San Antonio’s Cornerstone Church rolled out the welcome mat for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton at its most recent Sunday service — even as the MAGA-endorsing megachurch has come under scrutiny for hosting a county voting location.
The U.S. Senate candidate’s visit to Cornerstone came the day before early voting started for the 2026 midterms.
Campaign stops at Cornerstone are normal for right-wing candidates, but observers said the site’s designation as a polling location further blurs the line between worship and partisan politics as well as church and state.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Texas Sen. Dr. Donna Campbell joined Paxton at the service. Both Paxton and Patrick are running for office in the November election — Patrick to keep his seat against challenger Vikki Goodwin.
“I had a wonderful Sunday morning worshipping at Cornerstone Church in San Antonio alongside Dan Patrick and Dr. Donna Campbell!” Paxton said in the caption of a Facebook video showing him waving to the cheering crowd. “Thank you, Pastor John Hagee, Pastor Matt Hagee, and the entire Cornerstone family for the warm welcome.”
Over the years, Cornerstone has welcomed visits from other Republican political figures, including Gov. Greg Abbott, Sen. John Cornyn and Donald Trump Jr.
“That tends to be one of those rites of passage for Republican candidates, particularly for the more conservative Republican candidates out there,” University of Texas at San Antonio political scientist Jon Taylor said of the church’s track record of hosting politicians.
In a Sunday evening Facebook post, San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones called out the church for its practice of only welcoming Republican candidates. While resharing the video of the visit, Jones invited Paxton’s Democratic rival, state Rep. James Talarico, to attend next Sunday’s service.
Additionally, Jones highlighted Cornerstone’s selection as a Bexar County early voting location, despite the megachurch’s partisan history.
“Hey James Talarico, it looks like they’re recognizing U.S. Senate candidates at Cornerstone Church during their services here in San Antonio,” said Jones. “And as a *polling site*, they’re very helpfully reminding folks that Early Voting starts tomorrow. Could be a good stop next Sunday!”
While many churches serve as polling locations, UTSA’s Taylor said there are “legitimate questions about Cornerstone’s neutrality.”
Democratic candidates also make stops at churches during campaign season, particularly Black churches involved in “souls to the polls” voter engagement initiatives.
While campaigning, Talarico — a former seminarian — has visited Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church in Houston, Friendship-West Baptist Church in Dallas and others. Both Talarico and gubernatorial candidate Gina Hinojosa have paid visits to Brentwood Baptist Church in Houston.
Though Paxton regularly makes campaign stops at churches, he’s not known to attend church regularly. Paxton and his family previously attended Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, although a longtime advisor clarified on X that Paxton hasn’t been a regular attendee at that house of worship “in years.”
Comments on the Facebook video of Paxton’s visit to Cornerstone highlighted the allegations of extramarital affairs and other scandals that have dogged his Senate campaign.
One commenter shared an excerpt of Proverbs 6:12-15, which reads, “A worthless person, a wicked man, goes about with crooked speech, winks with his eyes, signals with his feet, points with his finger, with perverted heart devises evil, continually sowing discord; therefore calamity will come upon him suddenly; in a moment he will be broken beyond healing.”
Other commenters asked where Paxton’s alleged mistress was and whether the church was worried about incurring God’s wrath for letting him in.
As recently as June, Paxton was caught boarding a plane to embark on a European vacation with his alleged mistress Tracy Duhon, a married Christian influencer. In July of last year, the politician’s wife, Angela Paxton, filed for divorce on “biblical grounds.”
Paxton was also impeached by members of his own party in the Texas House in May 2023 on charges of bribery, corruption, abuse of public trust and obstruction of justice. The Republican-controlled Texas Senate subsequently acquitted him.
Rick Scarborough, a former Southern Baptist pastor from Pearland, told the Houston Chronicle that Paxton’s divorce and rumors about his alleged infidelity could “suppress Christians [from] even voting.”
Texas Values Action, a Christian conservative political group that’s long backed Paxton, initially pulled its endorsement after saying he refused to meet about his divorce. The group has since renewed its endorsement.
To reckon with Paxton’s scandal-plagued track record, political scientist Taylor said some evangelical conservative voters “have basically compartmentalized corruption and personal issues that normally were anathema to them.”
But judging by how much this post was “ratio-ed” with negative comments, Taylor added, Paxton’s strategy might have backfired.
“If he’s trying to somehow offset Talarico’s bona fides in terms of his religiosity, I’m not sure this did the trick,” Taylor said.
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