For months, the Senate Republican campaign operation eviscerated Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general, who on Tuesday won the state\u2019s Senate primary, in official statements that attacked him for \u201cincompetence\u201d and branded his personal behavior \u201ctruly repulsive and disgusting.\u201d<\/p>\n
And last week when President Trump endorsed Mr. Paxton, Republican senators were livid<\/a>, grousing that the president had put his personal desire for loyalty above the party\u2019s political interests, potentially risking the Texas seat and the G.O.P.\u2019s chances of holding the Senate.<\/p>\n But after Mr. Paxton trounced Senator John Cornyn of Texas by close to 30 points on Tuesday night, transforming Texas into a battleground state<\/a>, Republicans have performed a very awkward pivot.<\/p>\n They quickly memory-holed months of scathing charges against Mr. Paxton that were as withering as any that Democrats might conjure up. And, swallowing their anger about the snub of Mr. Cornyn and its potential political consequences, they lined up to express varying levels of \u201call in\u201d on Mr. Paxton\u2019s campaign, if not his character.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re making the pivot,\u201d Senator John Thune, Republican of South Dakota and majority leader, said in an interview on Wednesday with the conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, acknowledging the shift.<\/p>\n Mr. Thune said he had already spoken with Mr. Paxton, whom he described as \u201call in, ready to go for the fall election and not taking any time off, already on the phone raising money, and all the things you\u2019re going to have to do to be successful.\u201d<\/p>\n It was an indication that the G.O.P., now tasked with reassuring concerned donors and rallying a divided party for an expensive and competitive race, was racing to unite and salvage its chances of holding the Texas seat.<\/p>\n Senator Tim Scott, Republican of South Carolina and the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, wrote on social media: \u201cI stand united with President Trump, Ken Paxton, and Texans who want to protect our Republican Majority.\u201d<\/p>\n And behind the scenes, the committee quietly laid the groundwork for the 180-degree turn the party has been forced to perform.<\/p>\n The N.R.S.C. quickly scrubbed its website of all of its Paxton attack ads and news releases, including one from last summer, which was posted under the headline \u201cKen Paxton\u2019s Lies and Incompetence Keep Piling Up.\u201d<\/p>\n Gone, too, was a digital ad that described Mr. Paxton as \u201cso asleep at the wheel he is treating Texas\u2019 taxpayer dollars like Monopoly money \u2014 funneling hundreds of millions to liberal organizations and candidates.\u201d<\/p>\n A statement from the organization\u2019s communications director, Joanna Rodriguez, after Mr. Paxton\u2019s wife filed for divorce \u201con biblical grounds,\u201d stated that the candidate\u2019s behavior was \u201ctruly repulsive and disgusting,\u201d and that \u201cno one should have to endure what Angela Paxton has.\u201d<\/p>\n That statement is also no longer available on the group\u2019s website. CNN reported earlier that the group had wiped much of its website.<\/p>\n Some individual senators who had been backing Mr. Cornyn immediately closed ranks around Mr. Paxton after his victory. Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming, the No. 2 Republican, endorsed him within hours of his victory on Tuesday night, writing online that a vote for Mr. Paxton in November was \u201ca vote for a safer, stronger, and more prosperous America.\u201d<\/p>\n Never mind previous attacks from Republicans accusing Mr. Paxton of being responsible for the rise in rates of violent crime in the state.<\/p>\n Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, had stayed neutral in the race, but said that Mr. Paxton now had his full support.<\/p>\n Mr. Paxton is no one\u2019s idea of an ideal general election candidate in Texas. He has been indicted on felony securities fraud charges<\/a> and impeached<\/a>. He was once accused of stealing a $1,000 pen<\/a>, and his wife is in the midst of divorcing him, listing grounds including \u201cadultery.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n When Mr. Trump endorsed Mr. Paxton, Senator Lisa Murkowski, Republican of Alaska, told reporters that the move \u201cputs that seat in jeopardy.\u201d<\/p>\n Still, the party is ignoring all of that and focusing instead on tearing down his Democratic opponent. In a statement, the N.R.S.C., the group that had worked hardest to destroy him, wrote after Mr. Paxton\u2019s win that \u201ca state President Trump won by nearly 14 points isn\u2019t going to elect James Talarico.\u201d<\/p>\n It notably stopped short of mentioning Mr. Paxton by name.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For months, the Senate Republican campaign operation eviscerated Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general, who on Tuesday won…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":247074,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[61690,1452,416,1443,182,5379,16498,46937,95745,9,11,10,61691,5285,855,63783,1777,10846,1069,1876],"class_list":["post-247073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-cornyn","tag-donald-j","tag-elections","tag-james","tag-john","tag-john-r","tag-ken","tag-midterm-elections-2026","tag-national-republican-senatorial-committee","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-paxton","tag-republican-party","tag-senate","tag-talarico","tag-texas","tag-thune","tag-trump","tag-united-states-politics-and-government"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247073\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/247074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}