GOP Rep. Ronny Jackson (TX) said the Spanish-language ads he is running in his deep-red district were not motivated by a possible primary bid against Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) in 2026, asserting that he is focused instead on his current position in the House.
His comments come amid reports that Jackson, the former physician to the president, is weighing a primary bid against Cornyn, who has taken heat from some conservatives for his role in helping negotiate a bipartisan gun reform bill that passed following the Uvalde shooting.
“I’m a freshman congressman, for God’s sake. I haven’t even had my second election yet. So I’m focused on winning in 13 and being the best representative I can be for the constituents in 13,” he told the Washington Examiner.
“I do want to be a leader in the state of Texas on taking the country back and keeping Texas red and driving Texas to the right — so I will be all about that,” he said.
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Jackson said that despite representing a safely Republican seat, he feels running ads in Spanish could help reach new voters, adding that he has not yet spoken to Cornyn since the reports dropped.
“I’ve been talking for a long time about running Spanish ads inside of Texas because the Hispanic population right now, they are looking to us as an alternative to the Democrats right now,” he continued.
“And I think that we are crazy as Republicans if we don’t embrace that right now. And so yeah, I don’t need to run Spanish ads in my district, you know. I’m in an R+33 district — it’s not going to make or break me in the election, but the reality is it doesn’t matter. I mean, this is money well spent,” he said.
While Jackson said he isn’t currently considering challenging Cornyn, he isn’t ruling out the possibility of launching a primary bid against an incumbent if he feels they aren’t representing conservative values down the line.
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“I’m not planning anything, for the record, but I’m open to anything. And if somebody is not carrying their weight and they’re not doing what the state — if somebody’s not taking care of the state of Texas and our Texas conservative values or whatever, I’m always going to be outspoken against them, period,” he told reporters.
