Texas Governor Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton showed up at the same Wichita Falls steakhouse this week for a get-out-the-vote rally, but they never shared a stage. The split-screen moment captured the awkward state of Texas Republican politics heading into Tuesday’s election, with both men fighting for their political lives and leaning on the same voters to turn out for them.
Abbott’s campaign confirmed the basic outline of the stop: the governor’s own campaign website says he brought his “Let’s Roll” get-out-the-vote tour to McBride’s Steakhouse in Wichita Falls on Oct. 26, and that he “was joined by Attorney General Ken Paxton.” According to The New York Times, Paxton’s team requested that he join Abbott’s event, and Abbott agreed — but the two did not appear on stage together, Abbott did not mention Paxton during his own remarks, and it was Paxton who thanked Abbott for hosting him.
That distance is no accident, according to reporting from Politico. John Colyandro, a consultant and former policy director for Abbott who was among a dozen Republican political consultants, campaign operatives and former Abbott aides interviewed by the Times, said Paxton’s challenges carry ramifications for the rest of the ticket. Republican consultants told the Times that having Paxton atop the ticket is not helping Abbott, and that Abbott has been hurt both by some Republicans’ lack of enthusiasm for Paxton and by the country’s generally sour political mood.
A Senate Race That Has Republicans Nervous
Paxton is seeking to keep Texas’s U.S. Senate seat in Republican hands, and by most measures his contest is far closer than Abbott’s. A University of Houston survey found Democrat James Talarico leading Paxton 48% to 46% among likely voters, according to the University of Houston’s Hobby School survey. The same poll put Paxton’s net favorability at -16 points, with 41% of voters viewing him favorably and 57% unfavorably, per the school’s statewide survey data…