TEXAS HOLD 'EM

CNN’s Talarico Debate Ambushed by Young Republican Star

Ken Paxton dodged the televised Town Hall in the Lone Star State, but he had a proxy questioner.

Welcome to Midterms Meltdown, a special pop-up newsletter from The Swamp—bringing you up to the minute with the secrets the politicians don’t want you to know about the race to November 3.

It is the most consequential election campaign since 2024, and the nooze will be oozing around the nation to shape D.C. for the next two years and beyond. Our David Gardner, Farrah Tomazin, Sarah Ewall-Wice, and Laura Esposito, are getting down and dirty with the inside stories from the battlefields every Monday and Friday.

Melting down in The Swamp today are: Ken Paxton, Ken Paxton, Ken Paxton, Ken Paxton, Ken Paxton, Ken Paxton, Ken Paxton, Ken Paxton, Ken Paxton, Ken Paxton, Ken Paxton, Ken Paxton, Mitch McConnell, and possibly the GOP’s second-worst candidate after Ken Paxton

CNN’s Transparency With Lone Star Talarico Open to Debate

Ken Paxton is hardly the straight-shooting Texas cowboy. He runs a mile when anyone asks him a question and has not attended a single town hall meeting or debate. Credit James Talarico then for being the Lone Star at a CNN-Jubilee Town Hall for a Q&A with voters from both sides on Wednesday evening.

But The Swamp must ask if Paxton and Co. were double-dealing by slipping a Trojan horse into the debate to quiz the Democratic Party golden boy, who is ahead in the polls in the deep red state.

After all, wasn’t “Small Business Owner” Sarah Gardner, who joined Talarico at the debate table to grill him on religion, the very same Sarah Gardner, who is Secretary of the Dallas County Young Republicans?

We’re sure she votes Republican, and she says on social media that she is, indeed, a small business owner. To be fair, their exchange was civil, and the Young Republican didn’t stoop to Paxton’s level by lobbing claims that Talarico “hates Christianity.”

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But if CNN and Jubilee knew Sarah was also a Texas Republican Party official, shouldn’t they have told viewers—and Talarico?

If they didn’t know, they should vet their voters better next time.

The Swamp has contacted Talarico and CNN for comment.

‘30 YEARS FOR WHAT?’

Desperate Must-Win Republican’s Debate Derailed by Protester

William Vaillancourt

Why They Are Choosin’ Texas …

Voters deep in the heart of Texas may still trip up James Talarico despite his persistent lead in the polls. It is one thing to read the political climate in a deep-red state from the big cities. Dallas, Houston, and even liberal Austin will tell you their own stories. These are cities that draw the educated, the wealthy, and the young.

But Texas is enormous, 28 times the size of Vermont. And the smaller Texan towns and communities have been forgotten in the Democratic Party’s excitement at the possibilities of a breakthrough on November 3.

For Talarico’s fate will be decided there.

The Swamp spent a week in Marshall, East Texas, far from the fluttering hearts of the state’s Republican establishment. This is a place where Californians are not welcome, let alone Democrats. They stand for change in a decaying city that is run by the Bible and the gun.

HACKS TO GRIND

Trump Goes to Desperate Efforts for His Must-Win Candidate

Cameron Adams

To be branded a liberal is bad enough. Socialism is akin to heresy. God knows what they would make of a communist.

The big enemy is change. Even though the infrastructure is crumbling and the city’s best days date back to the railroad’s heyday. But the tradition of hospitality is upheld, and the locals are welcoming. Just not to liberals.

What Ken Paxton or Donald Trump says doesn’t matter. These folks will only vote one way. There are few Paxton signs in front yards. It’s not really necessary. It doesn’t even matter that he’s a terrible candidate.

We spoke to one woman for so long that she invited us to dinner. We had to explain who Paxton was, even after she told us she was voting Republican. It didn’t matter, she said; she was determined to protect her way of life against the liberals.

And, she added, “Texas protects with our guns.”

A younger woman said how much she liked California. “I just have a problem with the people,” she added. For California, read Democrats.

NOT AGAIN!

Trump’s Must-Win MAGA Candidate Caught Slighting Republican

Farrah Tomazin

To these folks, Trump is God and his opponents are the devil. It’s as simple as that.

This is a community that looks after its own, believing, perhaps with some justification, that nobody else will.

They don’t see the corruption and the grift. They see a protector of the faith.

Only one local we spoke to said she’d changed her mind and intended to vote for Talarico because she didn’t like the administration’s meanness or the way the Republican governor Greg Abbott had run down schools. She was a teacher who had seen funds stripped from the arts.

But she is in a minority in Marshall. This is the real Texas, not the state within a state of “weird” Austin where comedy club Democrats mock rednecks and the LGBTQ community enjoys a rare freedom of spirit.

This is where Texas will choose its next senator. If Talarico wants to be that man, he will have to persuade these Texans he won’t sell them down the river.

Water Under the Bridge for Red Ken

Ken Paxton must have missed the Oval Office memo about data centers. You know, the one that says data centers are great and that every town and hamlet should have one and that folks who don’t want them are crazy and selfish. How else would you explain why the Trumper Republican Senate candidate and Texas attorney general sent 156 letters on Thursday warning data centers across the state not to use too much water?

Mitch Isn’t Moving…. Any Money

Mitch McConnell is not running for reelection, leaving his Senate seat in Kentucky open for the first time in more than 40 years, but he’s noticeably sitting on a massive sum of campaign cash in the final stretch. While others who have claimed they’ve spoken to McConnell insist he’s been talking about the importance of the midterms, he has more than $7 million cash on hand that’s just sitting there in his campaign coffers. He’s made no donations to federal Republican candidates or transfers to the GOP despite it looking at an ugly political cycle. Perhaps he could send Andy Barr a few bucks …

Could This Be The GOP’s Worst Candidate?

Colorado Republicans have long grappled with the future direction of the party, with a history of controversial GOP chairs, mistrust of each other and fundamental disagreements on what it means to be a Republican. The party has struggled to regain relevance in the solidly blue state. But things have only gotten worse since Victor Marx came onto the scene. First, The Swamp revealed his domestic violence and misogyny. Then came a record $58,000 fine in campaign violations. Now, Republicans are abandoning him in droves, with former congressman Ken Buck this week becoming the latest to jump ship, joining fifteen other Republicans in supporting Democratic gubernatorial nominee Phil Weiser. “I feel it was the right thing to do, and staying true to myself and my integrity is more important,” he says.

What Trump Is Saying:

“I said to her (Katie Zacharia), ‘Honestly, if I were you, I’d reconsider. You think about it, but I would reconsider.’”

What the Republicans are saying:

“Can I ask the moderator a question? We weren’t supposed to get these questions beforehand, were we? Okay, I’m just watching my opponent read from questions that seem to be answered.” Republican Senate candidate Dan Sullivan in his Thursday night debate with Democrat Mary Peltola.

What the Dems are saying:

“I’m prepared,” replied Peltola.

HOMEWORK

MAGA Senator Humiliated After Debate Question

Cameron Adams

And Finally…Place Your Bets:

Who will win the Texas Senate race?

What they’re saying on Kalshi:

James Talarico - 62 percent

Ken Paxton - 38 percent

What they’re saying on Polymarket:

James Talarico - 62 percent

Ken Paxton - 40 percent

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