Trey Gowdy criticized Donald Trump’s decision to back Ken Paxton over John Cornyn in Texas. On Special Report with Bret Baier, Gowdy said Republicans could have avoided a costly Texas Senate race by nominating Cornyn instead.
“I was laying in bed the other night wondering how do I blow $500 million?” he said. “But they’re trying to drag Ken Paxton over the finish line when all you had to do was nominate John Cornyn.”
John Cornyn in Texas
Cornyn had voted with Trump 99.3 percent of the time before Trump passed him over for the endorsement. He finished first in the three-way primary, then lost in the runoff after Trump got involved. Gowdy’s critique centered on that decision, arguing Republicans spent heavily to elevate Paxton instead of sticking with the incumbent senator.
The spending climbed to $544.5 million by Nov. 1, according to AdImpact figures. CBS News Texas said that made it the priciest Senate race on record. The total reflects a race in which outside money and campaign spending piled up around Trump’s choice, rather than around Cornyn’s first-place finish in the primary.
James Talarico and Ken Paxton
The race also came with polling that undercut Paxton’s path. A New York Times and Siena College poll put James Talarico 7 points ahead of Paxton, 50 percent to 43 percent. FiftyPlusOne’s polling average gave Talarico a 4-point lead, and an AtlasIntel survey from Oct. 28 to Nov. 1 found 51.3 percent for Talarico and 45.4 percent for Paxton.
Gowdy still doubted Talarico would win, even with those numbers. But the polling added another layer to his complaint: Trump’s endorsement had not just shifted the contest away from Cornyn, it had helped turn Texas into an expensive race in which Paxton was trailing in multiple surveys.
2023 Texas House impeachment
Paxton entered the Senate race carrying baggage from his earlier fights. The Republican-run Texas House impeached him in 2023 over corruption allegations, and the Texas Senate acquitted him after the impeachment. His wife also accused him of adultery in divorce proceedings.
Those episodes were part of the backdrop when Trump backed Paxton in the May runoff despite warnings from party officials about Paxton’s political liabilities. Gowdy’s argument was blunt: Republicans were trying to drag Paxton over the finish line when they already had Cornyn, a senator who had aligned with Trump nearly all the time.
