Republicans Shouldn't Be Dumb About Ken Paxton

The New York Times has a hand-wringing piece about Ken Paxton and big time GOP donors clutching their wallets to see who opens theirs first.

“That peculiar dynamic is playing out in Texas, where the fate of the Republican nominee, Ken Paxton, will help decide which party controls the U.S. Senate. But Mr. Paxton has struggled to raise cash, and no one has stepped in yet to help him.

Mr. Paxton finds himself in a unique situation among Senate candidates, according to interviews with a dozen Republicans with ties to his campaign. Republican donors still hold grudges from a bruising primary. The state, with its 18-plus television markets, is an epically expensive setting. And his Democratic opponent, James Talarico, has proved to be a particularly strong fund-raiser.

Perhaps the most striking piece of Mr. Paxton’s money woes is the high-stakes game of chicken that two of the Republican Party’s biggest money committees, along with their allied donors, are playing …

… Both of those groups, the Senate Leadership Fund and MAGA Inc., are not so secretly hoping that the other one swoops in to boost Mr. Paxton with tens of millions in spending, the Republicans said. Neither group has reached for its wallet yet.”

I’ll be short and sweet: The problem is of the GOP’s own making.

John Cornyn was challenged because he wasn’t delivering. Voters wanted him gone. Paxton was the candidate ready to step into the ring. He can win the general. The only way he won’t win the general is if Republicans choose to give it to the demonic Ned Flanders, James Talarico.

Yes, Paxton is going through a divorce. Yes, he has a girlfriend. Yes, he was exonerated of impeachment accusations. Is Paxton’s issue with his failed marriage enough of a reason to yeet one’s vote into the ether so we get that plastic lawn flamingo, Talarico? Why should voters be punished for Paxton’s personal life? Why should we have to suffer Democrats’s Little Lord Fauntleroy freak because of it?

At this point, I don’t care if Paxton clubs baby seals to death behind a Buc-ee’s, I choose a candidate that votes my issues over the guy who pushes gun control, backs Islamists, and wants men in women’s bathrooms. Clubbing baby seals isn’t anywhere near as bad as what Talarico wants to do and has already supported.

Your vote isn’t an endorsement of a candidate’s personal life, it’s not a vote for the next pope, it’s a vote for the vessel to carry my agenda through the Senate. Period. It’s a great psyop to shame voters into staying home by misrepresenting what a vote actually means.

And then you have the holier-than-thou establishment types who lost a race and still expect you to kiss their ring over a cabernet and steak dinner. That’s not going to happen. You have to skibidi-win elections to call the shots, kidlets.

The Times resolves its own issue later in the piece:

“To some extent, national Democrats are experiencing the same paralysis as Republicans. The Senate Majority PAC, controlled by Senate Democrats, unveiled new spending last week but has not reserved any ad time in Texas.

Still, Mr. Talarico’s own ability to raise enormous amounts of money himself makes him less dependent on Washington than Mr. Paxton is. Plus, last month, a dedicated pro-Talarico super PAC received $10 million from the tech investor Reid Hoffman.

And in private conversations with donors, Senate Majority PAC officials have outlined various potential spending plans for Texas and the trade-offs those might require across the Senate map, giving Democrats the impression that the PAC is preparing to spend in Texas at some point, according to two people briefed on the conversations.”

The GOP will open wallets because they don’t want to fudge up a Senate race by being bitter tightwads, especially since we’re all watching them.

As for Talarico, Democrats have a cash problem because surprise! No one wants to donate money to a cis-whatever, Islamist-simping terror-lite pom squad to turn their cities into feces and needle repositories, a la California.

We have time. I’m not worried at the moment.

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