Washington Examiner congressional reporter Lauren Green said Republicans will “rally” around Attorney General Ken Paxton in the Texas Senate race, despite those within the party campaigning against him in the runoff election with four-term Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX).
“These Republicans are going to rally behind Ken Paxton because they don’t want someone like James Talarico in the Senate. They want their Republican-led Senate or everything they can to protect that,” Green said on LiveNOW from Fox Wednesday.
Paxton overwhelmingly defeated Cornyn in a runoff election for the Republican Senate nomination on Tuesday, earning 63.8% of the vote.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee supported Cornyn, releasing ads slamming Paxton and highlighting his controversial background to voters, specifically regarding his divorce on “biblical grounds” and his 2023 impeachment for bribery and abuse of office.
Since Paxton’s victory, the NRSC quietly began deleting posts criticizing the Texas attorney general, according to CNN.
Green said she believes Democrats will use these same attacks against Paxton, as Republicans begin to attack Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico.
“As we’ve already seen, Republicans have already started hammering home at James Talarico as well,” she said. “I think this general election is going to be just as gruesome as the primary was, but I do believe Democrats are prepared to pour a lot of money into it.”
In the two hours following Paxton’s primary win, Talarico received over $600,000 in donations to his campaign.
Green highlighted Talarico’s success at fundraising, adding that Democrats are now looking at Texas as a way to win back control of the Senate.
“Democrats are looking more at Texas, and especially with Ken Paxton winning the nomination, they’re going to be pouring a lot more into it, which means Republicans are going to have to pour a lot more into it,” she said.
WHAT HAS TALARICO DONE WITH HIS TWO MONTHS AS THE ONLY OFFICIAL TEXAS SENATE NOMINEE?
Green said pouring more money into the Texas Senate race will take resources away from other contentious races.
“[Republicans] have places like Maine to protect, they want to flip a seat in Georgia, they have to protect a seat in North Carolina. So spending money in a state that should be pretty solid red is going to pull away from those swing states they’re already looking at pouring a lot of money into,” she said.