Lone Star State Showdown: Trump-backed Paxton takes on Sen. Cornyn in GOP US Senate primary runoff

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall is firing back after a federal appeals court struck down the state's longstanding congressional map, calling the decision a temporary roadblock on the path to an eventual legal victory.

In a defiant statement released following the Tuesday ruling in Allen v. Milligan, Marshall said he is ready to escalate the fight to the nation's highest court.

The three-judge panel's decision blocked a GOP-friendly map that would have given Republicans an electoral edge by erasing a Democrat-held seat in the southeastern part of the state. Instead, the court ordered the state to use a map featuring two majority-Black districts that heavily favor Democrats.

"I am disappointed, but not at all surprised, that the three-judge panel has again struck down Alabama’s blandly unobjectionable congressional map that has been in place for decades," Marshall said.

The attorney general argued the ruling lacks legal merit, noting he found nothing in the U.S. Supreme Court’s May 11 vacatur order that would justify the outcome.

Marshall announced that Alabama will "immediately appeal this decision to the Supreme Court."

While Tuesday's ruling marks a setback for GOP redistricting efforts ahead of the November midterm elections, Marshall painted a picture of ultimate triumph.

"Know this — in my mind, it is not a matter of whether we win this case, only when," he said.

A federal appeals court blocked a proposed GOP-friendly Alabama congressional map on Tuesday, dealing a temporary setback to Republicans’ redistricting efforts ahead of November’s midterm elections.

Alabama Republicans sought to use a previously blocked 2023 congressional map following the Supreme Court’s recent ruling curbing the use of race in the drawing of electoral districts that helped minority communities increase their representation in Congress.

Under that map, Republicans were slated to gain one electoral seat by erasing a Black-majority seat held by Democrats in the southeastern part of the state. 

However, the three-judge panel said Republicans must continue to use a map that has two majority Black districts where Democrats hold significant advantages. 

"Ultimately, we cannot see our way clear to requiring Alabamians to cast their votes in the 2026 elections under a districting plan tainted by intentional race-based discrimination," the federal judges wrote. "We again cannot understand the 2023 Plan as anything other than intentionally discriminatory."

Alabama Republicans are expected to appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court.

Earlier in May, the court allowed the state to proceed with the 2023 map, while sending the years-long case back to the U.S. District Court in Birmingham for reconsideration.

Republicans' redistricting setback comes as Trump has urged GOP-led states in the South to aggressively redraw their congressional maps to benefit the GOP, following the Supreme Court’s Callais ruling.

Tennessee Republicans drew Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., out of his Memphis-anchored district where Black voters constituted a majority earlier this month, adding the seat to the GOP column. Similar redistricting efforts are underway in South Carolina, Florida and Louisiana.

Read the full story by Fox News Digital's Adam Pack here.

Sen. John Cornyn, who has served in the U.S. Senate for more than two decades, is fighting for his political life in the Republican U.S. Senate primary runoff in Texas on Tuesday.

The senator, who took office in late 2002, has served in the upper chamber of the nation's legislature for more than 23 years.

If Cornyn were to win and serve another six-year term, he would end up serving in the Senate for just over 30 years.

Last week President Donald Trump endorsed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton for the Senate seat.

President Donald Trump, who last week endorsed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton for U.S. Senate, issued a Truth Social post on Tuesday urging Texans to vote for the candidate.

Paxton is facing off against incumbent Sen. John Cornyn in the Texas GOP U.S. Senate primary runoff on Tuesday.

"Texas, Vote for Ken Paxton, our Country’s BEST Attorney General!" Trump declared in the Tuesday Truth Social post.

Paxton thanked the president.

"Thank you, @DonaldTrump! Polls are now open. Bring five friends with you. Post your photos to remind Texans that today is election day! Let's work together to make Texas great," Paxton declared in a post on X.

The bitter runoff battle between Sen. John Cornyn and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton for the Senate GOP nomination is grabbing top billing, but it isn’t the only statewide showdown in the Lone State State on Tuesday.

There are also Democratic and Republican contests for state attorney general in the race to replace Paxton.

In the expensive GOP showdown, four-term Rep. Chip Roy is battling state Sen. Mayes Middleton, the president of an independent oil and gas company.

Middleton, who edged Roy in the March primary, has dished out roughly $17 million of his own money to back his campaign. But Roy, a former Texas assistant attorney general and former chief of staff to conservative Sen. Ted Cruz, received a late surge in fundraising from major backers.

"We've gotten the financial support necessary to compete with my self-funder opponent, who's got his inheritance money that he can just spend," Roy highlighted in a Fox News Digital interview on the eve of the runoff.

Roy has argued that Middleton's lack of courtroom experience would make him a poor attorney general.

"Having been the first assistant attorney general makes me ready on day one, but it's also that I've been a prosecutor, I've been in court, I've sat in front of a judge, stood in front of a judge, argued cases, and he has never done any of those things. And we think those things should matter," Roy emphasized.

Middleton has pushed back, questioning Roy's conservative credentials and running ads claiming Roy's "betrayed MAGA" as he has pointed to the times the congressman has broken with Trump over policy.

"Chip Roy is someone that has spent a decade fighting the president. He actually said President Trump committed impeachable conduct on the House floor," Middleton told Fox News Digital. "Instead of spending 10 years fighting President Trump, what have I done? I've spent 10 years fighting to defeat the left, which is what matters the most in this race."

The winner of the GOP runoff will likely face Democratic state Sen. Nathan Johnson, who came close to clinching his party's nomination in the primary. Johnson is facing off against former Galveston Mayor Joe Jaworski.

This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News Digital's Paul Steinhauser and Peter Pinedo

AUSTIN, TX - President Donald Trump has a new target this week as he takes aim at Republican critics — longtime GOP Sen. John Cornyn of Texas.

Trump is targeting Cornyn as "VERY disloyal" as he backs Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a major Trump ally and MAGA firebrand, in Tuesday's combustible and expensive runoff election for the GOP Senate nomination in the right-leaning state. The ballot box showdown serves as the latest test of Trump's immense grip over the Republican Party and the strength of his endorsements in GOP nomination races.

The winner of the runoff will face off against rising Democratic Party star state Rep. James Talarico in the general election in a race that is among a handful that may decide if the Republicans hold their slim 53-47 majority in the Senate. Talarico, who topped progressive star Rep. Jasmine Crockett, a vocal Trump critic, in the March primary, is trying to become the first Democrat in nearly four decades to win a Senate election in Texas.

This is an excerpt of an article by Fox News Digital's Paul Steinhauser and Peter Pinedo