Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, the Lone Star State's GOP nominee for Senate, addressed his tight race with state Rep. James Talarico in a new interview on Fox News.
"The Sunday Briefing" co-host Jacqui Heinrich asked Paxton on Aug. 30 about polls showing him trailing both his opponent and some of President Donald Trump's margins. For example, a new Texas Southern University poll shows Talarico leading in congressional districts Trump won in 2024.
Paxton pushed back on the polling results, but he also told Heinrich that the Texas Senate race will be a competitive fight.
"We have our own polling that suggests maybe a little different result, but we definitely have a close race," Paxton told Heinrich, adding that Republicans are "in the middle
of midterm elections where the party in power often has a much bigger challenge."
The nonpartisan Cook Political Report calls the Texas Senate race a "toss-up," and Paxton has lagged behind Talarico in several polls by single digits, according to the New York Times' polling database. He leads by 1 point in a recent Emerson College poll.
Some political observers say the surveys illustrate the difficulties that lie ahead for Republicans as Trump's approval rating has dropped over his handling of the economy and the Iran war. Republicans are defending Senate seats this fall in states Trump won, including in unexpectedly competitive places such as Alaska, Iowa, Maine, North Carolina, Ohio and Texas. Democrats hope to oust incumbents or pick up open seats to retake the Senate majority.
Still, Texas hasn't sent a Democrat to the U.S. Senate in decades. On Fox, Paxton told Heinrich that "the reality is that this is a Republican state. If Republicans get out to vote, we're going to win this race."
Paxton then referred to Talarico's four-term tenure in the Texas statehouse, adding that "this guy has not been exposed for his record of 8 years. The media doesn't cover it. He doesn't talk about his record."
Paxton's appearance on Fox took place days after Trump held a Republican fundraiser in Houston to boost the GOP nominee amid the unexpectedly tight race to replace incumbent Sen. John Cornyn.
Paxton, who was endorsed by Trump, prevailed in the Republican primary runoff over Cornyn on May 26. This week, Cornyn took issue with Paxton's general election campaign an interview with The Texas Tribune on Aug. 28.
"Paxton's a poor campaigner," Cornyn told the Tribune. "He's lazy and doesn't raise money. And he basically is not offering a very compelling case for his election. He's making this harder than it needs to be. But so be it — we are where we are."
Contributing: Adam Powell, El Paso Times
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'A close race': Ken Paxton addresses tight polling in Texas Senate fight
