With the Texas Senate race heating up, one vote from Democrat James Talarico&#8217;s record in the state House may come back to bite him as he tries to make himself more palatable to voters. 
While in the state House, Talarico <a href="https://journals.house.texas.gov/HJRNL/89R/PDF/89RDAY73FINAL.pdf">voted</a> against a bipartisan bill championed by ranchers to ban the sale of lab-grown &#8220;meat&#8221; in Texas. The bill, which became law in September 2025, was a significant win for the Texas cattle industry, which exports about $1 billion in beef annually. 
The bill, passed in May 2025, imposes a two-year moratorium on “offering for sale and the sale of cell-cultured protein for human consumption.” As 14 Democrats joined 85 Republicans in the state House to pass the measure, Talarico voted against it. 
Throughout his Senate campaign, Talarico has been dogged by accusations of veganism based on his history of anti-meat statements. The controversy led him to stage photo ops eating meat and making proclamations that his campaign “runs on barbecue.”
Talarico&#8217;s campaign did not respond to a request for comment on whether he stands by his vote and his current stance on lab-grown meat.
While lab-grown meat is a favorite staple of Left-wing climate groups, cattle ranchers believe that it undercuts their livelihoods and argue that the product is largely untested. The Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, an industry group, backed the moratorium on lab-grown meat and recently <a href="https://x.com/KenPaxtonTX/status/2075232228188287343">endorsed</a> Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is running against Talarico. 
“Ranchers across Texas work tirelessly to raise healthy cattle and produce high-quality beef,” Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association President Carl Ray Polk Jr. said after the bill won final passage. “Our association is grateful for those legislators who voted in support of this legislation and understood the core of this bill, to protect our consumers, the beef industry and animal agriculture.”
Cattle ranchers in Texas <a href="https://www.gregabbott.com/texas-feeds-the-world-how-the-lone-star-state-powers-americas-food-supply/">oversee</a> about 14% of the American cattle population, with over 12.2 million head of cattle in the state. 
During one of his previous campaigns for state House, Talarico <a href="https://x.com/Bobby_LaVallley/status/2034003528516051016">said</a> that people should eat less meat to reduce “climate change” and said his campaign was “officially” a “non-meat campaign.” 
“It is now existential that we try to reduce our meat consumption, and that we try to respect animals in all aspects of society,” a masked Talarico said in 2022. “And so I am proud to say that our campaign has officially become a non-meat campaign. So we have, we are only buying vegan products from our local vegan businesses.”
The ultra-woke church Talarico attends in Austin <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-roasts-texas-democrat-over-six-genders-and-vegan-flip-flop">encourages</a> its congregants to “eat a plant-based diet for the planet’s health and yours.”
President Donald Trump roasted Talarico earlier this year for his apparent vegan flip-flop. 
“I’ll tell you what I do think — I think the Democrats have a weird, a weird candidate. Six genders, a real hit on Jesus,” Trump told reporters in May on Air Force One. “I mean, this guy is bad news with his mask from relatively recently, and he’s a vegan. He’s a vegan. All of a sudden, he’s not a vegan. He was a vegan, now all of a sudden he’s not.”
The cattle industry is not the only state economic powerhouse Talarico has upset. He <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2026/09/01/politics/james-talarico-progressive-comments-kfile?utm_medium=email&amp;utm_source=ncl_amplify&amp;utm_campaign=260901-james_talarico_calls_to_dismantle_620000_texas_oil_and_gas_jobs&amp;utm_content=ncl-kpD3gMNDyq&amp;utm_term=&amp;_nlid=kpD3gMNDyq&amp;_nhids=nc3q3iNe4uA4Rls">took shots</a> at the oil and gas industry in a 2020 Zoom meeting hosted by the Sierra Club, saying the &#8220;industry is not gonna last&#8221; and compared it to making cassette tapes in the 1980s.

Talarico barbecue

Talarico’s Voting History Sheds Light On Anti-Meat Activism

2026 midterm election

cattle industry

james talarico

ken paxton

lab grown meat

texas senate race

Republicans have resurrected an ad that was used by President Donald Trump to great effect in 2024 — but this time they&#8217;re using it against Democratic Senate hopeful James Talarico.
The Dallas Express reported on Saturday that Texas PAC — a Republican-aligned super PAC — was boosting ad buys in support of Attorney General Ken Paxton (R-TX) to the tune of about $51.3 million. Among the ads scheduled to run against Talarico is one that Trump used against former Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election that highlights Democratic support for trans-identifying individuals, often at the expense of biological women.
&#8220;Radical liberal James Talarico is for &#8216;they/them,&#8217; not you,&#8221; the <a href="https://host2.adimpact.com/admo/viewer/28339fde-8d6e-4b70-95ba-56c85347e007">repurposed ad</a> blares, highlighting Talarico&#8217;s  record of support for trans-identifying people.
&#8220;What do we really know about James Talarico?&#8221; the ad asks, quoting Talarico as saying, &#8220;Defending trans Texans is something we have to do every day.&#8221;
&#8220;Talarico supported using taxpayer dollars for sex change surgeries on young children and even said denying your child&#8217;s gender identity is abusive. &#8216;Defending trans Texans is something we have to do every day,'&#8221; the ad continued. &#8220;Radical liberal James Talarico, for they, them, not you. Texas PAC is responsible for the content of this advertising.&#8221;
Talarico recently tried to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-undercover-video-exposes-talaricos-transgender-flip-flop">walk back</a> some of his previous comments, saying during a Fox News interview that he&#8217;d been wrong when he claimed that there were six genders.
&#8220;What I meant is there are two sexes and there&#8217;s a small percentage of people with genetic abnormalities. Obviously I didn&#8217;t say it correctly. There are not six sexes, there are two,&#8221; he said.
During the <a href="https://19thnews.org/2026/09/james-talarico-views-transgender-lgbtq-sports/">same interview</a>, he tried to downplay Democratic efforts to allow trans-identifying males to play on female sports teams.
&#8220;I oppose trans athletes playing in girls’ sports if it risks safety or fairness,&#8221; he said, but made no effort to clarify what criteria he might use to measure &#8220;safety or fairness.&#8221;
He also claimed that Paxton – who highlighted Talarico&#8217;s statements about God being &#8220;non-binary&#8221; — was using his past &#8220;cringey comments&#8221; in order to make sure that no one was looking too closely at him. He went on to claim that he&#8217;d meant that statement in particular to be &#8220;provocative&#8221; because he was making about point about God not fitting into any particular box.

Texas State Representative Talarico Campaigns Ahead Of Primary Election

Republicans Run Back Iconic Trump Campaign Ad — This Time Against Talarico

politics

transgender policy

Senate Republicans’ primary outside spending group has jumped into the Texas Senate race with an initial $32 million ad buy supporting Ken Paxton, just days after President Donald Trump’s political operation committed another $10 million to the contest.
Texas PAC, a new group connected to Senate Leadership Fund, purchased roughly $32 million in broadcast television advertising on Friday across the Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, San Antonio, and Austin markets, according to <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2026/09/11/gop-money-texas-paxton-trump-01072972">Politico</a>. Senate Republicans are reportedly preparing to spend more than $50 million on the race.
The new spending marks Senate Leadership Fund&#8217;s first financial involvement in Texas since the Republican primary. The super PAC, affiliated with Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD), previously stayed out of the Texas contest despite reserving hundreds of millions of dollars for other competitive Senate races.
The investment follows a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-opens-massive-war-chest-to-rescue-flailing-ken-paxton-campaign">$10 million ad buy from MAGA Inc.</a>, Trump’s super PAC, earlier this month. That money was split evenly between positive ads for Paxton and negative ads against Democratic state Rep. James Talarico, according to a Federal Election Commission filing.
Elon Musk’s America PAC has also spent more than $2.6 million on phone calls, text messages, printed advertisements, and other efforts supporting Paxton and opposing Talarico, <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2026/09/11/senate-gop-leadership-ken-paxton-john-thune-texas-spending/">according</a> to The Texas Tribune.  
Republican groups have now spent or reserved $60.8 million in advertising since Paxton won the May runoff, compared with $43.7 million from Democrats, <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2026/09/11/senate-gop-leadership-ken-paxton-john-thune-texas-spending/">according</a> to the media-tracking firm AdImpact. Nearly all the Democratic spending has come from Talarico&#8217;s campaign.
The spending surge comes after polling shows an unusually competitive contest in a state that last elected a Democratic senator in 1988. An <a href="https://www.aarp.org/press/releases/2026-09-10-new-aarp-texas-poll-highly-motivated-older-voters-could-shape-close-senate-governor-races/">AARP survey</a> released Thursday found Talarico leading Paxton 48% to 44% among likely voters, with 8% undecided. 
Thune supported Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) over Paxton during the Republican primary and had previously described Paxton as “scandal-plagued.” After Paxton defeated Cornyn in the runoff following Trump’s endorsement, however, Republican leaders began publicly urging Trump’s political operation to invest in the race. Thune told Fox News that Republicans needed to help Paxton because Texas has an unusually expensive media environment, with 20 television markets across the state.
The Republican leadership’s new investment comes as Trump has repeatedly emphasized the importance of keeping Texas in Republican hands. 
At the Dallas convention, Trump said Republicans “have to elect Ken Paxton,” adding that he would return to Texas “twice or three times” if necessary to campaign for him. Trump also used his convention appearances to attack Talarico while defending Paxton, though he continued his pattern of joking about Paxton’s appearance and mannerisms.
“He may not dress right. He may not talk exactly perfectly, and he may not be the best looking guy I’ve ever seen,” Trump said, before calling Paxton “the greatest attorney general in America” and saying he deserved to be the next senator. 
Senate Majority PAC, the Democratic Senate super PAC, has not yet reserved advertising time in Texas. A spokesperson for the group <a href="https://x.com/PatrickSvitek/status/2098461954616471911?s=20">described</a> the Republican spending as evidence that Paxton’s campaign requires significant outside assistance.
&nbsp;
&nbsp;
&nbsp;
&nbsp;

Former President Trump Holds Rally In Robstown, Texas

GOP Goes On Texas Spending Blitz After Convention

donald trump

senate leadership fund

Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico is trying to convince Texas voters that he has moderated his views on transgender issues, but undercover footage obtained by The Daily Wire suggests that a Democratic organizer involved in the party&#8217;s statewide campaign believes the shift is political posturing rather than a genuine change of heart.
The video shows Jennifer Miranda, a manager with Texas Together and the Texas Democratic Party, saying Talarico, who has sparked backlash over his <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/talarico-says-god-is-not-a-christian-in-unearthed-sermon?author=Jacob+Wheeler&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Talarico+Says+%E2%80%98God+Is+Not+A+Christian%E2%80%99+In+Unearthed+Sermon">fringe views on Christianit</a>y and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-james-talarico-says-he-loves-trans-children-in-unearthed-clip">“love” for transgender children,</a> is trying to broaden his appeal while standing by his statements behind his past statements supporting the LGBT movement. 
“I would say right now he’s trying to target a wider net, which unfortunately means being more palatable to Republicans here in Texas,” Miranda said in the footage. “He really needs to win those Texans over.” 
“You talk to some Republicans, and they’re very Republican, especially here in Texas … very, very to the Right,” she added. 
<a href="https://www.texasdemocrats.org/ccrfp2026">Texas Together</a> is a coordinated campaign launched by the Texas Democratic Party, Texas Majority PAC, Powered by People, and the Texas House Democratic Campaign Committee to pool resources and support Democratic candidates across the ballot, including Talarico.
The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.transparencyusa.org/tx/payee/jennifer-miranda">independently confirmed</a> that Miranda is <a href="https://www.transparencyusa.org/tx/committee/texas-majority-pac-00087189-gpac/payees?page=4">paid through Texas Majority PAC</a>, a political action committee <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2024/01/12/texas-majority-pac-george-soros-democrats-fundraising/">founded in 2022</a> by alumni of Beto O’Rourke’s campaigns.
When asked whether Talarico still supports trans-identifying children, Miranda responded: “I think that from the character he’s shown us, he does believe the things that he’s said before.”
The Daily Wire reached out to the <a href="https://www.texasdemocrats.org/media">Texas Democratic Party</a> for comment.
The unearthed exchange comes just one day after Talarico <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/talarico-missed-mark-backtracks-controversial-woke-statements">appeared on Fox News</a> and attempted to walk back several of his most problematic past positions, including stances on transgender athletes competing in girls’ sports and gender-transition surgeries for minors.
In 2021, Talarico <a href="https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/87R/minutes/pdf/C4002021050709001.PDF?utm_source=chatgpt.com">voted against Senate Bill 29</a> while serving on the Texas House Public Education Committee. The legislation sought to require public-school athletes to compete according to the sex listed on their birth certificate. Talarico was one of five committee members to vote against the bill, which passed the committee 8-5.
Appearing on Fox to counterprogram the GOP’s Dallas midterm convention, Talarico answered “absolutely” when asked whether he would support a national ban on gender-transition surgeries for minors.
“If you go back and check, I voted for a <a href="https://journals.house.texas.gov/hjrnl/88r/pdf/88RDAY63FINAL.PDF#page=20&amp;seqNum=748">major amendment</a> to limit the bill to banning surgeries for minors,” he said in the interview. “As a lawmaker, my job is to try to sift through everything the bill does. And sometimes there’s stuff in it that’s really harmful, and I have no choice but to oppose the bill as a whole.”
In reality, Talarico <a href="https://journals.house.texas.gov/HJRNL/88R/PDF/88RDAY63FINAL.PDF">voted against</a> a 2023 law that protected kids from transgender surgeries and cross-sex hormone procedures.
Talarico also acknowledged during the Fox News interview that some of his previous statements “missed the mark,” including his past claim that there are six sexes and his 2021 declaration that “God is non-binary.”
It’s a stunning turnaround for the state representative whose voting record and a flood of unearthed clips suggest unequivocal support for the LGBT movement.
In a 2023 podcast appearance, the Texas Democrat was asked to name something he loved besides family and friends. <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-james-talarico-says-he-loves-trans-children-in-unearthed-clip">His answer</a>: “the trans children who showed up yesterday at the state Capitol to advocate for their humanity.”
The clip, previously unearthed by <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-james-talarico-says-he-loves-trans-children-in-unearthed-clip">The Daily Wire</a>, has taken on new significance after undercover footage captured a Texas Democratic operative saying Talarico “does believe the things that he’s said before” and that his current messaging is aimed at being more “palatable to Republicans.”
Beyond his voting record, the Texas church where Talarico has delivered his sermons pushes gender-related material on children, featuring books containing sexually explicit content and transgender themes, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/this-book-is-gay-read-the-sexually-explicit-volumes-james-talaricos-church-gives-kids?author=Leif+Le+Mahieu&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=%E2%80%98God+Is+Queer%E2%80%99%3A+See+The+Sexually+Explicit+Books+James+Talarico%E2%80%99s+Church+Gives+Kids">The Daily Wire</a> previously reported. The Senate hopeful attends St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Austin. There, children have access to a library stocked with “banned books,” including titles that contain descriptions of anal rape, incest, and oral sex, according to The Daily Wire&#8217;s review of its offerings.
In August, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/talarico-says-god-is-not-a-christian-in-unearthed-sermon?author=Jacob+Wheeler&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Talarico+Says+%E2%80%98God+Is+Not+A+Christian%E2%80%99+In+Unearthed+Sermon">The Daily Wire</a> also uncovered a sermon showing Talarico saying “God is not a Christian” and comparing evangelism to forcing alcohol on young children.
In the nearly <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ln7LQbd2xpI">20-minute sermon</a>, titled “God Is Not Christian: Confronting Christian Nationalism,” Talarico seemingly downplayed the divinity of Jesus and appeared to reject a key passage from the Gospel of John stating that Christ is the only way to God.
“There are so many pathways to the sacred. The Islamic mystic Rumi said, ‘Every religion has love, but love has no religion. God is so much bigger than our human categories,’” Talarico said. “God is not a Presbyterian. God is not a Christian. God is not a noun at all. God is a verb. God is not a being. God is being self. God is love, and that’s why Jesus is against anything that gets in the way of that love between neighbors, including religion.”
Talarico will face off against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in November&#8217;s race for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by GOP Sen. John Cornyn. <a href="https://www.cookpolitical.com/senate/race/488686">The Cook Political Report</a> ranks the contest as a toss-up.

Democratic Senate Candidate James Talarico Hosts Statewide Grocery Drive During GOP Midterm Convention In Dallas

EXCLUSIVE: Undercover Video Exposes Talarico’s Transgender Flip-Flop

texas democratic party

transgender issues in schools

For the first time in its history, the Republican National Committee is opening its midterm convention to ordinary Americans, giving voters unprecedented access to the party’s top names, rising candidates, and agenda ahead of the 2026 elections.
The two-day convention kicks off Wednesday at Dallas’ American Airlines Center, where President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance will headline a packed lineup of administration officials, lawmakers, and GOP candidates as the party rallies voters with just 56 days until Election Day. The arena, home to the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, can accommodate more than 20,000 attendees.
President Donald Trump will headline both nights of the convention, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-a-first-look-inside-donald-trumps-dallas-midterm-convention">The Daily Wire exclusively reported</a>, delivering remarks on opening night before returning Thursday for the closing act. Vice President JD Vance will headline the second night. Trump is expected to unveil a “surprise announcement” during his closing remarks, a GOP source told The Daily Wire.
Other <a href="https://gop.com/press-release/republican-national-committee-announces-keynote-speakers-for-2026-republican-convention/">speakers scheduled</a> include Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Attorney General Todd Blanche, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Centers for Medicare &amp; Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner, former White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, and Donald Trump Jr.
The Texas delegation will also be heavily represented, including Governor Greg Abbott, Sen. Ted Cruz, and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate, who is locked in a contentious race with Democrat James Talarico. 
RNC spokeswoman Natalie Baldassarre said the convention will showcase the GOP’s record of “delivering real results.” 
“From historic tax relief and lower prescription drug prices to critical support for farmers and rural hospitals, the President has followed through on his promises to American families and is just getting started,” Baldassarre said Tuesday in a statement to The Daily Wire. “While Democrats remain divided and distracted, Republicans are united behind a shared vision that is restoring opportunity, lowering costs, and making the American Dream attainable again.&#8221; 
With control of both the House and Senate up for grabs, Republicans face a competitive environment heading into Election Day, with elevated gas prices, the<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/live-updates-iranian-protests-intensify-as-citizens-demand-end-to-ayatollah-rule?topStoryPosition=undefined&amp;author=Daily+Wire&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=1&amp;row=1&amp;rowHeadline=Top+Stories&amp;rowType=Top+Stories&amp;title=U.S.+Hammers+Iran+After+Tehran%E2%80%99s+Attempt+To+Take+Out+American+Troops"> lingering conflict in Iran</a>, and President Trump’s sagging approval ratings among the issues shaping the political landscape. The latest<a href="https://www.realclearpolling.com/polls/state-of-the-union/generic-congressional-vote"> RealClearPolitics</a> polling average gives Democrats a roughly 5.8-percentage-point advantage on the generic congressional ballot. The party in power has historically lost seats in midterm elections.
Hoping to defy that history, the convention<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/inside-the-rncs-biggest-convention-in-a-decade"> will be open to the public</a>, with free tickets distributed through a lottery. Each night will feature candidates running in battleground races nationwide, as well as “everyday Americans” who support the president and his party.
The RNC wants to unify the party around a “simple message,” according to a memo The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-a-first-look-inside-donald-trumps-dallas-midterm-convention">reviewed</a>.
Opening night will spotlight the Working Families Tax Cuts, efforts to root out waste and fraud, the $50 billion Rural Health Transformation Program and the SAVE America Act. The convention will also contrast Republican and Democratic policies while introducing key GOP candidates in targeted districts.
Speakers will also highlight “No Tax on Tips,” the enhanced Child Tax Credit, border enforcement, religious freedom, national pride, Trump’s “America First” trade policy and efforts to clean up deep blue cities. The program will also spotlight the administration’s education policies and its efforts to address gender ideology and Critical Race Theory in schools and other institutions.
The second night will feature Trump’s expansion of school choice, hostages brought home during his administration, a proposed Capitol Hill trading ban, and tightening border security. The conservative movement will also honor Charlie Kirk on the first anniversary of his assassination, with plans to “convert that legacy into a call to mobilize voters,” reflecting Kirk’s focus on voter mobilization through Turning Point USA.
The Daily Wire will be on the ground with real-time reporting, analysis, and exclusive interviews from the Dallas convention. 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
The Daily Wire is taking over Dallas, Texas next week at the RNC!
Join us at The Daily Wire’s BaRNC, the premiere hangout inside of the perimeter throughout the convention on September 9 and 10.
The road to the midterms begins in Dallas. The Daily Wire will see you there 🍻 <a href="https://t.co/F8pBCcETZX">pic.twitter.com/F8pBCcETZX</a>
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) <a href="https://x.com/realDailyWire/status/2095978488477966756?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 4, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.x.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

US-POLITICS-ELECTION

Trump Throws Midterm Curveball In Bid To Defy History

jd vance

republican national committee

The financial cavalry is finally arriving for Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in his closely watched Senate fight against Democrat James Talarico.
New FEC documents show MAGA Inc., President Donald Trump&#8217;s super PAC, has opened its war chest for the first time in a competitive general election race, committing $10 million to television and digital ads supporting Paxton and opposing Talarico in the Texas Senate race. The PAC had more than $400 million on hand as of July 31, and Trump has vowed to spend as much as $500 million in outside money before Election Day.
<div id="message-list_1788641389.636399" aria-setsize="-1" aria-labelledby="primary-D0BNYTGPSP7-1788641389.636399-sender primary-D0BNYTGPSP7-1788641389.636399-message_text primary-D0BNYTGPSP7-1788641389.636399-alt_text primary-D0BNYTGPSP7-1788641389.636399-date_time primary-D0BNYTGPSP7-1788641389.636399-reaction_count primary-D0BNYTGPSP7-1788641389.636399-reply_count primary-D0BNYTGPSP7-1788641389.636399-link_count primary-D0BNYTGPSP7-1788641389.636399-attachment_count primary-D0BNYTGPSP7-1788641389.636399-has_draft_reply primary-D0BNYTGPSP7-1788641389.636399-pinned_state primary-D0BNYTGPSP7-1788641389.636399-edited_state primary-D0BNYTGPSP7-1788641389.636399-later_state primary-D0BNYTGPSP7-1788641389.636399-broadcast_state primary-D0BNYTGPSP7-1788641389.636399-broadcast_thread_root_message primary-D0BNYTGPSP7-1788641389.636399-translated_state">
<div>
<div aria-roledescription="message">
<div>
<div>
<div>
<div>
<div>
<div>
<div>
<div>
<div>&#8220;High Tax Talarico wants to take money out of Texans&#8217; pockets. MAGA Inc. is going to ensure Texas knows about Talarico&#8217;s radical policies and elects Ken Paxton to the U.S. Senate.&#8221; Alex Pfeiffer, a spokesperson for MAGA Inc., told the Daily Wire.</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
The first advertisement features Paxton’s affordability agenda, including his pledge to double the child tax credit, tax breaks for medical expenses, and a $50,000 deduction for first-time homebuyers. 
“While James Talarico has a record of raising taxes on working families, my Protecting the Texas Promise Agenda cuts costs and makes life more affordable. Thank you, President<a href="https://x.com/realDonaldTrump"> @realDonaldTrump</a>, for your support. Together we will win for Texas and America,” Paxton said in reaction to the news.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
James Talarico means higher taxes for Texas. <a href="https://t.co/EombE1nr5U">pic.twitter.com/EombE1nr5U</a>
— MAGA War Room (@MAGAIncWarRoom) <a href="https://x.com/MAGAIncWarRoom/status/2096308363491422425?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 5, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.x.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
On Wednesday, tech billionaire Elon Musk also threw more than $800,000 behind Republicans in House and Senate races, with nearly $250,000 of that spending going toward Paxton’s Senate bid.
<a href="https://docquery.fec.gov/cgi-bin/forms/C00879510/2010598/se">FEC filings</a> show Musk’s America PAC, the political group that spent hundreds of millions helping elect President Donald Trump in 2024, reported more than $800,000 in independent expenditures last month, marking the opening burst of what is expected to become a $100 million to $200 million midterm spending operation by the world’s richest person.
“The cavalry arrives for Ken Paxton. #TXSen. Elon Musk’s AMERICA PAC also poured money into Texas. Talarico is gonna have his hands full,” journalist Eric Michael Garcia posted on X.
Musk plans to use his revived operation to prioritize door-knocking, digital advertising, and direct mail to energize conservative voters who typically skip midterms,<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/musk-expected-to-spend-up-to-200m-to-boost-gop-in-midterms"> The Daily Wire</a> previously reported. Texas is expected to be a major focus of that drive. <a href="https://polymarket.com/event/texas-senate-election-winner">Polls and one prediction market</a> show a dead heat, with Talarico holding a slight edge over Paxton.
The first burst of money is significant for Paxton, who has struggled to raise cash following his bruising primary battle with ousted Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX).
“I&#8217;m going to be making contributions to various campaigns of people that I think are good, Republicans that I think are good, people that I think are going to win and can win or are close to winning,” Trump <a href="https://x.com/johnnymaga/status/2095950393050083685?s=20">said</a> in the Oval Office Friday. “And this is money from MAGA Inc. This is my money, that I control.”
&#8220;I&#8217;m going to spend whatever amount of money necessary to try and help us,&#8221; Trump added.
With control of both the House and Senate up for grabs, Republicans face a competitive environment heading into Election Day, including elevated gas prices, the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/live-updates-iranian-protests-intensify-as-citizens-demand-end-to-ayatollah-rule?topStoryPosition=undefined&amp;author=Daily+Wire&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=1&amp;row=1&amp;rowHeadline=Top+Stories&amp;rowType=Top+Stories&amp;title=U.S.+Hammers+Iran+After+Tehran%E2%80%99s+Attempt+To+Take+Out+American+Troops">lingering conflict in Iran</a>, and Trump&#8217;s sagging approval ratings. The latest<a href="https://www.realclearpolling.com/polls/state-of-the-union/generic-congressional-vote"> RealClearPolitics</a> polling average gives Democrats a roughly 5.7-percentage-point advantage on the generic congressional ballot.
For months, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) has<a href="https://x.com/theblaze/status/2094940673623351334?s=20"> urged</a> Trump to get involved while warning that Republican Senate campaign committees cannot afford to spend heavily in Texas&#8217; costly media markets.
“I worry about that, for sure,” Thune<a href="https://www.keloland.com/news/local-news/thune-weighs-in-on-beef-iran-data-centers-save-act/"> told</a> a local CBS affiliate about losing the Senate Republican majority in November. “I’m a realist, and I just think you — I don’t ever try and sugarcoat things. I think it’s a competitive environment right now.”

Trump Opens Massive War Chest To Rescue Ken Paxton Campaign

elon musk

Tech billionaire Elon Musk is throwing more than $800,000 behind vulnerable Republicans in House and Senate races as the GOP fights to hold its narrow congressional majorities in November.
<a href="https://docquery.fec.gov/cgi-bin/forms/C00879510/2010598/se">New FEC filings</a> show Musk’s America PAC, the political group that spent hundreds of millions helping elect President Donald Trump in 2024, reported more than $800,000 in independent expenditures last month, marking the opening burst of what is expected to become a $100 million to $200 million midterm buy by the world’s richest person.
The largest share of the spending went toward Texas, with $247,595 going to support Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton in his tighter-than-expected Senate race against Democrat James Talarico. America PAC also spent to support Sen. Susan Collins in Maine, Sen. Jon Husted in Ohio, Sen. Dan Sullivan in Alaska, Rep. Ashley Hinson in Iowa, Chris Sununu in New Hampshire, and Mike Rogers in Michigan.
The group also targeted competitive House districts in Virginia, New York, Florida, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Wisconsin.
The spending follows the former DOGE chief&#8217;s <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2026/08/28/mike-johnson-plans-meeting-elon-musk-midterms-01054083">reported</a> meeting with Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) in Texas to coordinate GOP strategy in the battleground House districts his PAC plans to target. 
&#8220;He&#8217;s made public a lot of what he&#8217;s doing. I&#8217;m going to talk about our conversation on that point, but we&#8217;re gonna win the midterms,&#8221; Johnson told <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/elon-musk-super-pac-midterm-spending/">CBS News.</a>
Musk plans to use his revived operation to prioritize door-knocking, digital advertising, and direct mail to energize conservative voters who typically skip midterms, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/musk-expected-to-spend-up-to-200m-to-boost-gop-in-midterms">The Daily Wire</a> previously reported.
Texas is expected to be a major focus of that drive. <a href="https://polymarket.com/event/texas-senate-election-winner">One prediction market</a> currently has the race as a near dead heat, with Talarico holding a slight edge (51%-50%) over Paxton. 
“America PAC was an essential partner for our historic GOTV operation in 2024, and their return for 2026 is a huge boost for Republicans across the country,” James Blair, President Trump’s senior political adviser, previously told <a href="https://www.axios.com/2026/07/29/musk-pac-midterm-election">Axios</a>. “We will again outsmart our opponents and ruthlessly execute our mission for the GOP between now and Election Day.” 
With control of both the House and Senate up for grabs, Republicans face significant headwinds heading into Election Day, including <a href="https://gasprices.aaa.com/">elevated gas prices</a>, the lingering conflict<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/live-updates-iranian-protests-intensify-as-citizens-demand-end-to-ayatollah-rule?topStoryPosition=undefined&amp;author=Daily+Wire&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=1&amp;row=1&amp;rowHeadline=Top+Stories&amp;rowType=Top+Stories&amp;title=U.S.+Hammers+Iran+After+Tehran%E2%80%99s+Attempt+To+Take+Out+American+Troops"> with Iran</a>, and President Trump’s low approval ratings. The latest <a href="https://www.realclearpolling.com/polls/state-of-the-union/generic-congressional-vote">RealClearPolitics </a>polling average gives Democrats a roughly 5.7-percentage-point advantage on the generic congressional ballot.
GOP leaders are especially concerned about Texas, where Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) has <a href="https://x.com/theblaze/status/2094940673623351334?s=20">urged</a> Trump to get involved while warning that Republican Senate campaign committees cannot afford to spend heavily in the state&#8217;s costly media markets.
“I worry about that, for sure,” Thune <a href="https://www.keloland.com/news/local-news/thune-weighs-in-on-beef-iran-data-centers-save-act/">told</a> a local CBS affiliate about losing the Senate Republican majority in November. “I’m a realist, and I just think you — I don’t ever try and sugarcoat things. I think it’s a competitive environment right now.”
Trump, meanwhile, has promised to deploy his own operation&#8217;s enormous war chest before Election Day, held largely by MAGA Inc. super PAC. According to federal election records, Trump&#8217;s PAC had more than $400 million cash on hand as of July 31.
“Well, I’ve raised a lot, and nobody knows what it is, but I will tell you it’s about $850 million,” Trump said, <a href="https://x.com/RNCResearch/status/2090929512590582107?s=20">teasing</a> his financial involvement in the midterms. “I’ll be spending a lot of that money, and my own money, for candidates that I think are good — Republican candidates that I think are good.”

President Trump Holds Press Conference With Elon Musk in White House’s Oval Office

Here’s Where Elon Spent His First Burst Of Midterm Money

america pac

john thune

mike johnson

The polls say Republicans are likely going to get absolutely shellacked in the midterm elections.
There are four specific reasons for that. There is also one specific reason why Democrats could totally blow it.
Here is the very short story: People want normalcy.
I&#8217;ve been saying this for years. In 2024, Trump was the normie candidate, and Kamala Harris and Joe Biden were very not normie.
In 2020, people wrongly perceived Joe Biden as a normie, and so he won.
What people want in the United States from their politics is very simple: 1) a healthy economy, and 2) to feel secure.
That’s it. Every single poll is downstream of how people feel about those two things: economic success and the prospect thereof, and security.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ben-shapiro-show-ep-2497?elementPosition=0&amp;row=0&amp;rowHeadline=Recent+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-981859" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner.avif" alt="" width="1024" height="171" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner.avif 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner-300x50.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner-768x128.jpg 768w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>
This is the reason why people institute governments. The Constitution of the United States essentially establishes a federal government capable of doing two things: protecting private property rights and ensuring national security.
Every election in the United States comes down to those two things in varying degrees: economic success and security. How people feel about whether those things are being achieved will determine whether the party in power retains power or not.
This brings us to the four reasons why the Republicans look like they&#8217;re going to have a bad election cycle.
<ol>
<li>The obvious off-year election dynamics. </li>
<li>President Trump is extraordinarily distracted. He is not focused on what people want him to focus on, and it feels like he is picking every apple from every tree at once. </li>
<li>Bad candidates</li>
<li>Most importantly, there are actual traitors in the GOP who want Trump and the Republicans to lose. They want House Speaker Mike Johnson to lose and Senate Majority Leader John Thune to lose. They&#8217;re ecstatic about the idea of a fractured Republican Party.</li>
</ol>
Some of these four things can be changed; some can&#8217;t and are basically baked into the cake.
We are now about two months away from the election. In the polling data, Democrats are about six and a half points up in the generic congressional ballot. The good news is that Republicans generally outperform the generic congressional polling in terms of seats.
That’s because you don&#8217;t vote for a generic Congress; you vote for your specific congressperson. So it may not be as disastrous as it sounds.
But in the Senate, things are looking pretty negative for the Republicans. North Carolina looks like it&#8217;s going to go for the Democrats’ Roy Cooper, who is up by eight versus Michael Whatley. In Texas, James Talarico, the self-righteous LGBTQ+ Howdy Doody doll, is up two against Ken Paxton.
In Ohio, Sherrod Brown, who had a formidable record of winning elections before he was defeated by Bernie Moreno in the last election cycle, is up about three points against Jon Husted.
In Maine, Troy Jackson — who is basically Graham Platner lite —  is up two versus Susan Collins. In Alaska, Mary Peltola is up two against Dan Sullivan.
If that polling were to hold, Republicans would lose the Senate, which again is insane considering that Trump won pretty much all of these seats, many of them by double digits, in 2024.
Republicans have a problem. Midterm elections are bad for the party in power. It is normal for the party out of power to look pretty good.
You can&#8217;t change the time. You can&#8217;t change the fact that when you&#8217;re the party in power, and people are in a bad mood, they tend to swing to the other party. It happens all the time.
But this brings up factor number two, the biggest factor in the problems for Republicans looking forward to the election. President Trump is not focused purely on the two things that matter: the economy and security. He&#8217;s been fragmented in his approach to both.
When it comes to politics, most people are not granular. Thus, what do Americans want? Direction. A narrative. They want a gestalt. They want a feeling of what is happening. They want solidity. They want predictability. They want to know where everything is going.
President Trump is famous for none of those things. He&#8217;s not famous for being predictable, solid, or narratively consistent.
There are benefits to that; because Trump is non-ideological, a so-called pragmatist, he is not wedded to any particular ideology. He will pick from various buckets, and his policy will be trial and error. He&#8217;ll try something. If it fails, he’ll try something new.
But the result is that when the president is running issue to issue, the administration&#8217;s narrative feels confusing. Take the economy. Right now, the American people are very concerned about the economy, even though it&#8217;s doing pretty well. Our unemployment rate remains low. Historically, our inflation rate is down in the mid-threes. We need to bring it down a little so it falls below the rate of wage growth. But we are by no means in a disaster-level economy here in the United States. Obviously, the stock market is doing quite well. We have a series of booming businesses.
But people feel discombobulated. They feel as though there&#8217;s a grab bag of various policies, none of them directed at a singular end.
So let&#8217;s say that the president was narratively focused, and said:
<blockquote>Listen, here&#8217;s what I want. I want economic productivity. We need to be the leading economy on planet Earth. The way that you become the leading economy on planet Earth is to drive up productivity, to drive up innovation. That means leaving money in the pocket of the American people so that they can build and consume. That means we&#8217;re leaving regulation. That means battening down the hatches against global opponents like China. But it also means cutting better trade deals with our friends, right? We have a singular end. That singular end is America out-producing, outcompeting, defeating everyone else on earth, and not just in a zero-sum way. Maximizing economic gains. Everything is geared toward that.</blockquote>
The president doesn&#8217;t tend to talk like that. And so what you end up with is a weird grab-bag of policy. On the one hand, he wants productivity, so he&#8217;s very pro data centers. But also he wants protection against the predation of global economics. He wants tariffs.
Does he want low prices because he says he wants inflation to go down? Does he want low prices, or does he want to reduce interest rates and increase prices? Does he want a trade war with Canada?
These are all discombobulated policies. Does he want regulatory relief, or does he want to take government stakes in private companies?
Does President Trump want to ferret out waste, fraud, and abuse and put his vice president in charge of overseeing that? Or does he want family and friends making bank, including people who are associated with the administration?
Who is he going to deploy to discuss economics? Is he going to deploy Scott Bessent, the Treasury Secretary, who is good at it, or is he going to deploy Peter Navarro and Howard Lutton to rant about tariffs and railroads?
That discombobulated posture has a cost. It’s okay for people to feel a little discombobulated when they feel like things are going swimmingly. But when things start to feel dicey, if they don&#8217;t feel like we&#8217;re being driven toward an actual end, it starts to feel like we&#8217;re at sea in choppy waters.
The same thing is true with national security. On certain issues, President Trump has been perfectly consistent. Illegal immigration is a national security issue. He&#8217;s been very consistent on it, which is why that has always been his best issue.
But on national security, it feels discombobulated. Does the president want to face down America&#8217;s enemies like Iran, or does he want to negotiate with them while ripping on allies? Does he want to take an anti-Russian position? Does he want to go to the EU and rip on the EU? Does he want to yell at the Italian Prime Minister? Does he want to oppose China in every aspect, because China has been interfering in a wide variety of ways in the American economy, even in our election system? Or does he want to make nice with China and talk about what a great friend he is with Jinping?
And even with regard to specific policies, even the ones that I like, what does he actually want to do when it comes to Iran? Does he want to treat Iran as an implacable foe, and does he want to bring them down the way that Reagan did the Soviet Union? Or does he want to pretend that they&#8217;re rational actors and deploy JD Vance to broker a crappy MOU?
Does he want to open the Strait of Hormuz or abandon it? Does he want to bomb Kharg Island, or does he want to send JD Vance to talk about how wonderful the Pakistanis are?
When voters feel confused and feel dyspeptic, they tend to turn to the other party.
Now again, there is some method to this confusion.
Historically speaking, for President Trump, his political approach has always been a laser pointer with a cat. The media are the cat, and he points the laser, and then they jump wherever he wants them to jump. When the seas are placid, that&#8217;s fine. But when the seas get choppy, you start to feel a little seasick. And right now people are getting sick of feeling whipsawed.
The third reason why Republicans have a midterm problem: You can&#8217;t pick crappy candidates. I understand a lot of Texans were unhappy with John Cornyn, that they felt he was too moderate, and he was too easygoing with Democrats. I did warn that Ken Paxton was a bad candidate, and I think it is fair to say that if you are running a competitive race with James Talarico in Texas, you are, by definition, a bad candidate.
Paxton’s basically counting on Texans to recognize that James Talarico is a radical leftist Howdy Doody doll. And that&#8217;s true. But you have to make that clear to people.
That may change. I expect Texans will revert to type and Paxton ends up in the Senate.
But it makes it a little tough when you run bad candidates.
The fourth reason, and this is the big one: Traitors in the GOP who are looking to undermine the GOP. There are people who are desperately desirous of the GOP failing.
They want the GOP to fail. Why? They look at Trump, and they see his term is going to end. They look at Mike Johnson, and Mike Johnson is a pretty traditional conservative. John Thune, he&#8217;s a pretty traditional conservative.
And they want that GOP to die. They want that GOP gone, and they see the GOP losing as the predicate to them fracturing the party and then taking it over.
These are people who actively want the Republican Party to lose. They&#8217;re not shy about it, by the way.
Those same people are running a gambit to take over the GOP from within. President Trump is pretty hawkish on foreign policy. They don&#8217;t like that. They don’t like the fact that the GOP, generally speaking, is free-market oriented.
What they want is a GOP that is big government in nature and significantly more sectarian and isolationist on foreign policy. That is what they want, and they&#8217;re being open about it.
That has electoral consequences, because obviously, in close elections, when “part of your party,” the part that is being appealed to by specific politicians in the administration, won&#8217;t build new audiences, but is going to try and get the Tucker Carlson audience or the Candace Owens audience — that’s a problem.
If you spend all your time appealing to the people who are actively saying they want you to lose, you&#8217;re probably going to lose.
Those are the four factors that are putting Republicans in a seriously bad position for the midterms.
This doesn&#8217;t mean Democrats can&#8217;t blow it; they are providing target-rich opportunities. One example is they decided to run a pro-terrorism candidate in Michigan, but apparently most of the Republican Party is spending its days not talking about that.
This is why a driven narrative would help. Americans are worried about security. That is a real issue when you run people for the Senate who are actively pro-terrorism.
Republicans have a lot to run on because the Democratic Party continues to turn to the Left.
The question is: Will they regain focus?

IMG_6619

How To Lose An Election In 60 Days

republican party

senate

As Democrat James Talarico outspends Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton by tens of millions of dollars in the Texas Senate race, some Republicans are pushing for more help from President Donald Trump to defeat the leftist candidate in a race that appears surprisingly competitive. 
Recent filings show Talarico raised about $31.6 million in the latest fundraising quarter to Paxton’s $9.3 million, a total in line with the Democrat&#8217;s major cash advantage throughout the race. The stark contrast in fundraising and polls showing a close race in a historically solid red state have led some Republicans to seek the president’s aid. 
Over the weekend, Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) declared that GOP Senate campaign arms have no money budgeted to support Paxton, who defeated incumbent Senator John Cornyn in one of the most expensive primary elections in history. 
“We in the Senate don&#8217;t have the money budgeted for Texas. We need help from the president. The president says he has $850 million in his campaign account. That&#8217;s a lot of jack,” Kennedy told Fox News anchor Jacqui Heinrich on Sunday. “I&#8217;m hoping that the president is going to spend $100 or $200 million in Texas. But he hasn&#8217;t committed to it yet. But in the meantime we&#8217;ve got a race, and I&#8217;m not going to play act and say that we don&#8217;t.”
Kennedy was referring to recent comments made by Trump, who vowed to spend big to back Republican candidates. 
“Well, I’ve raised a lot, and nobody knows what it is, but I will tell you it’s about $850 million,” Trump <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/6044628-trump-spending-maga-pac-midterms/">said</a>. “I’ll be spending a lot of that money for — and my own money — but I’ll be spending a lot of that money for candidates that I think are good, Republican candidates.”
MAGA Inc., a political action committee aligned with the president, has over $400 million in the bank, according to campaign filings. A Republican operative familiar with MAGA Inc. plans told The Daily Wire that the group &#8220;will spend on competitive races&#8221; and is &#8220;committed to retaining our majorities in the House and Senate.&#8221;
Talarico, who has attempted to brand himself as a moderate despite his history of far-Left advocacy in the Texas legislature, has had his campaign coffers <a href="https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/talarico-is-out-fundraising-paxton-and-flooding-the-airwaves-in-texas-senate-race-ec9277c9?mod=Searchresults&amp;pos=2&amp;page=1">boosted</a> by out-of-state Democratic donors in wealthy Massachusetts enclaves like Nantucket and Martha&#8217;s Vineyard.
“There&#8217;s no sense bubble wrapping it. We got a race in Texas,” Kennedy said on Sunday. “Money is an issue. Mr. Talarico has been raising bucket loads of money from California, Hollywood, all the beautiful people who partied with Harvey Weinstein.” 
The calls for help in Texas for Trump&#8217;s assistance have grown as other major GOP fundraising arms, including the Senate Majority Leader John Thune-aligned Senate Leadership Fund and the Republican National Senatorial Committee, have done little to support Paxton. 
Some donors have said they don’t plan on spending in Texas because they are bitter over the outcome of the GOP primary. 
“The message to Trump world is, ‘you broke it, now you own it. You gotta spend some of your money to defend him because we’ve got bigger fish to fry,’” one <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2026/08/21/trump-maga-pac-spending-texas-01045426">unnamed</a> donor told POLITICO. 
Last week, Trump traveled to Texas, where he attended a fundraiser for the National Republican Committee and rallied in support of Paxton, whom he endorsed in the primary. “I’m going to help Ken Paxton, and I’m going to spend a lot of time in Texas,” Trump said ahead of the event. 
In recent weeks, MAGA Inc. has been stepping up its campaign presence, backing Senator Darline Graham’s successful race in the South Carolina Republican primary with an $800,000 ad buy. On Monday, Vice President JD Vance will be campaigning in Michigan at a MAGA Inc. event for Republican Mike Rogers. Rogers is running against Democrat Abdul El-Sayed to replace outgoing Democrat Senator Gary Peters.

Trump Faces Calls To Spend In Texas As Dems Blitz Republicans

Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) poured more cold water on James Talarico&#8217;s Senate campaign Thursday, saying black voters are not excited about the Democratic nominee as he seeks to defeat Texas Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton.
“What are you hearing from black voters that you spoke to in Texas? Is there excitement in terms of turnout?” CNN anchor Laura Coates asked Crockett.
“I don’t think that there is excitement,” <a href="https://x.com/RNCResearch/status/2093327144340410619?s=20">Crockett replied.</a>
Crockett said black voters “are practical&#8221; and may support Talarico without being enthusiastic about his candidacy, but she acknowledged that excitement could prove crucial on Election Day. 
&#8220;You want them to feel that, because that gives you an idea again, if it&#8217;s raining on that day, if the lines are long, you want that excitement,” she said.
The Dallas-area congresswoman agreed with Coates that Democrats would need strong enthusiasm to overcome what they called “suppressive tactics.”
“We saw that happening obviously in the primary, and so yeah, we need that excitement to kind of get over some of the things that are going to be coming our way,” Crockett said.
Crockett’s provocative comments are the latest in a string of remarks <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/jasmine-crockett-pours-cold-water-on-james-talaricos-senate-hype?author=Jacob+Wheeler&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=63&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Jasmine+Crockett+Pours+Cold+Water+On+James+Talarico%E2%80%99s+Senate+Hype">casting doubt </a>on her former primary rival’s bid to turn Texas blue.
Crockett argued that Democrats cannot depend on a compelling Senate candidate alone to lift the rest of the ticket, pointing to former Rep. Beto O&#8217;Rourke&#8217;s unsuccessful statewide campaigns.
“We&#8217;ve tried this where we&#8217;ve got one amazing candidate that&#8217;s running at the top of the ticket. Beto is a very good example of this, raising all the money, doing all the things, running around the entire state. But it&#8217;s not enough,” she <a href="https://x.com/RNCResearch/status/2093322707462988098?s=20">said</a> in the CNN interview.
With 67 days to go until the election, the traditionally safe red seat <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/ken-paxton-gets-some-much-needed-good-news-in-race-against-talarico">looks increasingly competitive</a>. Several recent polls show Talarico narrowly leading Paxton, raising concerns that a bruising Republican primary may have left the GOP nominee vulnerable in November, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/senate-race-in-solid-red-state-remains-too-close-for-gop-comfort?author=Drew+Berkemeyer&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=5&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Senate+Race+In+Solid+Red+State+Remains+Too+Close+For+GOP+Comfort">The Daily Wire reported.</a>
Even as some Republicans sound the alarm over the race, Crockett said she isn’t sold on the Talarico hype. 
“I don’t know,” she <a href="http://nbcnews.com/politics/trump-administration/live-blog/trump-michigan-el-sayed-2026-election-congress-iran-live-updates-rcna590889/rcrd118342?canonicalCard=true">told</a> NBC when asked whether she thinks Talarico can win. “I watch money.”
“When I look at the money, if Republicans start spending money in Texas, then I’ll be convinced,&#8221; she said. &#8220;I look at: where does the NRSC stand? Where does DSCC stand? Right now, neither one are investing, which tells me that their internals are saying the same thing.” 
Crockett <a href="https://nypost.com/2026/03/04/us-news/rep-jasmine-crockett-endorses-opponent-james-talarico-but-wont-make-plans-to-campaign-for-fellow-dem/">endorsed</a> Talarico after losing the March primary but has repeatedly declined to commit to campaigning alongside him, saying she intends to concentrate on down-ballot candidates.
Concerns about Talarico&#8217;s support among black voters extend beyond Crockett. Texas state Rep. Jolanda Jones, a Democrat, has <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/black-activists-threaten-to-nuke-james-talaricos-senate-run">warned</a> that his campaign has failed to engage sufficiently with black elected officials and political organizations. 
“Do I think that Talarico’s refusal thus far to engage black electeds and the black infrastructure has put him at a disadvantage? Absolutely,&#8221; Jones said <a href="https://x.com/BreitbartNews/status/2074908934507233660?s=20">earlier this summer.</a> 
“Talarico needs to pay for us to get our voters out,” Jones said. “If he continues to do what he has been doing, I believe Talarico is going to lose.” 
Talarico, who has sparked backlash for his <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/this-book-is-gay-read-the-sexually-explicit-volumes-james-talaricos-church-gives-kids">fringe views on Christianity</a>, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-james-talarico-says-he-loves-trans-children-in-unearthed-clip">affection for transgender children</a>, and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-audio-thats-blowing-a-hole-in-talaricos-christian-persona">disdain for the American flag,</a> will need overwhelming support from minority voters and sky-high black turnout to win in one of America’s most culturally conservative states. 
During the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/us/elections/results-texas-primary.html">contentious March primary,</a> Crockett outperformed Talarico in most urban areas, including Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, and much of East Texas.
“Talarico and everybody statewide in the Democratic Party has a black problem, whether they acknowledge it or not,” Jones added. “And inspiration is not going to get us to the polls.”

image0-scaled

Jasmine Crockett Says Talarico Has A Black Voter Problem

jasmine crockett

Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico, who has made fighting corruption a central part of his campaign, attended a Dallas-area fundraiser earlier this month at the home of a convicted fraudster who has donated thousands of dollars to his campaign.
The <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DbaqqcvxBsv/">August 6 fundraiser</a> in DeSoto, Texas, was hosted at the home of Thomas Merrill Gaubert, 86, a Dallas-area real estate developer and former savings-and-loan owner who served three years in federal prison for bankruptcy fraud and money laundering.
<a href="https://www.fec.gov/data/receipts/?data_type=processed&amp;contributor_name=thomas+gaubert&amp;max_date=12%2F31%2F2026">Federal Election Commission</a> records show Gaubert donated $3,500 to Talarico&#8217;s campaign in September 2025 and another $3,500 in March 2026.
<a href="https://www.facebook.com/janderson.lester/posts/pfbid02zfpwkdb6ZU1AiUaoUsKdWxZBWy2TSQbwSihjrxbS3cvJVB2gekS3Mb6zmpMBbEqKl">Photos</a> from the event show Talarico speaking poolside at Gaubert&#8217;s home, with the convicted fraudster seated nearby. In another image, Talarico poses for a photograph as Gaubert, wearing a pink collared shirt and khaki shorts, stands in the background. The Daily Wire independently reviewed the address and photos of the property and confirmed that the images were taken at the home.
&nbsp;
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-1166649 size-full" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/Untitled-design-2.png" alt="" width="386" height="515" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/Untitled-design-2.png 386w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/Untitled-design-2-225x300.png 225w" sizes=" (max-width: 386px) 100vw, 386px" /></div>
&nbsp;
<div id="attachment_1166599" style="width: 452px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1166599" class="wp-image-1166599 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/765573506_3664089240395889_1217918065044311701_n-442x576.jpg" alt="" width="442" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/765573506_3664089240395889_1217918065044311701_n-442x576.jpg 442w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/765573506_3664089240395889_1217918065044311701_n-230x300.jpg 230w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/765573506_3664089240395889_1217918065044311701_n-768x1002.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/765573506_3664089240395889_1217918065044311701_n.jpg 960w" sizes=" (max-width: 442px) 100vw, 442px" />Talarico poses for a photo as Thomas Gaubert appears in the background in a pink shirt.</div>
In 1993, Gaubert was convicted in federal court on 10 counts, including bankruptcy fraud and money laundering. At the time, he was also awaiting trial in a separate case in which he later pleaded guilty to bank fraud. Gaubert served three years in federal prison, <a href="https://laist.com/news/npr-news/texas-banks-draw-on-lessons-from-the-s-l-crisis">according to NPR</a>. Gaubert cost taxpayers roughly $500 million by looting his Independent American Savings Association, prosecutors said.
Gaubert contended his innocence and blamed regulators for driving his S&amp;L into the ground. &#8220;They can put you in jail, they can destroy you if you let them. But if you&#8217;ve got good work ethic and you&#8217;re smart people and you&#8217;re willing to work hard, the world doesn&#8217;t end,&#8221; Gaubert told the outlet in 2008.
In a 1996 profile, <a href="https://www.dmagazine.com/publications/d-magazine/1996/december/sleaze-magnet/">D Magazine</a> described the Talarico supporter as a high-profile Democratic fundraiser who had raised millions for former U.S. House Speaker Jim Wright (D-TX) and other elected officials before his real estate empire collapsed.
Gaubert’s bankruptcy fraud conviction followed an earlier federal criminal case in 1988 involving a $32 million loan tied to a condominium project, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1988/10/31/business/land-dealer-is-acquitted.html">The New York Times</a> reported. He was <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1988/10/31/business/land-dealer-is-acquitted.html">acquitted</a> of all five counts in that case.
The exclusive fundraiser, helped by the Dallas County Democratic Party, was also co-hosted by <a href="https://www.zachariahlaw.com/about">Jacob Zachariah</a>, a criminal defense attorney whose law firm represents people accused of crimes against children. 
Talarico&#8217;s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether the candidate was aware of Gaubert&#8217;s criminal history when he attended the fundraiser or whether the campaign intends to return Gaubert&#8217;s donations.
On the campaign trail, however, Talarico has frequently branded Ken Paxton “<a href="https://x.com/jamestalarico/status/2059442627393597577?s=20">the most corrupt politician in America</a>” — despite previously arguing that Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) was even more corrupt.
“I was part of the bipartisan majority in the Texas House that voted to impeach our corrupt attorney general, so I know his crimes better than most people do. But I would say that John Cornyn is even more corrupt than Ken Paxton,” Talarico <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPgL8TpPTKE">said</a> in a recent interview. “John Cornyn was the deciding vote on that big ugly bill last year.” 
“It&#8217;s a bill that is going to kick millions of Texans off their health care. It&#8217;s going to take food out of the mouths of hungry Texas children, all to give yet another tax break to John Cornyn&#8217;s billionaire mega donors,” he added. “Ken Paxton was impeached for using his public office to enrich his donors in a very literal illegal way, but John Cornyn, at a massive scale, is using his public office to enrich his donors, so to me, it&#8217;s two sides of the same corrupt coin.”
The Texas Senate acquitted Ken Paxton of all 16 impeachment articles in 2023 after the state House accused him of corruption and abuse of office, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/texas-senate-votes-to-acquit-attorney-general-ken-paxton-of-all-charges">The Daily Wire</a> reported. 
Impeachment managers alleged Paxton accepted bribes from Austin real estate developer and campaign donor Nate Paul, including an agreement to hire Paxton’s alleged mistress and renovations to his home, in exchange for helping Paul as he faced an FBI investigation. Paxton’s defense attorney Tony Buzbee called the impeachment proceedings a “political witch hunt.”
With 68 days to go until Election Day, <a href="https://www.cookpolitical.com/senate/race/488686?utm_source=chatgpt.com">Cook Political Report</a> rates the race — which could determine control of the Senate — as a toss-up.

James Talarico

Talarico Attends Fundraiser Hosted By Infamous Convicted Fraudster

john cornyn

The birth of a child is supposed to be one of the happiest moments of a parent’s life. In the case of McKenna West, it’s been a legal nightmare. After she was hired as a surrogate mother, West’s pregnancy became controversial when she fled to Texas out of fear of a forced abortion.
The dispute stems from a California couple enlisting an Alaska-based nurse, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2026/08/13/us/surrogate-texas-birth-surgery-hnk">McKenna West</a>, to be the surrogate for their child. That arrangement broke down when West fled to Texas, claiming the couple started pressuring West to have an abortion when their unborn child was diagnosed with a life-threatening heart condition. Texas Attorney General and Senate candidate Ken Paxton intervened on behalf of the child, who has since been born in Texas. However, a court-issued restraining order prevents West from seeing the child.
Differences in Texas and California abortion law are causing the legal dilemma. In <a href="https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/OHE/abortion/Pages/your-rights/your-legal-right-to-an-abortion.aspx">California</a>, the law states that abortion is legal up to the point of fetal viability or at any point if the mother’s life or health is at risk. In <a href="https://guides.sll.texas.gov/abortion-laws">Texas</a>, abortion is banned except in cases where the mother’s life is threatened. Thus, by going to Texas, West could not be forced to have an abortion, nor would Texas cooperate in any effort to return her to a state to undergo a procedure Texas bans. After all, Ms. West did not kill anyone. On the contrary, she fled to Texas to avoid that.
This type of legal conundrum is the inevitable consequence of the <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/news/supreme-court-strikes-down-roe-v-wade-upholds-mississippi-abortion-law/">overturning of Roe v. Wade</a> in 2022. The Supreme Court concluded it is up to the states to craft their own laws on abortion, with many states enacting restrictions or outright bans while others passed laws to ensure its legality. Despite the protections, people are finding ways around the bans. We are already seeing the rise of “abortion tourism”: cases of women leaving states where abortion is banned and going to states where it is legal.
Abortion has long been a source of controversy, but surrogacy is a more recent debate. For couples with fertility problems, surrogacy offers a path to becoming parents. Some surrogates are friends or family helping out a loved one, but the practice becomes more controversial when it becomes <a href="https://www.wsj.com/us-news/surrogacy-unregulated-debts-profits-b9fdd987">commercialized</a>. There are now companies that set up potential parents with a surrogate at the cost of tens of thousands of dollars. Thus, people like Ms. West can make extra money at the cost of renting out their womb to a stranger who may not have the ability to get pregnant themselves.
Commercial surrogacy is rife with ethical criticisms, not least of which is the commodification of children, with thousands of dollars changing hands. Billboards around the country offer upwards of $50,000 to prospective surrogates. How a society treats children says a lot about it. So what does it say when children are effectively being sold, almost 200 years after that indefensible practice ended?
At the very least, there are risks to the children in surrogacy cases, especially if the child becomes unwanted at some point during the pregnancy, as we see in West’s case, linked to the sovereignty of the surrogate mother. If the biological parents want to abort the child, where does that leave the surrogate? This is especially true in cases where you have pro-choice parents but a pro-life surrogate. You cannot force someone to have an abortion, but that becomes complicated in cases like McKenna West.
If we are going to continue having paid surrogacy in this country, there needs to be stronger protections for surrogate mothers. Pro-life surrogates have to be protected from any attempts to force them into having an abortion. While forced abortion is illegal at the federal and state levels, it may be wise to clarify the law to include cases where the surrogate is not biologically related to the child they are carrying.
The unborn child needs protection as well. While SCOTUS returned abortion policy to the states, it has not commented on legal protections for surrogate children. If parents decide they don’t want the child, the unborn child should be treated as a child given up for adoption. Doing so protects the child’s life and the surrogate mother from any coercion.
The case of McKenna West is exposing some of the moral ambiguities surrounding surrogacy for pay. While some argue that paid surrogacy is inherently unethical, at the very least, protections are needed for both the child and the surrogate. Doing so benefits the unborn and the country as a whole.
***
<a href="https://www.joinyv.org/talent/matthew-cookson">Matt Cookson</a> is an alumnus of the Young Voices Contributor Program and was a Middle East History and Policy Fellow with Young Voices. He also works in the supply chain for a U.S. Defense Contractor. His commentary has appeared in the Mises Institute, RealClearPolitics, the National Interest, Providence Magazine, China Source, and the Idaho Freedom Foundation. You can follow him on X @<a href="https://x.com/MattCookson95">MattCookson95</a> and Substack @<a href="https://substack.com/@thewaythecookiecrumbles?utm_source=user-menu">thewaythecookiecrumbles</a>.

Menu