Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico just hired a five-year veteran of Republican Sen. John Cornyn’s office to help sink GOP nominee Ken Paxton.
Jacob Smith, who served as Cornyn’s deputy legislative director and policy adviser, is joining Talarico’s campaign as deputy political director,” NOTUS reported on Monday.
Smith didn’t hold back explaining his switch, saying, “Ken Paxton is the most corrupt, self-dealing politician in Texas who would sell their futures to the highest contributor just to hold onto power.”
The hire lands as a stunning cross-party move in a race already scrambling normal partisan lines. Cornyn lost to Paxton in a bitter Republican primary runoff earlier this year, a defeat that rattled GOP officials who fear Paxton’s baggage — including a fraud indictment, impeachment, and an extramarital affair that surfaced during his divorce — could put a historically safe Senate seat in play. Paxton avoided a criminal trial by agreeing to community service.
One Republican operative who’s worked Senate races called the staffing move simply “unheard of.” A Cornyn spokesperson, asked for comment, pointed only to the senator’s past statements that he’ll support the Republican ticket this fall.
Polling shows the race deadlocked, with Talarico picking up support from independents and even some disaffected Republicans unwilling to vote for Paxton, according to a Texas GOP operative who spoke anonymously. That operative doubts many Republicans will actually cross over to vote for Talarico given his liberal positions, but predicts plenty will simply skip the race entirely.
Talarico has raised more than $70 million so far this cycle, outpacing every other non-incumbent Senate candidate nationwide and even having to return excess contributions after donors gave more than legally allowed — a rare financial edge for a Texas Democrat that’s fueling talk of the state’s most competitive Senate race in years.
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