WASHINGTON, DC – NOVEMBER 03: Jesse Watters hosts “Jesse Watters Primetime” at FOX News D.C. Bureau on November 03, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Shannon Finney/Getty Images)
Shannon Finney/Getty Images
Last week, the Houston Chronicle editorial board made some headlines after publishing an early endorsement in the race to represent Texas in the U.S. Senate. We encouraged Republicans and Democrats alike to back state Rep. James Talarico.
The call was early — it was also easy. The motivating factor wasn’t only that Talarico, a school teacher and Presbyterian seminarian, aspires to represent all Texans from a moderate “50-yard line” view (though he does).
Nor was it just that Attorney General Ken Paxton has a track record of self-serving corruption in office while fumbling on critical issues like stopping sex trafficking (though he does that, too).
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No. The critical reason for such a quick endorsement is because this race, perhaps more than any other on the ballot, is divided between one side fighting for everyday Texans, and another fighting to protect a status quo where political corruption perpetuates under a cloud of partisan culture war. This isn’t Republicans vs. Democrats or liberals vs. conservatives. It is Texas vs. Washington. And if you doubt it, just look for the loudest voices in the race.
The harshest attacks against Paxton haven’t come from D.C. They haven’t even come from Democrats. They come from his fellow Texas Republicans.
It’s Rick Perry who attacked Paxton for offering a plea deal to a “MAN WHO ADMITTED TO MOLESTING a child to serve only ONE DAY IN JAIL,” as the former governor posted on social media.
It’s Texas House Republicans who impeached Paxton for bribery, abuse of public trust, false statements and disregard of official duty.
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It’s Sen. John Cornyn who in his primary against Paxton ran ads warning that, “while predators hunted children, Paxton hunted for burner phones to hide his affairs.”
These Republicans know that Paxton doesn’t fight for Texans. He doesn’t even fight for fellow Republicans or conservative ideals. Paxton is a man who has no loyalty except to himself — a fact that onetime supporters, from his fired staffers to his own wife, have learned the hard way.
The loudest attacks on Talarico, on the other hand, aren’t coming from Texans. Like a sub-par picante sauce, the anti-Talarico crowd is taking its talking points from New York City.
After Paxton won his Republican primary, White House staffer Stephen Miller went on Fox News to rant about Talarico with host Jesse Watters, deeming the state representative to be “soy” — whatever that means. Putting aside the fact that the White House probably shouldn’t talk about soy given the record-high number of farm bankruptcies, the reality is that Miller is a lifelong political staffer originally from California. Watters is from Philadelphia. And Fox News is based in midtown Manhattan.
None of them actually need to care about Texas because they don’t live here. They treat our election like a professional wrestling match — full of entertaining namecalling and general fakery. It juices ratings. It riles up national voters. And it stops folks from noticing that Paxton — like so many other crooked politicians — miraculously saw his personal wealth grow by millions while in public office.
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If the likes of Miller and Watters actually cared about Texas, they’d spend their time on screen talking about how the two candidates will address the biggest issues facing all Texans, like the future of water in our state, persistent inflation and unaffordable healthcare.
Alas, putting Texans first doesn’t make for the ratings that cable news shows need to justify their existence.
No Texan — Republican or Democratic — should tolerate the Acela crowd telling us what to think about our candidates. We know that Texas is big and bold and contains multitudes. At the risk of sounding like a 2004 convention speech, we have great barbecue in our blue cities and we have friends who drink soy milk in the red exurbs. And we should all have enough state pride to tell men who wear makeup for their Manhattan media jobs to leave this election up to real Texans.
Think of it this way: If they’re cheering for the Knicks over the Spurs, you can probably just ignore their opinion on Lone Star politics.
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