Texas Is Testing the Power of MAGA Inc.’s Money

SPEAKER_1 (0:02)

Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio, news.

Julie Fine (0:08)

Democrats have really been trying to turn this state for a long time and really feel this year is their year.

Sarah Holder (0:15)

Julie Fine is Bloomberg's Texas Bureau Chief.

Julie Fine (0:19)

Now, if you live in Texas, you know that many years Democrats hope it's their year, and then it's very frustrating at the end of the cycle.

Josh Wingrove (0:28)

Yeah, it's Lucy with the football all over, it seems.

Sarah Holder (0:31)

Josh Wingrove is a Washington correspondent for Bloomberg.

Josh Wingrove (0:34)

But there is reason to hope that this will be more interesting race for the reporters covering it, and there's reason for Democrats to hope that they will pull it out. I think that anytime it's that sort of wave or tide election, it gets very difficult to predict what's going to happen.

Sarah Holder (0:52)

I'm Sarah Holder, and this is the Big Take from Bloomberg News. Today on the show, the contentious Senate race in Texas, what it reveals about Trump's fundraising power and influence on the campaign trail, and what it would mean for his administration's next two years in office, if Republicans lost a Texas Senate seat or the Senate altogether.

Julie, in a midterm year that's already on track to blow past spending records, the Texas Senate race which you've been following is superlative. Combined, Republicans and Democrats have already spent roughly a quarter billion dollars, around $250 million. Why is the Senate race between Republican Ken Paxton and Democrat James Talarico so competitive? Why doesn't Ken Paxton, a Republican candidate in Texas who has the endorsement of Trump, have this state pretty much locked up?

Julie Fine (1:50)

Well, I think what people really have to understand here is that Democrats have been trying to flip this for a long time. They feel that Attorney General Ken Paxton, because of personal issues, is an easier candidate to beat than John Cornyn would have been.

Josh Wingrove (2:06)

He's got a long history of questions about his conduct, questions about houses he owns. He was impeached by the Republican House. Some of this is sort of a situation of Trump's making. He indicated he would endorse in the race. It seemed like he meant for Cornyn, who of course was the incumbent senator, he backed off that.

Then of course Paxton won the primary, and that has caused problems both in terms of Cornyn now being a bit of a loose cannon as a sitting senator serving out the rest of his term, but putting this seat into play in a way that a lot of people think wouldn't be the case of Cornyn were the nominee. Now Paxton has argued he's the true MAGA candidate, and therefore conservatives wouldn't be motivated if he were not on the ballot. So I suppose that you get to pick who you want to believe. But I was talking to a pollster who said, look, Talarico really only needs to hit like 48 percent because there's also a libertarian candidate running. So I think there's two ways to bleed votes from Ken Paxton and put this Senate race in a competitive place.

Julie Fine (3:07)

There is one thing to keep in mind. There will be Republicans that will not admit their voting for Ken Paxton, and they will go in that booth, and they will vote for Ken Paxton. So we have seen Ken Paxton get re-elected amid legal problems in Texas several times. He was impeached, as Josh said, by the Republican House of Representatives, cleared of wrongdoing by the Senate. But he was impeached. So this has been on the news for years.

Sarah Holder (3:32)

What was he impeached over? Can you say a little bit more about what those allegations were and why he was cleared?

Julie Fine (3:37)

Well, first of all, he was cleared because the Senate cleared him. They simply did not have the votes. He had had some legal problems in the past. There was questions of misuse of his office. But what I've also found very interesting about this Republican House that's made the decision to do that, is some of them have now endorsed him in the race for Senate.

What the line is you were hearing in Texas is, vote for the ticket. You need to do it for the ticket. You need to do it for the team. The attorney general's estranged wife, recently did an ad saying, let's talk about the elephant in the room, and basically said, vote for the whole team.

Josh Wingrove (4:18)

One thing about those ads to note is, she wanted to talk about the elephant in the room. Doesn't say Ken Paxton's name, interestingly.