A Texas Republican’s social-media post about University of Texas students set off a three-way political brawl this week — pulling in a sitting U.S. senator and both major-party Senate nominees — after Ken Paxton answered a demand that he “condemn racism” by resurfacing a four-year-old tweet from his Democratic opponent.
Why it matters: Less than two months before the Nov. 3 general election, the flare-up exposes an open rift inside the Texas GOP between Sen. John Cornyn and the man who beat him in the primary, while testing Democratic nominee James Talarico’s campaign message of “civility” against his own past rhetoric.
Driving the news:
On Sept. 13, Texas Railroad Commission Republican nominee Bo French posted a photo of South Asian students at a Texas Longhorns football game, writing: “I heard UT graduation this year looked like this. I didn’t believe it. The problem is now obviously far worse than anyone imagined” — a post several outlets and social-media users called racially charged — via PJ Media.
Sen. John Cornyn, who lost the GOP Senate primary runoff to Paxton in May, used the backlash to jab at his rival’s party: “This is the Republican nominee for statewide office. Are other Republican elected officials going to condemn the intolerance and racism, or look the way while it becomes normalized” — via Washington Examiner.
Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico picked up Cornyn’s line and aimed it directly at Paxton: “Racism has no place in Texas. @KenPaxtonTX: will you condemn this blatant racism or will you cower to extremists?” — via Washington Examiner.
Paxton answered by resurfacing a March 2021 post in which Talarico, writing after the Atlanta-area spa shootings, called “radicalized White men” the “greatest domestic terrorist threat in our country”: “I condemn racism in all its forms, including James Talarico saying white men are America’s top terror threat and that he prays to overcome his own ‘whiteness,’ whatever that means. Only one person in this race has a history of dividing Texans by race, and it’s [Talarico]” — via PJ Media, Fox News.
By the numbers:
2021: the year of Talarico’s original “radicalized White men” post, written after the Atlanta-area spa shootings that killed eight people — via Fox News.
51%-48%: Talarico’s lead over Paxton in a Fox News poll of Texas voters taken July 23-27 — a margin that widens to 53%-47% among the most motivated voters — via Fox News.
89%: share of Republicans backing Paxton in that same poll, versus 98% of Democrats backing Talarico — a gap Republican pollster Daron Shaw tied to lingering scars from the bruising Paxton-Cornyn primary — via Fox News.
What they’re saying: RedState’s Sister Toldjah called Paxton’s counterpunch “the way” to handle the attack, writing he “takes the bull by the horns” — via RedState. Hot Air’s Ed Morrissey argued Talarico’s “race card” backfired, saying it repositioned the Democrat as “the actual racial divider” once Paxton cited his own past comments — via Hot Air.
The other side: Talarico’s campaign pushed back on the framing. Spokesperson JT Ennis told Fox News the congressman has “called out the billionaire-run algorithms that often radicalize young men” and pointed to his calls for “a politics of love” after the assassination of Charlie Kirk as evidence he’s trying to lower the political temperature, not raise it — via Fox News.
What’s next: Texans decide the Senate race on Nov. 3, and both campaigns are likely to keep the exchange alive as opposition-research fodder through the closing stretch — the same GOP-unity question hanging over Paxton and the old Talarico remarks Republicans keep resurfacing are unlikely to disappear before Election Day.
The bottom line: A photo mocking campus diversity spiraled into a proxy fight over who really “divides” Texans — with Paxton, trailing in the Fox News poll but defending a fractured party base, using Talarico’s own old words to try to flip the script two months out from Election Day.
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