President Donald Trump’s handpicked Senate candidates are showing strength in Republican primaries, with one notching a landslide win and several others heading into runoffs as the heavy favorites.
Trump-backed Republicans have either won or secured strong runoff positions in key Senate races in Kentucky, Louisiana and Alabama. While these victories are poised to give the president a chance to reshape the next Senate GOP conference, Trump’s recent endorsement in Texas is shaping up to be a major test of the president’s power in a general election that could decide which party controls the upper chamber. (RELATED: Trump’s Biggest Endorsement May Trigger Painful Primary Memories For Republicans)
Trump-backed Republican Kentucky Rep. Andy Barr secured a decisive primary victory Tuesday as he seeks to fill the soon-to-be vacant seat held by former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Barr nearly received twice as many votes as his opponent, former Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron. Trump had endorsed Cameron in both the primary and general election during his failed 2023 gubernatorial run, which he lost to Democratic incumbent Andy Beshear.
Louisiana Republican Rep. Julia Letlow, who Trump endorsed before she entered the state Senate’s race, came in first place in the May 16 primary with 45% of the vote ousting incumbent Republican Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy, who finished third. Letlow will advance to the June 27 runoff facing second-place finisher Louisiana Treasurer John Fleming. Cassidy was one of seven GOP senators who voted to convict Trump after his second impeachment in 2021.
In Alabama, Trump-backed Republican Alabama Rep. Barry Moore is running for a soon-to-be vacant seat as Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville is vacating to run for governor. Moore came in first place during the Tuesday primary with 39% of the vote and will face second-place finisher businessman Jared Hudson in the June 16 runoff.
On Tuesday, Trump announced his endorsement for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton ahead of the May 26 Texas Senate runoff, in which he will be facing incumbent Republican Texas Sen. John Cornyn. The winner of the GOP primary will face Democratic nominee James Talarico, who has raised nearly $40.3 million, according to FEC records.
Cornyn placed first during the March primary but failed to achieve the 50% threshold resulting in the race being sent to a runoff. Recent polling, conducted prior to the Trump endorsement, has shown Paxton with a sizable 12-point lead over Cornyn, according to Global Strategy Group.
Ford O’Connell, a Republican strategist, told the Daily Caller News Foundation that Trump’s endorsement is the most powerful force in modern GOP primaries.
“President Trump’s influence with the Republican base is the strongest of any modern president, including Reagan,” O’Connell told the DCNF. “In GOP Senate primaries, his endorsement is not gold; it is platinum.”
“We have never seen anything like it,” O’Connell added. “Trump’s endorsement can topple long-sitting incumbents, and it can take relative unknowns and vault them to the party’s nomination.”
John Feehery, a Republican strategist and former House GOP leadership aide, told the DCNF that Trump’s endorsement decisions appear to come down to loyalty and electability.
“I think two factors enter into the president’s mind when he makes an endorsement,” Feehery told the DCNF. “First, will they be loyal to him and his agenda? Second, will they win?”
Feehery said that from the White House’s perspective, backing candidates who are not aligned with Trump’s agenda is “totally counterproductive” to the president’s long-term goals.
Texas could become the biggest test of whether Trump’s primary influence can hold up in a very competitive general election environment. Democrats are seeking to pick up a seat that a Democrat has not won since 1988. Recent polling has shown that 61% of Texas voters are ‘very concerned’ about the price of gasoline and energy, while Texas voters opposed U.S. military action in Iran 49% to 37%, according to a University of Texas/Texas Politics Project poll.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton greets former U.S. President Donald Trump at the ‘Save America’ rally on October 22, 2022 in Robstown, Texas. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
“The Trump endorsement is the most powerful and influential endorsement in the history of American politics,” White House spokesperson Davis Ingle told the DCNF. “President Trump’s sterling record with his endorsements speaks for itself.”
Trump’s endorsement of Paxton comes as the Attorney General is working to shift the conversation away from his recent scandals. In 2020, eight of Paxton’s top aides reported him to the FBI accusing him of misusing his office to benefit an Austin real estate developer and donor. This eventually led to the GOP-controlled Texas House of Representatives impeaching him in 2023. However, the Texas Senate later acquitted him of all charges. In July 2025, Paxton’s wife of 38 years, Republican State Sen. Angela Paxton, announced that she had “filed for divorce on biblical grounds” in “light of recent discoveries.”
O’Connell argued Republicans should lean into Trump rather than run away from him in the general election.
“For Republicans, this means running away from Trump is a fool’s errand,” O’Connell told the DCNF. “The key to holding the Senate lies in aligning Senate candidates with Trump and the America First Agenda.”
“These are not the seats that are the biggest problem for Republicans,” Feehery told the DCNF. “It is in the swing seats where Republicans face the biggest headwinds, and part of that is historical and part of that is problems created by the president himself.”
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