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everything is bigger in Texas and boy are they right about the Senate race that has voters at the polls right now. More money spent, more TV ads shown and by the way two Republicans diametrically opposed in both personality and background. The outcome of the brutal runoff between the four-term incumbent Senator John Cornyn and far-right MAGA ally Ken Paxton is arguably the most consequential race IN DONALD TRUMP'S MIDTERM RETRIBUTION CAMPAIGN. I WANT TO BRING IN TERRICET MAYOR, FORMER GOP COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, CO-FOUNDER AND CEO OF THE SENECA PROJECT. JULIAN CASTRO IS BACK WITH US.
MR. SECRETARY, YOU KNOW THIS STATE, YOU RAN CITY COUNCIL, MAYOR'S RACES, YOUR BROTHER RAN FOR TEXAS STATEHOUSE AND CONGRESS, ALL SUCCESSFULLY I MIGHT ADD. WHAT WILL THE OUTCOME OF THIS RACE TELL US ABOUT THE TEXAS REPUBLICAN PARTY? WHAT'S GOING TO TELL US WHICH FACTION CONTROLS THE TEXAS REPUBLICAN PARTY. I MEAN, CHRIS, THIS HAS BEEN BREWING FOR A LONG TIME. THIS IS THE JOHN CORNYN wing. Cornyn, first elected to the U.S. Senate in 2002, came up basically as a business moderate Republican, somebody that was known for years
and years as a person who could cross the aisle, who could help deliver bacon back home to texas um not part of the tea party when that came up in 09 and 10 and not maga initially and on the other side paxton who was the campaign chairman for for president trump total maga 100 % on board also a tremendous amount of baggage and tonight will tell us where the texas republican party IS, AND LIKE A LOT OF FOLKS, I HAVE A FEELING THAT'S GOING TO BE KEN PAXTON, AND THAT'S GOING TO BE DUE NOT ONLY TO DONALD TRUMP'S ENDORSEMENT, BUT BECAUSE MAGA HAS TAKEN OVER THE TEXAS REPUBLICAN PARTY, AND because John Cornyn over the years has twisted himself into this political pretzel trying to appease Trump and the MAGA base,
and in doing so has both lost his political identity, his authenticity. And also, all of it has driven away the people who used to vote Republican in Texas that were his bread and butter, the suburbanites, the business Republicans, those moderates. I mean, don't get me wrong. There's still a lot of them in the Republican Party, but many of them have also left and are no longer voting in a primary. I think that's going to hurt him today. Tara, I want to play for you some of what we're hearing from voters at the polls I'm thinking of maybe supporting Paxton because Trump endorsed him or did you feel good about defying Trump in that instance?
Trump's endorsement for anything doesn't change my voting. It surprised me that he supported I AM A TRUMP SUPPORTER, NOTHING HE DOES REALLY SURPRISES ME ANYMORE. I THINK THAT'S WHAT A LOT OF PEOPLE SAY, TERRA, But I wonder what you think the endorsement did. And do you agree with the secretary? Do you think Paxton's going to win tonight? And is that good news for Democrats? Well, I do agree that I think Paxton is probably going to pull this out.
I mean, John Cornyn has actually been running from behind since last year, which is why he spent so much money starting last summer, like $70 million in six months to basically break even with Ken Paxton. So that's not a good position to be in when you've been an incumbent, you're a senior senator, well-known, large name ID, and you're running behind someone as ethically challenged as Ken Paxton. I mean, Ken Paxton is, he's corrupt. His wife divorced him. He was impeached by his own legislature in Texas in 2023 for intimidating whistleblowers. And he's enriched himself while in office.
I mean, he sounds like somebody else we know. Hmm, Donald Trump. You know, he's in the same image and likeness. Trump was always going to endorse Ken Paxton because he saw he's simpatico with him. And Ken Paxson has been defiant and thumbed his nose at the establishment, just like Donald Trump. So, um, I mean, Trump also learned he didn't pay a price, right? For those kinds of things. And so it was really interesting. The New Yorker spoke to a bunch of people, but there was one woman who said, quote, um, that's not and talking about the different things that most Christian conservatives you would think would find offensive like getting divorced on biblical grounds.
But this is what she said. That's not a good decision that he's made, but what matters is what he's doing for the state and for the country. Yeah. I mean. Right. I mean. When did the Christian conservative wing of the party, was it with Trump become make it feel like it's so easy to look the other way? So when did the evangelical wing of the of Christianity become political hypocrites and moral hypocrites? It was you know, it's been years in the making decades in the making when they've decided to use political power as their North Star as opposed to biblical teachings. That's obvious. And, you know, there's the rise of
Christian nationalism and the justification using biblical justification for their support of Donald Trump, for the violence, for the unethical behavior, the indecency, the lying. I mean, that is a whole special in and of itself about how the Christian evangelical right has lost its moral compass and moral way, which leads you to what's happening in Texas. The fact that someone like Ken Paxton would even have a chance and that Donald Trump's endorsement would it's the biggest self-owned politically in Texas could possibly have.
Now you have a safe seat, would have been a safe seat under Cornyn is now in play because of this, because there are other people who are going, wait a minute, I'm not so sure. And that's correct. They lose the seniority in the Senate, which matters for chairmanships and things like that. And when you're in the Senate senior, you would, you're losing, assuming that Cornyn loses, you're losing. You're losing a senior senator who's by all measures been a good senator for the state of Texas, all because Donald Trump said so.
It is this is where you get into the cultish aspect of the support for Donald Trump, for those the people who continue to do that, because you look at them kind of struggle for how they're justifying someone like Ken Paxton over John Cornyn. What was John Cornyn's major big cardinal sin? Because he wasn't loyal enough to Donald Trump? That is not politically a politically salient position to be in when you are fighting for your control of the House and Senate in such a crucial midterm election year where Donald Trump was so unpopular. And, you know, it gives Democrats an opening where they shouldn't have been, but good for them.
I think this is the first opportunity Democrats have had to win a statewide office, you know, an office like this in many decades since Anne Richards.
