{"id":191748,"date":"2026-03-05T13:53:20","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T13:53:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/191748\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T13:53:20","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T13:53:20","slug":"in-texas-ai-money-and-mild-messages-win-the-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/191748\/","title":{"rendered":"In Texas, AI money and mild messages win the day"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Texas has voted in its primary<\/a>, one of the earliest glimpses into the 2028 presidential election, and be certain that Gov. Gavin Newsom and every presidential contender were watching closely. <\/p>\n

What did our Oval Office hopefuls learn?<\/p>\n

Democrats want a hug<\/a>. Republicans want a fight<\/a>. Billionaires don\u2019t care about anything but themselves. <\/p>\n

Let\u2019s break that down. <\/p>\n

Dems love the soft sell<\/p>\n

One of the great debates within the Democratic Party right now is whether the average voter wants a middle ground, or a bold progressive agenda. <\/p>\n

Healthcare for all<\/a> or just keep Republicans from killing off Obamacare? Forgive student loans or just prevent universities from caving to censorship and maybe bring down tuition costs while you\u2019re at it? <\/p>\n

While some, like our own Newsom, are framing this divide as a need to step away from so-called culture war issues (I hate that term because we\u2019re really talking about civil rights), it\u2019s more about voter anxiety and exhaustion than actually wanting regressive policy.<\/a> <\/p>\n

The Texas win by can\u2019t-we-all-just-get-along state Rep. James Talarico over burn-it-down U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) seems on the surface to provide a clue that voters want moderation in 2028. Crockett lost, pretty resoundingly, especially with white and Latino voters<\/a>. <\/p>\n

But the truth here is that that divide was really more about style than substance. Scratch the surface, and both Crockett and Talarico hold some pretty lefty positions, including healthcare for all, albeit in slightly different forms. <\/p>\n

Leaving aside the obvious (and important) race lines that defined this battle (Crockett won among Black voters<\/a>), the lesson might be that Democrats are scared and tired and want comfort \u2014 a big rhetorical embrace of unity. <\/p>\n

They haven\u2019t lost their desire for things like universal healthcare, but also just want more talk about a future of America that isn\u2019t apocalyptic. <\/p>\n

\"Two <\/p>\n

Attendees hold signs during a Texas primary election night event Tuesday in Austin for state Rep. James Talarico.<\/p>\n

(Jordan Vonderhaar \/ Bloomberg \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Talarico, a Presbyterian seminarian with a class-based message meant to appeal to moderates, was full of soothing optimism. His positions are left, but his speeches are like butter melting on warm bread. <\/p>\n

\u201cLoving your enemy is not just morally good, it is not just idealistic. It is good strategic advice,\u201d he said.<\/a> <\/p>\n

It was a winning taste of that sweet, lost America<\/a> \u2014 the land of hope and dreams \u2014 that existed before President Trump made hate the norm. <\/p>\n

MAGA goes more MAGA<\/p>\n

In Republican news, the big primary of the night was the race between the four-term incumbent, Sen. John Cornyn, and his mega-MAGA challenger, Texas Atty. Gen. Ken Paxton (with Rep. Wesley Hunt a distant third). <\/p>\n

Cornyn squeaked out a win but since neither of them scored more than 50% of the vote, they go to a May runoff to determine who will face Talarico in the general election. <\/p>\n

This was a race about how far Republican voters were willing to go to the right. While Cornyn is hardly a moderate by most standards, he is considered an establishment Republican. <\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

Attendees wait for a watch party for Republican Senate candidate Ken Paxton on Tuesday night in Dallas.<\/p>\n

(Sergio Flores \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Paxton, on the other hand, can\u2019t get enough of Trump. After the 2020 election, which Trump lost, Paxton went hard on the false voter fraud conspiracy. He brought a case to the Supreme Court attempting to have Pennsylvania\u2019s vote thrown out so Trump could claim victory. When that didn\u2019t work, he ended up speaking at the Jan. 6 insurrection in Washington. <\/p>\n

His politics come out of the tea party movement, and are ultra-conservative. When Roe vs. Wade was overturned, he gave his staff a paid day off. He\u2019s sued to stop women from having lifesaving abortions since then, and continues to pound the voter fraud drum, especially when it comes to voters of color. <\/p>\n

And, in typical MAGA fashion, he comes with a multitude of scandals<\/a> that none of his supporters seem to care about. He\u2019s been accused of bribery and securities fraud, among other allegations, and not long ago his wife filed for divorce on \u201cbiblical grounds.\u201d <\/p>\n

I tell you all this because he almost won. And still might. <\/p>\n

The only reason Cornyn avoided being trounced was money, money and more money. Establishment Republicans poured cash into this campaign like firefighters dousing a blaze. It should give folks pause that even with outspending Cornyn by vast sums (more than 70 million), Paxton came close with Republican voters. <\/p>\n

Still, establishment Republicans, and those who care about winning over loyalty, are standing behind Cornyn because in the general election, he has a better chance of attracting moderate voters (though a Democratic win here is still a long shot).<\/p>\n

But like all things in the Republican Party these days, this decision will come down to what Trump wants. Wednesday, Trump posted on social media that he will make an endorsement in this race soon, something he avoided doing in the primary. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy Endorsements within the Republican Party have been virtually insurmountable!\u201d he wrote<\/a>, and for once he\u2019s not lying. \u201cI will be making my Endorsement soon, and will be asking the candidate that I don\u2019t Endorse to immediately DROP OUT OF THE RACE!\u201d<\/p>\n

So, when Trump decides who Republicans can vote for, I\u2019ll let you know.<\/p>\n

What about that AI money?<\/p>\n

Lucky for Trump, most AI billionaires (Anthropic\u2019s Dario Amodei perhaps excluded) now love him<\/a> for his pay-as-you-go approach to federal policies on the industry. <\/p>\n

But that doesn\u2019t mean that these titans of our tomorrow are leaving their futures in the Orange Man\u2019s hands. Crazy sums of AI money were dumped into Texas and other states for these primaries, and it was just the beginning. <\/p>\n

Super PAC Leading the Future<\/a>, funded by OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman, his wife, venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and Benjamin Horowitz and others, backed state candidates who don\u2019t back state AI regulation. <\/p>\n

Public First, a super PAC funded in part by Amodei, backed candidates who want more regulation at both the state and federal levels. <\/p>\n

And not to be outdone, California-based tech giant Meta<\/a>, has at least four super PACs funded with about $65 million, fighting against candidates of either party who back state regulations on artificial intelligence. <\/p>\n

But please don\u2019t expect a single ad on the issue of artificial intelligence now or, well, ever, coming from these guys. Oh no, the masters of the algorithm know us too well. Instead, all that money will be used to talk about the economy, the price of butter, literally anything other than AI. <\/p>\n

So voters, it\u2019s on you to pay attention to the only thing that really ever matters in politics \u2014 where the money is coming from, and where it\u2019s pushing you to go. <\/p>\n

What else you should be reading<\/p>\n

The must-read: Texan James Talarico becomes a fresh face of Democrats\u2019 midterm hopes after Senate primary win<\/a>
The deep dive: Talarico\u2019s Win in Texas Shows That Nice Guys Can Finish First<\/a>
The L.A. Times Special: Scary time for California Democrats<\/a>
Stay Golden,
Anita Chabria<\/p>\n

\u2014
Was this newsletter forwarded to you? Sign up here<\/a> to get it in your inbox. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Texas has voted in its primary, one of the earliest glimpses into the 2028 presidential election, and be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":191749,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[76077,76079,76078,76081,12690,76080,2419,47270,76084,75161,76083,13161,76082,5759,27,29,28,7133],"class_list":["post-191748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-biden","tag-court-pick","tag-essential-politics","tag-first-black-woman","tag-gender","tag-high-court","tag-history","tag-jefferson","tag-media-coverage","tag-nominee","tag-political-criticism","tag-race","tag-stereotypes","tag-supreme-court","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-women"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191748\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}