'If We Lose Texas, We Lose America': Paxton Calls His Own Race a 'Tie Ball Game' in a National Radio Interview
Ken Paxton told Breitbart News Saturday that his Senate race against James Talarico is the hardest of his 20 campaigns, 'a tie ball game' that turns on turnout in rural Texas and five suburban counties — a Republican nominee warning, on the record, that Texas cannot be taken for granted.
Republican U.S. Senate nominee Ken Paxton told a national radio audience that Republicans cannot assume Texas will stay red, calling his race against Democrat James Talarico the hardest of his political career and describing the contest as a tie. 'I would say we are in a tie ball game,' Paxton said in an interview on Breitbart News Saturday with the program's Washington bureau chief, Matthew Boyle, in the account read by the desk this cycle. The outcome, he warned, depends on whether Republicans 'take this serious' — and his campaign's framing line was blunt: if Republicans lose Texas, they lose America.
Paxton, running his 20th campaign, likened the climate to 2018, when Beto O'Rourke came within a few points of unseating Sen. Ted Cruz, and tied the closeness partly to voter enthusiasm. 'We have the numbers. It's just getting them out,' he said. He named the turnout map himself: rural West and East Texas, plus Collin, Denton, Montgomery, Fort Bend and Williamson counties. He said he had spent the previous 15 days on his 'Come and Take It' bus tour, including appearances involving President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance, and urged supporters to bring family and friends and 'act like it matters.'
The public polls support his description of a close race, though most lean slightly toward Talarico: Texas Southern University at 49-47 for Talarico, Texas Public Opinion Research at 51-47, Fox News tied at 49-49, and Quantus Insights (October 26-28) with Paxton narrowly ahead, 48.7 to 47.6 — all as tabulated in the account. Paxton's characterizations of Talarico's positions in the interview are his campaign's claims and are reported as such; Talarico was not part of the exchange. The seat is open because Sen. John Cornyn lost the Republican primary to the Trump-backed Paxton. Texas polls open Tuesday, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
