Texas Senate candidate Ken Paxton makes social media gaffe regarding Cypress

On September 20, 2026, Texas Attorney General and Republican Senate candidate Ken Paxton sparked a social media controversy after misspelling the name of a Houston suburb, Cypress, as "Cyprus" in an online post. The post, which announced a campaign appearance alongside Senator Ted Cruz, was quickly deleted after it gained significant viral attention, with a post by his Democratic opponent, James Talarico, reaching nearly one million views by the following afternoon.

The error became a point of political contention as Talarico’s campaign used the incident to criticize Paxton’s travel history. Talarico mocked the candidate, stating, "It’s Cypress, not Cyprus. But for all the time you spend on luxury vacations in Europe, it’s no surprise you don’t know Texas." In response, Paxton’s campaign dismissed the incident as a trivial distraction, asserting that the candidate remains focused on economic and cost-of-living issues. A corrected version of the announcement was subsequently posted to Facebook using the correct spelling, Cypress, while the campaign moved to focus on their primary platform.