7:18
Today on the Playbook Podcast, Trump goes four from four in Texas as his MAGA man Ken Paxton ousts veteran Senator John Cornin. But it's Democrats who are celebrating. They think the result in last night's primary runoff gives them a real chance of scooping the Senate seat this fall. We'll pick through all of that for you guys this morning and the best of the rest from last night's other results in Texas. Hello, I'm Jack Blanchard. And I'm Adam Ren and it's Wednesday, May 27th. Adam, where are you? Jack, I am just uh off the shores here of a beautiful lake. Uh I'm in Meno City, Michigan on the other side of Meno Island where I'm at for the week covering all things Michigan and the midterms. Um and so I'm hotel rooms never sleep.
That's right. So it's not exactly Texas, but hopefully I'll be back in Texas for the general uh next week. Well, Texas is what we're all going to be talking about this morning, Adam. Um, in the end, look, it wasn't even close. You know, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton thrashed John Cornin in last night's Texas primary. There's no two ways about it. We'll get on to what that means for Donald Trump and the Republicans in a moment. Want to talk about first, Adam, is that we now know for certain what this Senate head-to-head matchup is going to be this fall. And it is the matchup that Democrats have been dreaming about since last summer. Their guy James Telerico against Ken Paxton in November. And to remind you guys listening, Telerico, young guy, only
turned 37 last week. He's only a state representative. Most people hadn't even heard of him this time last year. Adam, just lay out for us why it is that Democrats are kind of licking their lips at this encounter and genuinely believe that they finally got a real chance of winning a Senate seat in Texas. I mean, Terrico is a unique candidate here. He is a seminarian, someone who is equipped at using the language of faith, scripture to make a progressive uh political case. And that's not something that every Democrat who walks off the street is able to do. But this is something that he's been studying about how to do a larger ideological project uh you know for three years now and
longer than that, a lifetime. uh I've sat in seminary classes with him and sort of understand how he frames and thinks about all of these issues. So he's able to do that. He can um come from kind of a conservative sounding you know approach and talk about issues uh from his worldview that way. Uh but you know the other reason Jack is because he's a money printing machine. I can report exclusively here on this podcast and later in the playbook newsletter this morning that Terico's campaign had its best two hours ever uh after the polls closed at 8:05 central last night. They've raised $600,000 in two hours. Um that's their best offering since September. Uh we know that Kim Paxton put out an email to
his supporters last night hoping to raise a million dollars over the next day and tonight. So we'll see how they both uh turn out. Tune in to Playbook uh newsletter for more of that. Uh but Jack, this race itself, this general election race is threatening to upend the entire midterm map for both parties. It's going to turn into a massive money hole. I talked to Steve Bannon last night and he told me they're really going to have to grind it out as Republicans. Um and thinks that Kim Paxton will ultimately win by five points, but this is a massive change in this in the Senate map. Well, Ken Paxton obviously a hugely controversial figure impeached by his own party in Texas over corruption allegations which he denies
and the slew of other scandals that have pursued him for such a long time. Very well-known figure, completely uh different figure from John Cornin uh the guy he defeated last night. And I guess like knowing though that history is one of the other reasons Democrats are excited about this matchup because there is a perception rightly or wrongly in Democratic circles that Paxton is a beatable candidate uh versus someone like Cornin who'd obviously been there for such a long time aterm senator so well known right across the state. Um, Paxton is a very different character and I just think I mean you talking about the money that you just mentioned there, the figures you talked about there just
in the first few hours of this race. The amount of money that is going to pour into Texas now over the next few months on both sides is just going to be crazy, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah, it's going to be significant. I mean, Terico raised something like $30 million this year. he doesn't even have to do call time anymore because he, you know, has this small dollar machine uh that is minting money for him. Uh and so he's free to kind of to go everywhere. And um yeah, it's it's going to be significant. And you know, the National Republican Senatorial Committee has spent a lot of money here. And right now, it looks like MAGA, Inc., the group that has, you
know, $300 million is going to be on the hook for uh for a lot of this. It's going to be massive. our colleague Jonathan Martin Jart making the point uh last night that the last time a Texas Democrat actually won a Senate race here was way back in 1988. People remember Lloyd Benson. Obviously Betto came close was only a couple hundred thousand votes in it in 2018. Um, this race feels like it is going to be close. And I guess the people that turned out for John Cornin last night are now the sort of swing voter group who have shown they're very, you know, invested in Texas politics and want to have a say, their guy is not running. And the question is, can James Terico reach out and get some of those
voters potentially to vote Democrat this fall or are they going to fall behind Ken Paxton even though so many of them must be really angry given how bitter and angry this primary has been? Yeah, I mean, Jack, we're already seeing a lot of anecdotal reporting of Cornin voters talking to reporters uh and saying that if Paxton is the nominee, which he is, barring some, you know, unforeseen twist of fate, that they would be voting for Terico. And we've seen that in the polling as well, bonafide polling in Texas has said that and reported it as much. And so, I do think that becomes the challenge for Terico. and he told me as much in an interview last night that
he really wants to make a strong play here for Cornin voters. What's interesting to me, Jack, is he already has his kind of his talking point uh ready. He says that Paxton has a criminal record. I have a legislative record. And so I expect that we'll hear a lot more of that over the next few months. It's a neat line. Counterpoint, Democrats always say they're going to win in Texas. They never do. We've played this game before. Um, and of course, James Telerico, a very eloquent communicator, has a lot of statements on record, and you've seen the Republican videos doing the rounds already, attack videos. He's made statements about issues on gender, religion, on whiteness, as he puts it, which can be framed as being controversial,
particularly in a state, dare I say, like Texas, and are going to be thrown at him again and again from now until November the 3. Is it possible that for all the Democratic excitement, this is just going to be another one of those stories where it all peters out for them and you know the Republican wins comfortably? That's a real possibility here. Uh our colleague Iris Sutner got his hands on a memo from the uh the Taller Rico aligned pack that you know kind of throws some cold water on this and is realistic. It's the Lone Star Rising pack. They write in this memo, quote, "Texas remains a challenging battleground." End quote. Uh, but for the first time in a generation, they write, "Democrats enter
a statewide general election with a candidate political environment, deeply flawed opponent capable of making Texas the most competitive battleground state in the nation." And so, yeah, this is real. We should just talk quickly about the Republican party because this is another big win for Donald Trump. Of course, you know, first we had Indiana at the start of the month. We purged all the Republican state senators. Then we had Louisiana. He pushed out Republican senators of Bill Cassidy. Then we had Kentucky where he beat Representative Thomas Massie in his own house primary. And now we have this where he backed Ken Paxton over Cornin and Cornin is now
out. We've never seen a president with a grip on a party like this, you know, and it's starting to feel like 2028 is just going to be a case of that the Republican candidate is whoever Donald Trump wants it to be. I think Trump is a if nothing else, Jack, he is a very good measure of candidates. Uh he can take a measure of a political candidate, figure out their brand, figure out their weaknesses in such a quick amount of time. And we know from what he said that he's looked at Terico, thinks he's a weak candidate and, you know, I think in part thought that he could put his uh thumb on the scale for Paxton with uh minimal political injury and that's why we saw him ultimately endorse here.
And obviously Cornin, another big figure from the old Republican establishment to go. There isn't that many of them left now. Republican party increasingly becoming remade in Trump's image. Cornin said last night he's going to support the Republican ticket in Texas despite this really ugly battle he's been involved in. It will be interesting to see, won't it, how he acts in the Senate when he heads back there for the next few months given the way we've seen someone like Bill Cassidy already coming out uh and being prepared to criticize the president in ways that he didn't before he lost his primary. That's right, Jack. I mean, it appears we could potentially have another member
of the GOP yolo caucus. Uh and so with all of Trump's success in May, uh you know, it is and has already provided kind of a barrier to some of his, you know, legislative successes, which he needs, Jack, uh ahead of November and these crucial midterms, he needs the best case he can make. Three very quick Democratic results from last night in Texas, I just want to flag before we uh finish in the 18th congressional district, the 11term representative, Al Green, is out. He was defeated by freshman Christian Menafy who was only elected house this year. They were going head-to-head because of redistricting. A lot of crypto money went into that race uh against Al Green and he has lost that primary. So that's really interesting.
Um you guys will have heard of the case of Morin Galindo, the uh sex therapist who was running as an outsider in the Democratic uh ticket in the 35th Congressional District. She was beaten last night by the local sheriff's deputy Johnny Garcia. Democratic establishment breathing a huge sigh of relief that she is not going to be the candidate given some of the comments she's made uh about what she calls quote American Zionists. Um and in the 33rd congressional another sitting house member ousted from the Democrats Julie Johnson was beaten by Colin Olred who of course is a former house representative. So a real change in the guard in quite a few places in
Texas. It really feels like the wind of change is almost the story uh at the moment. Adam, voters prepared to throw out almost anybody who's whether they've been there 20 years or two years. They just people like something new. Yeah. And it's possible that some of what we're seeing in these results over the past month are not just kind of a proTrump line, even though he's endorsed and has been on the record as weighing in a lot of these races. But even in Indiana, there are questions I think that remain about how much of this was Trump putting his thumb on the scale and how much of this was like an anti-incumbent sentiment uh playing out. And so it's possible that regardless of who endorsed
who, that voters just want to throw the bumps out. Well, it certainly gives us plenty to talk about when they do, doesn't it? We better leave it there. Thanks everyone for listening. It's all we got time for today. We have got loads more news and analysis in today's playbook newsletter. As Adam already mentioned, uh you can find that at politico.com/playbook. And we shall be back with you tomorrow. Have a great day.
