James Talarico, Ken Paxton fight for Texas Senate seat in November goes negative from the start
The race for the Texas Senate seat between Democrat James Talarico and Republican Ken Paxton began just days ago, but it's already become a bruising battle.
The gloves came off immediately. After it became clear Tuesday night that Paxton defeated four-term Senator John Cornyn and secured the Republican nomination, both campaigns unleashed their attacks on Tuesday night, with Talarico calling Paxton "corrupt" and Paxton calling Talarico "radical."
During his victory speech, Paxton told supporters, "My opponent is the most extreme radical the Democrats have ever nominated." In an interview with CBS News Texas on Wednesday, Talarico fired back at Paxton.
"The most corrupt politician in America just became the Republican nominee for the United States Senate right here in Texas," Talarico said.
Both campaigns also released new digital ads, with Talarico using news clips recalling Paxton's impeachment by the Republican majority in the Texas House three years ago. He was acquitted of all impeachment articles in his trial.
Paxton's ad featured some video clips of Talarico's statements posted on social media several years ago that have sparked controversy. In one comment, Talarico said, "There are many more than two biological sexes. In fact, there are six." In another, Talarico said, "It is now existential that we try to reduce our meat consumption. I'm proud to say our campaign has become a non-meat campaign."
In his speech, Paxton repeated a variety of insults.
"Some people know him as Tofu Talarico. Some people call him six-gendered Jimmy. I've even heard some people call him James Tala-freak-o, and others refer to him simply as Lo-T Talarico," Paxton said. "But no matter what you call him, let me tell you this: James Talarico is a threat to everything we hold dear in this state and in this country."
During our interview, Talarico acknowledged his past comments for the first time.
"I'll be the first to admit that I missed the mark on some of those old statements, but what Ken Paxton is doing is clipping my old, cringey comments to distract from his career of corruption," he said.
When asked if he was disavowing those comments, Talarico said, "Well, I think we all can look back and be embarrassed by how we said things in the past, and I'm certainly not exempt from that. But what I'm trying to point out is that this is the playbook of puppet politicians. The only way people like Ken Paxton stay in power is through distraction and division. He uses his public office to enrich himself and his donors at our expense, and so the only way that he's able to hold on is by dividing us by party, by race, by gender, by religion, and by culture wars."
Talarico also answered questions about his posts about being a non-meat campaign and promoting vegan products. When asked what he would say to the state's large beef and cattle industries about whether he would protect them while in the Senate, Talarico said, "I've met with our Texas cattle ranchers, and I'm absolutely committed to protecting the industry here in Texas, and I've heard from a lot of these ranchers that the current administration has sold them out with bailouts for Argentina that undercut the Texas beef industry. So, I am committed to fighting for Texas businesses and Texas workers."
Talarico's campaign announced that, in the 24-hour period after Paxton's win, he raised $3 million, a record for him. Talarico announced a five-city tour called "The People vs. Paxton," and he'll be in Plano on Monday night.
In a post, President Trump, who had endorsed Paxton a week earlier, said, "Congratulations to Ken Paxton on such a tremendous win. I will do some nice, big, beautiful rallies for Ken. Texas, this will be FUN!"
Texas GOP Chairman Abraham George told CBS News Texas that Talarico is out of the mainstream in Texas.
"You ask him, 'What do you love the most, other than your family?' and his first thing that comes out of this guy's mind is trans children," said George. "A grown man thinking about that, it's just weird. That's not Texas values. He is trying to push transgender ideology on our children. He wants open borders, he wants a red carpet on our border instead of a wall. That's just not us."
Texas Democratic Party Chairman Kendall Scudder praised Talarico's decision to go on offense against Paxton.
"Of course, they called him the most corrupt politician in America. If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's probably a duck," said Scudder. "I'm glad the Talarico campaign is calling it what it is. Ken Paxton has spent the entire time as attorney general just completed covered in controversy, whether it's indictments or fraud allegations. It's just disgusting what he's put the state of Texas through, and Texans deserve better."
Following Paxton's win, two organizations that rate the political races, the Cook Political Report and Larry Sabato's Crystal Ball, shifted the Texas Senate race from "Likely R" to "Leans R". The changes reflect what Cornyn and national Senate Republican leaders have said for more than a year: that they believed it would be more challenging to defend the seat if Paxton were the nominee. But since the election, national Senate Republicans have embraced Paxton.
Paxton won in a blowout against Cornyn after a nearly 14-month-long fight. Paxton won by 28 percentage points, 64% to 36%. That's despite the fact Cornyn far outspent Paxton on TV ads in the primary and runoff. Cornyn won only three of the state's 254 counties, including Dallas County. That is a stark contrast from the March 3 primary, when Cornyn came out on top of Paxton by one percentage point.
"Tonight, we just sent a Texas-sized message to Washington," said Paxton during his victory speech on Tuesday. "I said it in March, and I'll say it again now. Change was on the ballot, and change won. Let me be clear. This is not just my win. This is your win. We just proved that this Senate seat doesn't belong to Washington. It belongs to you, the hard-working men and women of this state."
After four terms and 24 years, the John Cornyn era in the Senate will come to an end when his term expires in December. It was a tough night for the senator, and in his concession speech, he didn't mention Paxton by name but said he would back Republicans in November.
"Tonight, we came up short," said Cornyn. "I've always supported the Republican ticket, and I intend to do so again in this general election. I've said throughout this race that I trust the voters of Texas, and they made their decision, and I must respect that."
Turnout in the Republican primary runoff shattered the record with nearly 1.4 million voters in the Senate race between Cornyn and Paxton. Abraham George, the Texas GOP chairman, credited President Trump's endorsement of Paxton with helping to spark turnout.
"Obviously, the President's endorsement in Texas is a major deal," said George. "People love the president up here in Texas. One of the other things is the grassroots showed up. They did not stay home. This was a major issue for them. John Cornyn is a nice guy like the president said, but people are looking for fighters. They're looking for people who can go and make things happen."
The previous record for turnout during a primary runoff came in 2012, when more than 1.1 million people voted in the Senate GOP runoff between Ted Cruz and former Lt. Governor David Dewhurst.
The Texas Senate primary and runoff also broke the national record when it came to campaign ad spending by the candidates and third-party groups in a Senate primary. The organization, Ad Impact Politics, said it amounted to more than $165 million.
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