{"id":424887,"date":"2026-09-03T09:44:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T09:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/424887\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T09:44:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T09:44:09","slug":"paxton-blames-gop-enthusiasm-gap-on-republican-success-texas-voters-disagree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/424887\/","title":{"rendered":"Paxton blames GOP \u2018enthusiasm gap\u2019 on Republican success. Texas voters disagree."},"content":{"rendered":"

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton drew several hundred to the auditorium of Willow Park Baptist Church on Tuesday night and told them why he thinks so many Republicans have tuned out: Things are going too well.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have an enthusiasm gap,\u201d the GOP Senate nominee said. \u201cIt happens when you\u2019re in a midterm election and the party in power often has trouble getting their voters out \u2014 especially in a Republican state, because those people think everything\u2019s great.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Republicans, he suggested, have grown \u201capathetic\u201d because the party has delivered.<\/p>\n

Talk to voters across Texas who have backed Republicans for years, and you will hear something else entirely.<\/p>\n

Zach Creel supported Donald Trump in 2016, 2020 and 2024. This year, he does not plan to vote at all \u2014 and blamed Republicans who, he said, have not followed through on what they promised.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything\u2019s still bad,\u201d Creel told MS NOW. \u201cPeople can barely afford gas, groceries and et cetera. And it\u2019s just \u2014 nothing\u2019s changing.\u201d<\/p>\n

He is not alone in that sentiment. New polling from the University of Texas\/Texas Politics Project<\/a> finds that overall voter enthusiasm in Texas is about where it was before the last midterm: Roughly two-thirds of those surveyed say they are \u201cextremely\u201d or \u201cvery\u201d enthusiastic about casting a ballot in November.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But that topline conceals a partisan reversal: In August 2022, ahead of that year\u2019s midterm elections, 52% of Texas Republicans called themselves \u201cextremely enthusiastic\u201d about voting. This August, just 39% were \u2014 a 13-point drop.<\/p>\n

Collin Bohne, who calls himself a moderate and has voted for candidates in both parties over the years, sees the problem in the candidate. He is backing the Democratic nominee, state Rep. James Talarico, because he feels Talarico \u201cgenuinely has average people in mind.\u201d And he raised a criticism Paxton has faced with growing frequency: that he is barely campaigning.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s running a pretty low-energy kind of campaign,\u201d Bohne said. \u201cI don\u2019t really see much of anything from him on any TV or social media platforms. He doesn\u2019t seem like he does anything to create much excitement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marina Hernandez, who described herself as \u201ca Democrat with a MAGA family,\u201d said the conversations at home have started to change.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that they are maybe becoming a little more receptive,\u201d she said. \u201cThey see the data centers being built. They see their gas prices going up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Inside the auditorium of Willow Park Baptist Church, Paxton spent much of Tuesday night on the contrast between himself and Talarico, casting his opponent\u2019s agenda as \u201cradical socialism.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tMore articles<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve gotten results from the people of Texas, and I\u2019m running on my record, not rhetoric,\u201d Paxton said. \u201cJames Talarico is the most radical Democrat ever to run statewide in Texas. Everything I just laid out puts money in your pocket. His entire record takes it out.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

He also echoed President Donald Trump\u2019s unfounded claims about election fraud, telling the crowd that California, New York and Chicago \u201calready have their races rigged.\u201d There is no credible evidence for that claim.<\/p>\n

More than once, he raised the prospect of losing, casting it in existential terms for the nation. \u201cIf we lose Texas, we\u2019ve lost the country,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The contrast in energy was visible some 220 miles south. In San Antonio the same evening, the line for a Talarico rally snaked around the venue, with some supporters wearing \u201cTalafreako\u201d T-shirts or carrying \u201cTalarico for Texas\u201d signs.<\/p>\n

The event featured \u201cloteria,\u201d a Mexican game of chance similar to bingo. Attendees took 16-square cards mixing traditional images \u2014 la bota, the boot \u2014 with campaign-themed additions such as \u201cNew American Dream.\u201d A mariachi band opened with \u201cEl Rey,\u201d a popular Ranchera song.<\/p>\n

After a few rounds and speeches from guests, Talarico took the stage to cheers. He stuck largely to his message: closing tax loopholes for billionaires, spending on healthcare rather than what he called forever wars in the Middle East and protecting immigrant neighborhoods.<\/p>\n

He said he is running like an underdog until the last vote is counted, then told the crowd he is leading and intends to outwork Paxton.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel it in my bones that we are going to win this election on Nov. 3,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The room burst into applause as he made a vow: \u201cWe are going to end 30 years of one-party rule in this state.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\"\"\/\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\tNora McKee<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\tNora McKee is an associate field producer for MS NOW. She is based in Washington, D.C.\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\"Jake\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\tJake Traylor<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\tJake Traylor is a\u00a0White House reporter for MS NOW.\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\tRosa Flores<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\tRosa Flores is a national reporter for MS NOW.\t\t<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton drew several hundred to the auditorium of Willow Park Baptist Church on Tuesday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":424888,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-424887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424887","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=424887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424887\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/424888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=424887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=424887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=424887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}