Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is sounding the alarm: lose the Lone Star State, lose the Senate.
In an exclusive interview with Breitbart News Saturday, the Republican Senate candidate told Political Editor Bradley Jaye that the stakes in his race against Democrat James Talarico couldn’t be higher. “If we lose Texas, the Senate’s gone,” Paxton warned. “We’re not going to hold the Senate.”
Paxton emerged from a bruising three-month Republican runoff in June to find himself facing a massive fundraising gap. While he started June with “basically $0,” Talarico had spent those same three months raising money — $30 million, according to Paxton, mostly from California and New York.
“I started June 1 with basically $0. [Talarico] had just raised 30 million.”
The financial disadvantage showed quickly. Paxton said Talarico began spending approximately $3 million a week on television advertising in early to mid-July, while his own campaign was still scrambling to raise enough money to respond.
But Paxton said he’s seeing momentum shift as summer ends and Republican voters return from vacation. After rallies over the previous two weeks, he told Jaye, “I’ve never seen more excitement at things that I’ve been at.”
“I know that our voters are starting to get motivated, and that’s the key,” Paxton said.
His strategy is two-pronged: turn out the Republican base while exposing what he calls Talarico’s radical record. Paxton accused the Democrat of “trying to deceive voters right now” and “running from all these radical positions that he voted on” — citing girls’ sports, gender transitions for children, a state income tax, and diversity, equity, and inclusion policies in schools.
Paxton characterized Talarico as “really a radical socialist” and asked Texans to imagine what the state would look like with him in the Senate.
“Now open your eyes up. That’s a nightmare.”
The race has national implications that go beyond the Senate majority. Paxton argued that Texas is on Democrats’ “top wish list” because of its electoral importance. “If they take Texas, we’re not going to elect another president from the Republican Party,” he said, adding that Republicans would also struggle to maintain a congressional majority.
He pointed to Beto O’Rourke’s close challenge to Sen. Ted Cruz — a race that ended with less than a two-point margin — as proof Democrats believe Texas is winnable. “They’re hoping for the same thing here,” Paxton said. “We just got to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
Paxton also addressed Republican unity following the contentious primary. He recently announced endorsements from 18 Republican members of Congress from Texas and said he’s been “doing a lot of work reaching out to people” to bring the party together.
“This is a binary choice,” Paxton said, contrasting “a radical leftist and a conservative Republican.”
He acknowledged that Republicans don’t always get their preferred candidate but said he ultimately moves on and supports the Republican nominee. “Everybody I vote for doesn’t win, but eventually I move on and vote for the Republican,” Paxton said. He added that he would have supported incumbent Sen. John Cornyn had Cornyn won the primary, calling Talarico “the most dangerous candidate in Texas that we’ve ever had.”
Paxton said he’s had “great conversations with leadership in the Senate” and believes national Republicans now understand the consequences of losing the Texas seat. “I think they’ve been very supportive,” he said, though he was still waiting for campaign resources. “I’m waiting, obviously, on some financial assistance, which I think is coming.”
The conversation also turned to the SAVE America Act, which Jaye described as a top legislative priority for President Donald Trump. Paxton had previously said during the runoff that he would consider dropping out of the Senate race if the Senate acted to pass the legislation — a move Jaye characterized as an effort to spur establishment senators to act.
Paxton argued that election security is existential. “We have to protect the elections,” he said. “Elections are not safe right now.”
He said that in “almost any of the Democratic states,” people don’t have to show photo identification, officials “don’t have to check” voter rolls to make sure noncitizens aren’t voting, and mail-in ballots can be sent out without adequate ballot security.
“That has to be fixed, or we are going to lose this country.”
Paxton said he believes lawmakers understand the issue but lack the political courage to act. “It’s just a matter of having the courage to do it,” he said. He said there were “a few Republican senators” who would not vote for the measure and expressed interest in hearing their reasoning.
“I’d love to talk to them,” Paxton said, asking why senators opposed to the measure are “not interested in protecting national elections.”
Paxton also praised President Trump’s endorsement during the Republican runoff and Vice President J.D. Vance’s subsequent comments that the endorsement should serve as a message to Republican senators about supporting the president’s agenda.
“I love President Trump. I love his agenda. I think we should support it,” Paxton said.
He argued that Republicans have “limited time to make a difference for America” and “shouldn’t waste a single day.” Elected officials should be responsive to voters, listen to them, and “at least engage with them and try to understand what they want,” he said.
Paxton again cited the SAVE America Act as an example. “I don’t think there’s a more popular issue in America than the Save America Act. So why don’t we pass it?”
“It doesn’t make sense to be non-responsive to the people that elected you,” Paxton added.
Paxton urged supporters to contribute so his campaign can “close the gap” and get on television to highlight Talarico’s record. He argued that Talarico’s own commercials would “try to cover it all up,” while his campaign would use its resources to tell voters “who this guy really is.”
