President Donald Trump did not hesitate to praise Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on the first night of the unusual convention he called to touch the hearts of his base ahead of the November midterm elections. And the Senate candidate needs it. His chances of winning are shaky just 54 days before voters go out to decide.
“We have to elect Ken Paxton,” the president ordered his supporters gathered in the American Airlines Center arena in Dallas. “If necessary, I will return to Texas one, two, three times. As many times as needed,” Trump insisted as he backed this candidate, whom many Republicans in Washington—and in his own state—distanced themselves from after the abuse of power scandal that led to a Texas Congressional investigation.
The race for that seat has attracted national attention not only because of doubts about the level of support Paxton will receive from Republicans in Washington, but because the party is at risk of losing its first statewide election since 1994. Less than two months before November 3, the Real Clear Politics poll aggregator gives a narrow 2.4 percentage point lead to the Democratic candidate, James Talarico.
In a desperate attempt to reverse the poll calculations, Trump tapped his main Super PAC, MAGA Inc., and allocated $10 million for advertising in the Texas Senate race: half to send messages in favor of Paxton; the rest to discredit his opponent Talarico. This is the first major investment he has made in the campaign.
Like Trump, the party base, seated in Dallas, applauded and celebrated Paxton for a few minutes. That, even though many will not even vote for him in the midterm election in November because they live in other states.
A “combative figure”
Karen Marshall is fully convinced to give her vote to Paxton. She traveled from San Antonio, and this Wednesday entered the convention wearing a dress with the Texas flag and large earrings with the map of her state. Although she recognizes the “strong opposition” from Republicans to Paxton, she believes he will represent Texas in the Senate as “a combative figure”: “I don’t understand how they can be thinking of voting for his opponent,” she says.
In another hallway of the American Airlines Center, home of the Dallas Mavericks, Texan Stevie Meng walked with a pin hanging on his shirt that left no doubt about his sympathy for the attorney general. He, who defines himself as Catholic, likes the firmness with which Paxton has fought against abortion, gender transition treatments, or the arrival of immigrants through the state’s southern border. And like many in the stadium, he shares the unfounded fear that the Democratic candidate will bet on communism and spread it throughout the state.
Meng is not worried about the polls. He recalls the November 2018 race, in which Senator Ted Cruz retained his Senate seat despite some polls predicting a narrow victory for Democrat Beto O’Rourke.
“I feel optimistic that Paxton will win,” he says. He believes that now the party—regardless of sympathy with the MAGA movement—must unite and choose him: “Texas knows Ken Paxton.”
Although some, like Meng, wore symbols in favor of Paxton, it was not common to see attendees show that support on their clothing. To ensure it was not missing from the scene, signs with the name of the controversial attorney general and now Senate candidate were distributed in the room.
On the campaign trail
Paxton was included on the list of speakers by the president himself for his Trump-a-palooza, as the two-day meeting in Dallas was called. After six in the evening, the attorney returned the favor with praise. He called him the “greatest leader in the country” and one who, according to him, has secured victories for the United States and Texas. Just what he needs.
Trump’s bet on Paxton has not been welcomed by Republicans. And they have their reasons. In recent years as Texas attorney general, headlines naming him include corruption scandals, and an apparent infidelity and subsequent divorce.
Undoubtedly, the most costly was his impeachment before the state Senate in 2023 on more than a dozen charges, including abuse of his powers as attorney general to benefit his friend and donor Nate Paul, an investor who was also under federal investigation. Paxton’s acquittal caused a fracture within the party in the state and nationally from which it has not fully recovered.
On Wednesday, Paxton focused on the present and on showing Trump’s base in Texas why they should not vote for Talarico. He did so by invoking recurring fears repeated by more Republicans in the audience and on the American Airlines stage.
“He is a socialist,” he told them about his opponent. “He calls himself a Christian without being one,” he added, accusing him of supporting gender transition treatments, a topic Paxton has opposed and ordered to investigate. Using fear as a resource, he warned them that his opponent “wants to transition your children and Texas.”
“He is the most radical Democrat in Texas,” he said, then acknowledged: “But also the one who has had the most funding.”
At the close of his brief speech, he spoke to voters. First to those in the state: he reminded them that the victory in that race is “very personal” to him and warned them that “if we lose Texas, we lose the revolution.” Then, he addressed the rest of the party to emphasize that if he wins a Senate seat he will continue endorsing the changes Trump has made: “We can restore the American dream.”
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