Karl Rove is sounding the alarm over the Senate race in Texas, a contest that is critical for the GOP to retain control over the upper chamber of Congress.
Panic is beginning to creep in over the lackluster campaign of Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is struggling and could lose the race to Democrat state Rep. James Talarico, who is awash in money and being boosted by boatloads of advertising.
A Paxton loss would be a major coup for the Democrats whose Holy Grail has been turning the Lone Star State blue, and the native Texan Rove warned that “time is running out” to reverse the momentum which is currently on Talarico’s side.
(Video: YouTube/Brian Kilmeade)
During an appearance on Wednesday’s edition of “The Brian Kilmeade Show,” the host brought up remarks by Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), who recently bashed Paxton, telling the Texas Tribune that he isn’t planning on pitching in to help his GOP primary foe, whom he branded as “a poor campaigner” as well as a “lazy” one.
“He’s lazy and doesn’t raise money. And he basically is not offering a very compelling case for his election,” the senator added. “He’s making this harder than it needs to be. But so be it — we are where we are.”
The host also brought up remarks by Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD), who told Fox News’ Martha MacCallum that he hoped that President Donald J. Trump would “do more” for MAGA Inc. super PAC to help Paxton.
“Talarico is everywhere,” MacCallum stated. “He’s got $21 million versus Ken Paxton’s, I think, one or two million.”
“Talarico, since the primary, has been up most of the time,” Rove said. “He had like four or five weeks of positive advertising, and now he’s got advertising that’s going directly at Paxton,” Rove told Kilmeade.
The political strategist then criticized Paxton’s priorities and lack of devotion to the sort of retail politics that win elections.
“Paxton, remember, the week leading up to the Fourth of July, he was in Washington the week before the Fourth of July, on that weekend. No fundraiser that I can find, and then on Tuesday, he was seen leaving for Iceland with his latest girlfriend, and then the two of them spent the Fourth of July celebrating in London, England,” he said.
“Now look, we have London, Texas… not a big town; if he wanted to go to London, he should have gone to London, Texas rather than London, England,” Rove added.
The Fox News contributor and architect of George W. Bush’s presidency gave Trump credit for helping Paxton beat Cornyn in the primary but urged the president to get involved in Texas, because the clock is ticking.
“Time is running out,” Rove warned. “If the president wants to have Paxton win, he needs to be tossing a lot of money Paxton’s way.”
Otherwise, Talarico is going to “run the message of ‘my opponent is the most corrupt politician in Texas history’ all the way to the victory line.”
“I hope people realize it because sometimes they want change when change isn’t necessary,” Trump told Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick on the latest episode of “Lt. Dan Podcast.”
“Sometimes when they want change, even if you’re doing a great job, but if they change Texas, Texas will be a disaster,” the president added.
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