Texas state Rep. James Talarico, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in the Lone Star State, concedes some past statements during debates over transgender policy "missed the mark."
The president's last-minute endorsement of Paxton was driven by his petty grievances against incumbent Sen. John Cornyn, who was clearly the safer bet to retain the seat.
Democrat James Talarico and Republican Ken Paxton wasted no time appealing to Sen. John Cornyn’s (R-TX) supporters after the longtime incumbent was ousted in a Senate primary runoff against Trump-backed Paxton. Democrats see a moment ripe for the taking to win over Cornyn-backers after party leaders, save for Trump, openly trashed Paxton as a morally […]
Texas state Rep. James Talarico (D) said Tuesday that his campaign for Senate is attracting some support from previous President Trump voters who are becoming more disillusioned with the president’s policies, saying they whisper to him at rallies “like they’re in the witness protection program.” Talarico argued during an interview on MS NOW that President…
Win It Back PAC, a conservative super PAC, released an ad torching James Talarico, saying the Texas Democratic Senate nominee “fights for 6 genders and all species.” The ad is a compiled video of Talarico’s past posts and bits from his campaign speeches with comments calling him a “Texas trailblazer” and referring to him as […]
Despite suffering from weak approval ratings in countless polls, President Donald Trump is having no problem affecting the outcome of GOP primaries: Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky), Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana) and at least five Indiana state lawmakers are among the Republican incumbents who lost recent GOP primaries to challengers backed by Trump. Journalist Colby Hall is arguing that Trump's weakness in polls and far-right Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's Tuesday victory over Cornyn are "the same story," showing that "Trump's coalition is getting smaller and louder at the same time.""The contradiction at the center of Donald Trump's politics has never been more visible than it was this week," Hall, the founder of Mediaite, writes in a column for his ColbyHall.com website. "He is one of the least popular presidents in modern polling history, and simultaneously, the most dominant force in the Republican Party. Neither fact is canceling out the other. His approval numbers are collapsing again. Depending on the poll, they are now approaching the lows he hit after January 6. He is underwater on inflation, cost of living, immigration, and now Iran. The broader electorate is plainly exhausted by him, the still very high price of a gallon of gas, and the bread and eggs he promised to make cheaper on Day 1 of his second term."Hall continues, "At the exact same moment, Trump casually ended Sen. John Cornyn's political career with a single endorsement of the far more MAGA-coded Attorney General Ken Paxton in Texas. Ironically, Trump helping Paxton win the primary delivers his MAGA faithful a short-term win while putting the seat itself in real jeopardy. Democratic nominee James Talarico is a much more plausible threat to Paxton than he would have been to Cornyn, and a Republican Senate majority that looked safe a week ago no longer does."According to Hall, the "true nature of Trump's current power" is that he "looks weak nationally" yet continues to be "all-powerful inside the Republican Party.""The two observations fit together pretty neatly," Hall argues. "Trump still owns the Republican primary electorate. The problem for Republicans is that the Republican primary electorate is no longer the country. His coalition is shrinking and becoming more emotionally concentrated at the same time. That creates the illusion of growing strength because intensity is very often mistaken for scale." Hall compares Trump's influence on the GOP's hardcore MAGA base to professional wrestling, noting that "the diehards in the front rows scream louder as the cheap seats empty out.""Trump's endorsement (of Paxton) remains incredibly powerful inside a shrinking but highly motivated audience that still sees him as the central figure in American politics," Hall explains. "Outside of it, the reaction looks very different. Republicans may still hold the seat, but they just replaced a broadly electable incumbent with a candidate carrying impeachment baggage, corruption allegations, and obvious general-election vulnerabilities. Democrats suddenly have a plausible opening in Texas that barely existed before."
While President Donald Trump and his MAGA supporters might be celebrating Ken Paxton's dominant win in Tuesday's Senate primary, according to one of the leading election forecasters, the result has tipped the general election odds in the direction that the Texas GOP most feared.Paxton, whose time as Texas attorney general has been plagued by scandal and corruption, trounced incumbent Sen. John Cornyn in a primary runoff this week, spelling the end of one of the most powerful Republicans in the Senate. This came after Trump, at the last minute, issued an endorsement of Paxton, calling him a staunch MAGA ally, despite the warnings of his party. Given his history, Paxton has a lot of toxic political baggage, prompting considerable alarm that voters might turn their noses up at him and open a path to victory for Democrats.The blue opposition is also fielding one of its strongest Texas Senate nominees in years in the form of state Rep. James Talarico, who has built a strong campaign with a focus on economic issues voters are most worried about, as well as his devout Christianity. Numerous polls have shown that Cornyn might have been able to fend off Talarico, Paxton's chances were much closer, with some even giving the Democrat the edge.These worries were reflected by the latest update from the Cook Political Report, a firm that issues predictions for every major political race in the country based on evolving circumstances. In the wake of Paxton's win, per The Hill, the report moved its prediction for the Texas Senate race to be more in favor of a Talarico win. Cook still, overall, gives the Republican Party the edge in the race, but now, it is more slight. Whereas the rating used to be "likely Republican," Paxton's win saw it changed to a "lean Republican" rating, the sort of momentum shift that the Texas GOP does not want to see. It also noted that the Texas AG has no shortage of weaknesses for Democrats to exploit, potentially helping them move the race more in their favor through November."Paxton has a litany of ethical lapses for Democrats to exploit — from allegations of bribery and misuse of his office to marital infidelity, which led his wife to divorce him on ‘biblical grounds,’” Jessica Taylor, Senate and governors editor for the Cook Political Report, explained. “Given the national environment, this is a race that certainly may have become competitive even if Cornyn had won, but Paxton’s flaws warrant an immediate move to the Lean column."
Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in March that he would consider dropping out of the Texas Senate race if the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) […]
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin took a swing at his former Senate colleagues over two notable incidents involving his department and Democratic lawmakers in the last year. Mullin was responding to a Tuesday post on the social platform X from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), who wrote, “When even U.S. Senators are targeted, every…