Ken Paxton is unfit for the United States Senate. The Texas attorney general is ethically compromised, legally entangled and openly opportunistic. His rise is not about leadership. It is about loyalty — to power, not principle.
With Texas Republicans now facing a choice between accommodation, scandal and integrity, this Senate race has become a test of political character.
But the harder truth is this: Sen. John Cornyn is not being challenged because he stood up to President Donald Trump. He is being challenged because he didn’t.
For years, Cornyn’s brand has been competence and restraint — the adult in the room, a steady hand when others chased headlines. That image carried weight because people believed that when it mattered, Cornyn would act.
When it mattered, he didn’t.
When the Constitution was tested, Cornyn stayed quiet. When the party drifted toward grievance and personal loyalty, Cornyn adjusted instead of confronting it. When nominees appeared before the committees he serves, who were plainly unqualified or openly partisan, Cornyn allowed the process to move forward as if norms still applied.
I raised concerns with Cornyn’s staff about Kash Patel — not casually, but repeatedly and with specificity. Cornyn’s staff acknowledged those concerns. In my view, those concerns should have raised serious questions about his qualifications, his independence and his approach to the FBI — treating it not as an institution to protect, but as a tool to use.
And yet, when Patel sat before the Senate Intelligence Committee, of which Cornyn is a member, there was no meaningful challenge. No sustained questioning. No effort to force clarity on the record. The hearing proceeded as if this were routine.
It wasn’t. It was a turning point.
We are now seeing the consequences. Leadership decisions that once required evidence and process are increasingly shaped by alignment and risk. Experienced professionals are sidelined. Institutions built on independence are being bent toward loyalty. The FBI director has repeatedly reduced the bureau’s credibility.
This didn’t happen all at once. It happened through a series of choices — moments where people who knew better decided not to act.
That is what should concern Texans most.
Because this isn’t about party. It’s about character.
I spent my career in the Army and the FBI, serving alongside men and women — many of them Texans — who understood something fundamental: Your words and your oaths matter, and character matters most when it’s tested.
That standard doesn’t change when you enter public office. If anything, it becomes more important.
Texas has never been about blind loyalty or loud grievance. At its best, Texas is about independence, accountability and the quiet expectation that a person’s word means something. It’s about standing your ground when it matters — not shifting with the moment or chasing power at any cost.
That’s the spirit that shaped the Texans I served with, and it’s the standard I still believe this state deserves.
Measured against that standard, the contrast in this race is stark.
What we are seeing from Sen. Cornyn is accommodation — an adjustment to a political environment that demands loyalty over principle. What we are seeing from Paxton is something even more troubling: a pursuit of power unmoored from ethics, accountability or basic fitness for office.
That is not strength. It is not leadership. And it is not consistent with the character Texas has always claimed as its own.
There is, however, another path.
There is a candidate in this race who has consistently demonstrated a commitment to integrity, service and the courage to stand on principle — even when it is not politically convenient.
I will cast my vote based on character.
And for Texans who believe our leaders should reflect the best of who we are, the clear choice is Democratic state Rep. James Talarico.
Matthew J. DeSarno is a retired FBI special agent in charge of the Dallas Field Office, with a career spanning the Army, the private sector and more than two decades in federal law enforcement.
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