President Donald Trump has warned that fellow Republicans will bear the blame if Attorney General Ken Paxton falls short in Texas’ closely contested U.S. Senate race, pointing specifically to incumbent Sen. John Cornyn and veteran strategist Karl Rove.
Trump endorsed Paxton over Cornyn in the Republican primary, handing a significant defeat to the four-term senator whom Trump viewed as disloyal, CNBC reported. The decision was widely seen as a political gamble because of Paxton’s history of legal controversies and friction inside his own party. Paxton was previously impeached by the Republican-led Texas House on corruption-related allegations before being acquitted by the state Senate, ABC News reported.
Trump asserted that “if Ken Paxton loses,” critics like Cornyn and Rove should be held responsible, CNBC reported. Trump previously denounced Rove on Truth Social on Sept. 14, calling the former senior adviser to President George W. Bush a “loser” who is “so bad for the Republican Party, and completely wrong so often.” In a Wall Street Journal op-ed two days later, Rove announced he would support a Democratic candidate in another Texas election, marking just the second time he had voted for a Democrat, CNBC reported.
Record spending and billionaire backing
The Texas contest has grown into the most expensive Senate campaign of the election cycle, with control of the upper chamber at stake during the final two years of Trump’s term. GOP-aligned groups have poured more than $370 million into the race, exceeding Democratic spending by almost $235 million, according to data from AdImpact reported by CNBC.
Much of that financial push has been bolstered by tech billionaire Elon Musk. In September, Musk donated $158 million to the Senate Leadership Fund, the chief super PAC supporting Republican Senate candidates, Axios first reported, with a source confirming the contribution to The Guardian. Musk additionally contributed $10 million to the Lone Star Liberty PAC, an organization dedicated to boosting Paxton, following a request from Senate Leadership Fund president Alex Latcham. The Senate Leadership Fund alone has spent over $124 million on advertisements aiding Paxton, according to ABC News.
Talarico mounts competitive challenge
Despite the heavy Republican expenditures, Democratic nominee James Talarico has mounted a formidable bid to become the first Democrat elected statewide in Texas in more than three decades. Talarico, a state representative and seminarian, collected $64 million during the third quarter, a fundraising sum his campaign described as an all-time record for a Senate candidate, ABC News reported.
Public polling shows Talarico and Paxton locked in an essentially tied race, with some surveys showing the Democrat holding a narrow advantage, The Guardian reported. Talarico has centered his platform on pocketbook issues and the rising cost of living while deliberately maintaining distance from national party leaders. Although progressive Sen. Bernie Sanders is scheduled to visit Texas this month, Talarico will not share a stage with him, ABC News reported.
Talarico returned to the campaign trail Thursday for a rally in San Marcos after stepping away from public appearances for nine days with the flu. That brief absence triggered unsubstantiated claims on social media from conservative figures alleging he had entered an Ohio treatment facility, reports ABC News noted quickly collapsed.
With Election Day approaching, both parties are watching Texas as a bellwether for national momentum. Whether Paxton can consolidate skeptical conservatives and overcome Talarico’s grassroots momentum remains the central question determining which party controls the Senate next year.
