Republicans, Democrats discuss high-dollar spending on contentious Texas Senate race

With early voting over and Election Day nearly upon us, the contest for U.S. Senate in Texas continues to consume attention and headlines nationwide.

State Rep. James Talarico is hoping to become the first Democrat to win statewide office in more than thee decades, facing off against with Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton.

The campaigns and outside groups have spent more than a quarter-billion dollars on advertising in the race as Democrats hope to capitalize on an unpopular Republican president and a scandal-prone Republican nominee to flip the seat for the first time since 1961.

Most recent polls show Talarico narrowly leading Paxton, who unseated incumbent Sen. John Cornyn in the Republican primary. The race will be key in deciding control of the Senate come January. Democrats need a net gain of four seats to take the majority.

In the closing stretch, CBS News Texas political reporter Jack Fink spoke with Joe Gruters, the chair of the Republican National Committee, and Christyna Thompson, the press secretary of a Democratic super PAC, about the race.

The following selections of their conversations have been lightly edited for clarity.

Joe Gruters, Republican National Committee chairman: Well, when we have the midterm election cycle like we do. And in order to defy history, it comes back to the turnout game. How do you do that? You put your best guys forward. And the President Trump is the best guy in the history of the Republican Party to turn out low-propensity voters. And so that's why he's doing all these rallies.

He's been, him and the vice president, have been criss-crossing the country over the last couple of weeks, and they're going to do it all the way to Election Day. And listen, at the end of the day, it's just all about turnouts, about motivating the base to show up. And it doesn't matter where you are, because even if he's in one spot, there's a there's a spillover to other areas.

And I think, overall, it all helps. But we have to do everything we can to turn out, this is how we do it.

Jack Fink, CBS News Texas political reporter: We've seen a pretty large turnout by Democrats, certainly in early voting so far, more who have a history of voting in the Democratic primary than the Republican primary. So is the message getting out there?

Gruters: Yes, it is. And that's why the awareness campaign is so important. And that's why we're beating the pavement and doing everything we possibly can. That's why we're doing the in-person rallies. We're doing telethon hauls. But the message to voters is, if you want common sense and reasonableness over the next two years, you've got to get out there and vote for the Republican ticket.

We can't let these radical leftist get anywhere near D.C.. We can't let Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi take over, because all it's going to do is lead to, you know, obstruction, you know, impeachment and investigations. And that's not going to help the country or this administration.

Fink: Talk to me a little bit about what the RNC has been doing. You guys have been on the ground for a long time already. So what has the RNC done to help the candidates, help the Republican Party of Texas, until early voting? And then what are you doing now that early voting has started?

Gruters: And that's what the party is all about. What we do is at the end of the day, the party's job is to do three things well: that's register voters, get those voters to turn out, and make sure we protect the ballot. And in terms of the turnout efforts and protecting the ballot, we have had staff on the ground here for about six months, both from a TV standpoint and from an election integrity standpoint.

And it's about mobilizing. It's about energizing. It's about creating that awareness that people need.

Fink: As you know, we had a very fractured Republican primary for the Senate race between Senator Cornyn and the attorney general. And so, do you think enough has been done to try to bring everybody home?

Gruters: We're trying to ring the bell as much as we can.

Christyna Thompson, Senate Majority PAC press secretary:  It's been 30 years since Democrats have been able to compete and win statewide in Texas. But what makes this cycle feel especially different is the fact that we have a quality candidate out of James Talarico. We have an environment that has favored Democrats since the top of this year, and we have a deeply flawed candidate out of Attorney General Ken Paxton, who was impeached by his own party for bribery and abuse of power.

So all of those combinations of factors taken together give us a lot of confidence heading into Tuesday and why we feel that the enthusiasm and energy is behind us this year.

Jack Fink, CBS News Texas political reporter: The Senate Majority PAC is affiliated with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. So what was it about the Talarico campaign that attracted investment from the Senate Majority PAC? What are you doing with the money that was invested? So how much, and is it really meant for TV ads, digital ads, or is it for something else as well?

Thompson:  There are a lot of different factors behind our strategy and our mission. As a super PAC, obviously we cannot coordinate directly with candidates. So we're not necessarily backing or throwing our money directly to the campaign. You know, that is something that DSC coordinates and other party committees can do, obviously.

Supporting of Democrats is really our mission, to flip seats in Texas and, you know, inch us closer to a Democratic majority. So when we see folks like state Rep. Talarico, who's running a phenomenal campaign, he is exactly what voters like. You know, he has deep roots in the state that he's seeking to represent.

He's coming out the gate with a message that is resonating with voters, talking about costs. You know, whether it's at the, in the grocery line or at the pump, and tying it to corruption, which we know is increasingly something that is at the top of voters' minds. In fact, you know, Democrats, for a long time, we've been trying to make corruption in arguments and in these races.

And this year feels like we have the chance now because folks are finally tuning in. They are connecting the dots to see how billionaires and corporations are coming in and really trying to transact.

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