On March 1, 2026 the United States, in coordination with Israel, launched Operation Epic Fury — a sweeping military campaign ordered by the White House to dismantle Iran’s ability to field nuclear weapons, strike its ballistic missile infrastructure, and degrade the terror networks that have menaced the West for decades. This was not a rash, last-minute stunt; it was the culmination of a long, hard look at a regime that has shown time and again it answers only to force.

 Reports from the field say the strikes were extensive and aimed directly at the regime’s top command and control, with some accounts indicating the death of Iran’s supreme leader in the initial wave — a seismic event that proves the operation struck where it counted. If true, removing the top architects of Iran’s aggression is the kind of decisive action Washington has lacked until now, and it will shake the clerical regime to its rotten core.

We must soberly acknowledge the cost: U.S. Central Command confirmed three American service members were killed and several more wounded during the operations, and every loss of an American life is a wound to the nation. These brave men and women volunteered to stand in harm’s way so the rest of us might sleep safer; their sacrifice demands our respect, not reflexive political hand-wringing from those who have time to protest but no stomach for victory.

For conservatives who have long argued that peace through strength is the only real peace, Operation Epic Fury is vindication — a return to deterrence and to the principle that weakness invites aggression. The White House’s framing of the operation as necessary to “crush the Iranian regime” and protect American lives is blunt, but bluntness is sometimes what is required in the face of existential threats; we should be grateful for leadership that chooses action over appeasement.

Of course the left and the international doomsayers scream about escalation and civilian casualties, and their outrage is convenient when it keeps them on the sidelines while patriots do the hard work of defending liberty. Tragic reports of civilian deaths, including an airstrike that hit a girls’ school, are horrific and must be investigated; yet the real moral outrage should be reserved for a regime that murders its own people, exports terror, and spends its children’s future on missiles and murder.

No one should pretend this is a cost-free enterprise — wars have consequences, logistics are messy, and America must be relentless in protecting its forces and minimizing collateral damage. Still, the alternative to decisive action was a nuclear-armed Iran and a more dangerous, emboldened axis of aggression across the Middle East; that outcome would have been far worse for our children and grandchildren.

Now is the time for unity behind the mission and unwavering support for the troops who carry it out; political point-scoring and televised virtue-signaling will do nothing for a single deployed soldier. America did not ask for this fight, but when threats materialize, we must answer with the resolute strength that kept this country free for generations — and we should trust leaders who finally show the will to act.