{"id":1335,"date":"2026-06-10T06:10:20","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T06:10:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=1335"},"modified":"2026-06-10T06:10:20","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T06:10:20","slug":"texas-republicans-betting-on-maga-messaging-may-soon-pay-a-price","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=1335","title":{"rendered":"Texas Republicans’ betting on MAGA messaging may soon pay a price"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Far-right talking points have proven effective in the recent Texas Republican primaries, handing wins to Trump-backed Senate candidate Ken Paxton, attorney general nominee \u201cMAGA\u201d Mayes Middleton (as he likes to be called), and railroad commissioner nominee Bo French. But while MAGA messaging resonates with Republican voters well enough to come out ahead in a primary, according to Houston Pubic Media political columnist Blaise Gainey<\/u>, that approach is likely to fall flat in the general election this November. <\/p>\n

Read more MAGA election denier raises alarms with rapid advance at Trump DOJ<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re seeing is the consolidation of MAGA power,\u201d explained Jon Taylor, a political scientist at the University of Texas at San Antonio. \u201cYou\u2019re seeing essentially the last of the old guard being swept away. Anybody who is not 100 percent MAGA, 100 percent committed to Trump, is viewed as disloyal and therefore must be purged.\u201d <\/p>\n

According to Gainey, \u201cOne of the most obvious examples is Attorney General Paxton\u2019s win over incumbent Sen. Cornyn. A day into early voting, Trump, the leader of MAGA, endorsed Paxton over Cornyn<\/u>, who claimed to vote with Trump 99% of the time.\u201d <\/p>\n

Cornyn\u2019s loss suggests there has been a dramatic shift within the GOP over the past decade. As Texas Southern University political scientist Michael Adams explained, \u201cIt sent a clear signal, I think, to the Republican Party that the [George] Bush or the [Rick] Perry wing of the Republican Party \u2014 what we know as the institutional Republican part of the traditional wing \u2014 I think that has been put to rest.\u201d<\/p>\n

These MAGA candidates gathered support by ignoring some of the top issues of the day, like the war in Iran or skyrocketing prices, instead \u201cfocusing on hot-button social topics like gender identity, immigration enforcement and stoking fears over Islam<\/u>.\u201d French, for example, had party leaders calling for his resignation as chair of the Tarrant County GOP after a series of posts they characterized as \u201cbigoted<\/u>\u201d against Jewish and Muslim people. Republican leadership may not have liked what they saw, but enough conservative voters did for French to eke out a win by around 1 percent. <\/p>\n

Read more Trump DOJ demands \u2018action\u2019 against leaker who pilfered damning Jack Smith probe<\/a><\/p>\n

But, writes Gainey, \u201cWhile that strategy worked during a Republican primary where only 1.4 million voters participated, political scientist Jeronimo Cortina isn\u2019t sure it\u2019ll be so successful with the general electorate. \u2018I don\u2019t know 97 percent of folks that did not participate in the runoff election, whether they are Democrats or Republicans, support that type of rhetoric or not,\u2019 Cortina said.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s going to be their challenge,\u201d said Nancy Sims, a political scientist at the University of Houston. \u201cThey moved so far to the right to win their nominations, that they\u2019re gonna have to live with the commercials they made side-by-side with Trump. All the MAGA promises they made for the general cycle are not gonna be popular with independent voters, in my opinion.\u201d Polls suggest that she\u2019s right, showing that Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico has a slight edge on Paxton. \u201cIt looks like Texas may be competitive for the first time in 30 years,\u201d Sims said. <\/p>\n

All of this poses a huge opportunity for Democrats. <\/p>\n

\u201cTexas is not truly a red state,\u201d explained Taylor. \u201cIt\u2019s a low-turnout state in which you\u2019ve got Democrats who, if they would ever get off their butts and actually mobilize, could actually win elections.\u201d <\/p>\n

Read more Controversial Platner pulls off political upset in Maine<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Far-right talking points have proven effective in the recent Texas Republican primaries, handing wins to Trump-backed Senate candidate Ken Paxton, attorney general nominee \u201cMAGA\u201d Mayes Middleton (as he likes to be called), and railroad commissioner nominee Bo French. But while MAGA messaging resonat…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1334,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nTexas Republicans' betting on MAGA messaging may soon pay a price - Next Address America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=1335\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Texas Republicans' betting on MAGA messaging may soon pay a price - Next Address America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Far-right talking points have proven effective in the recent Texas Republican primaries, handing wins to Trump-backed Senate candidate Ken Paxton, attorney general nominee \u201cMAGA\u201d Mayes Middleton (as he likes to be called), and railroad commissioner nominee Bo French. 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