Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-South Dakota) on Tuesday urged President Donald Trump and his allies to invest in the Senate race in Texas — a reliably red state where Democrats have not won a Senate seat in decades.
Democratic state Rep. James Talarico is locked in a tight race with the Republican nominee, state Attorney General Ken Paxton, who defeated Sen. John Cornyn in the Republican primary runoff in May.
“All of our allies out there, including the president and his team and their resources, need to be brought to bear on Texas, because it’s not one that we can lose if we’re going to hang on to a Republican majority,” Thune said Tuesday on Fox News. “We flat have to win there.”
Democrats need to pick up four Senate seats to retake control of the chamber, including at least two in states such as Texas that Trump won by double digits in 2024.
Several recent polls have found Talarico narrowly leading Paxton.
Trump endorsed Paxton in the primary despite Thune’s pleas to support Cornyn, whom Thune and other Republicans argued had a better shot at holding the seat in November. Several recent polls have found Talarico narrowly leading Paxton.
Trump and his allies have the resources to help Paxton. His super PAC, MAGA Inc., had more than $400 million on hand in July, according to campaign finance records. Trump’s advisers have prepared ads in the race for his review but those ads have not run yet.
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