Trump Pledges to Help Ken Paxton in Senate Race Against James Talarico

Donald Trump has vowed to help Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) in his contentious U.S. Senate race against James Talarico (D).

Trump made the comments during an Oval Office executive order signing on Thursday, during which he proclaimed Lake Ontario was now “Lake America.”

“We’re going to Texas, and we’re working very hard, we wanna win that race. He’s running against a man who should not, never be — we have a very good candidate, Ken Paxton. And he’s running against ‘Tala-freako,’ they call him. because he is a little freaky,” Trump said.

“And that’s not a man that represents the value of Texas. So, I’m going to help Ken Paxton and I’m gonna spend a lot of time in Texas. I have the all-time highest vote in the history of Texas, also. And I’m going to spend some time there. We’re going tonight, some of you are going with me.”

Trump is heading to Texas Thursday evening for a private fundraising dinner in Houston, and to speak at the GOP Midterm Convention in Dallas .

Paxton became the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate after Trump backed him, and Paxton beat out Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) in the Republican primary.

“Ken is a true MAGA Warrior who has ALWAYS delivered for Texas, and will continue to do so in the United States Senate,” Trump wrote on social media at the time.

Paxton has been the target of ethical and political scandals throughout his political career, including a 2023 impeachment trial on abuse of office and bribery charges. Although the Texas House voted to impeach Paxton, he was acquitted of all charges in the Texas Senate.

GOP donors slammed Trump for choosing the scandal-ridden Paxton over Cornyn, but have since pressured the president to “rescue” Paxton’s struggling campaign.

“The message to Trump world is, ‘You broke it, now you own it. You gotta spend some of your money to defend him because we’ve got bigger fish to fry,’ ” one GOP donor told Politico.

A new Texas Southern University poll revealed Talarico had a solid lead over Paxton in three congressional districts that Trump carried by double digits.

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