The Republican who won Texasâs Senate primary with Donald Trumpâs backing is now hoping the president and Senate Republicans will help him keep the seat from falling into Democratic hands in the midterms.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton won a contentious primary against the incumbent senator, John Cornyn, and secured the GOP nomination in May. Since then, heâs been running neck and neck with Democratic state Rep. James Talarico, who led Paxton by six points in a poll from a Democratic-linked polling firm published on Thursday. And he says he needs Trumpâs cash to put him over the finish line.
Paxton said in an interview Sunday that his campaignâs own internals showed the race to be a different picture, but conceded that it was a close fight.
âI donât trust all these polls. We have our own polling that suggests maybe a little different result, but we definitely have a close race,â he told The Sunday Briefing on Fox News.
He added that he needed a cash infusion from Donald Trumpâs MAGA Inc. PAC, which has a war chest of more than $800 million but has been sparing in doling out funds this cycle.
âI know that they are going to be a part of this,â Paxton said. He declined to say whether he has spoken with the president about fundraising during Trumpâs campaign stop to Texas last week, though he said he expected money to come in from Senate Republicans to help keep the seat from becoming âCaliforniaâs third senator.â
But that cavalry might not be coming.
Senate Republicans arenât coming out in waves to support Paxton, who ousted one of their own closely tied to leadership and whose scandal-plagued background has already been the target of millions in negative ad spending by their campaign arm as they sought to protect Cornyn from his challenger.
Cornyn himself has signaled that thereâs no love lost between the two men, telling reporters repeatedly that he wonât campaign or raise money for Paxton.
âPaxtonâs a poor campaigner,â the Republican senator told The Texas Tribune last week. âHeâs lazy and doesnât raise money. And he basically is not offering a very compelling case for his election.
Cornyn said Paxton is âmaking this harder than it needs to be.â
On Sunday, Republican Sen. John Kennedy stressed that the Senate GOPâs campaign arm â the National Republican Senatorial Committee â didnât have any money budgeted to protect the Texas Senate seat as Republicans find themselves fighting off a number of credible Democratic challenges.
"We in the senate donât have the money budgeted for Texas. We need help from the president,â Kennedy told The Sunday Briefing on Fox News.
âThe president says he has $850 million in his campaign accounts. Thatâs a lot of jack. Iâm hoping that the presidentâs gonna spend $100 or $200 million in Texas. But he hasnât committed to it yet,â Kennedy said. âBut in the meantime, weâve got a race, and Iâm not going to play-act and say that we donât.â
Foxâs interviews with Paxton and Kennedy came as the network highlighted the massive advantage Talarico currently has over Paxton in available cash, which Paxton credited to the expensive runoff against Cornyn.
Talarico won significant national support and saw a fundraising surge after former CBS host Stephen Colbert said that his network banned an interview with Talarico from the airwaves in February. His own primary did not go to a runoff, sparing the Democrats a second costly battle.
Republicans are optimistic that Trumpâs support and Texasâs strong Republican voting base will push Paxton over the finish line, but the presidentâs sinking approval ratings and Talaricoâs popularity compared to Paxtonâs are making that a tough argument to make.
A former top aide to Cornyn made headlines earlier this month when it was reported that he accepted a senior position on Talaricoâs campaign, a sign of the work the Talarico campaign has done to win over Republicans averse to supporting Paxton.
The Texas attorney general was investigated by the FBI and accused of misusing his office, and faced an impeachment trial led by Republicans in the state legislature. In 2024, he accepted a deal to avoid charges on securities fraud by paying restitution of $300,000. The Department of Justice declined to bring charges against him in a decision made just weeks before Trump was set to take office.
Texas is just one of several red-purple states where Republicans are defending Senate seats this year and Democrats believe they have a chance to reverse the GOPâs gains made in the last election cycle, potentially even securing a majority. Such a possibility was considered far off just last year.
Democrats are also mounting serious challenges in Iowa and North Carolina, where retiring Republican senators have left their seats open, as well as in Alaska, Maine and Ohio where Democrats are challenging incumbent Republicans.
