Republicans look at the polling in Texas and dismiss it pretty quickly. The idea that someone like James TalaWeirdo could win the “deep red Texas” seems insane, I admit. But it wasn’t that long ago that “deep red Texas” was deep blue. The one certainty in politics is that things change, and Republicans need to accept that and fight accordingly, or they will lose.
I’ve never thought Ken Paxton was a particularly good candidate. He’s got scandals associated with him that led to Republicans in Texas impeaching him, even though he was not convicted. He’s also got more personal baggage than LaGuardia the day before Christmas. Yes, he has won statewide before, but it’s 2026, and he’s running for the United States Senate, which is different from his previous role of Attorney General. Senate candidates get much closer looks than AGs do. Being angry about that reality is about as effective as being mad at the sunrise – it’s not going to change anything, no matter how angry you get.
Texas is getting tighter, which doesn’t help Paxton. Sen. Ted Cruz (T-TX) barely beat Beto last time, and Beto was a moron. And Paxton isn’t a particularly good or compelling candidate; he’s not raising money like he needs to.
The idea that what always was will always be is, honestly, dumb. The media figures who are pretending things are going great for Republicans in “red states” simply because they’re red are lying to you in order to get your eyes and clicks. You can make a lot of money telling people what they want to hear, because you can make a lot of money by appealing to a small percentage of the population. What’s much harder with that business model is making a difference. And elections are about making a difference.
You wouldn’t know it, but California used to be a Republican state. Governors and Senators were more likely to be Republicans than Democrats. Things changed over time. From 1875 to 1969, Florida didn’t have a Republican Senator. The governor wasn’t any different. Now look at it.
In 1988, the Democrat Party nominee for Vice President was Lloyd Bentsen, who’d served from 1971 till 1993.
Things change. Parties not only have to fight to win in new places, but they have to fight to maintain the old ones too. Taking anything for granted is the fastest way to the minority.
The idea that Republicans can’t lose in Texas is as foolish as the idea that Democrats can’t lose in Michigan simply because they haven’t in a while.
Ken Paxton’s pitch for campaign contributions is, to put it simply, bad. An email Sunday read, “Ken Paxton: Democrats are flooding Texas with campaign cash... James Talarico raised $27 Million! If we allow Democrats to outraise us in Texas- we could end up stuck with a far-left Senator who thinks 'God is non-binary,' and we could lose control of the United States Senate (which could doom President Trump's agenda)! We cannot let that happen. Rush support here.”
That’s it, that’s the entirety of the pitch. I know I regularly make fun of campaign fundraising emails, but this one is singularly awful, as it tells the reader nothing about why they should donate or what the issues are; it’s just “give to me because I’m a Republican.”
Would you buy a car from someone who walks up to you on the lot and says, “Hey, buy a car”? No, you wouldn’t.
Earlier the very same day, Paxton’s team sent out an email that read, in part, “Our campaign just recorded the largest fundraising quarter for any non-incumbent GOP candidate this cycle, with a total of over $9 MILLION raised!... But unfortunately, as impressive as our total was, we were still OUTRAISED MORE THAN 3:1 by my radical Democrat opponent and the Democrat political machine backing him!”
Have you ever read anything less inspiring? “We raised a good amount of money, but were blown out of the water by our opponent and need even more from you now” is not exactly
Hoosiers, is it?
Just because something is does not mean it always will be, and neither just something that should be. You have to work; Ken Paxton has to work – not only hard, but smart. A heck of a lot harder and smarter than he has so far if he’s going to save us from Senator Bowl Cut McToo Enthusiastic About Trans Kids.
Derek Hunter is the host of the Derek Hunter Show on WMAL in Washington, D.C., and has a free daily podcast (subscribe!) and author of the book, Outrage, INC., which exposes how liberals use fear and hatred to manipulate the masses, and host of the weekly “Week in F*cking Review” podcast where the news is spoken about the way it deserves to be. Follow him on X at @DerekAHunter.
