EXCLUSIVE: Ken Paxton Warns ‘If We Lose Texas, We Lose America’ as Senate Race Enters Final Days

Texas Attorney General and Republican U.S. Senate nominee Ken Paxton warned that Republicans cannot take victory in Texas for granted, describing his contest against Democrat James Talarico as the most difficult campaign of his political career during an exclusive interview on Breitbart News Saturday ahead of the November 3 midterm elections. Appearing on Breitbart News Saturday with Washington Bureau Chief Matthew Boyle, Paxton characterized the race as highly competitive and stressed the importance of Republican turnout. “I would say we are in a tie ball game. It is a tight race, and if we do not execute, if Republicans do not take this serious, if they sit back and say, ‘Oh, Texas is always Republican,’ this is one of those years you can’t do that,” Paxton cautioned. “This is my 20th campaign in my life, and this is the hardest campaign to work through for whatever reasons, for various reasons,” he continued. “But we need to take this seriously.” Paxton compared the political environment to the 2018 midterms when Democrat Beto O’Rourke narrowly lost his Senate challenge against Republican Ted Cruz, attributing the competitiveness of both elections partly to differing levels of voter enthusiasm. “We have the same kind of difficulty that we had eight years ago, so the key here is if we can motivate our voters to get out and vote, we will win,” Paxton said. “We have the numbers. It’s just getting them out, and that’s been the biggest challenge.” The attorney general said he has spent the past 15 days campaigning across Texas on a bus tour, including appearances involving President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance, while identifying rural communities and key suburban counties as essential to Republican turnout. “The rural areas are huge for us. West Texas, East Texas,” Paxton said, adding that Collin, Denton, Montgomery, Fort Bend, and Williamson counties are also “the key places.” Turning to his opponent, Paxton accused Talarico of reversing previous positions on the oil and gas industry, border security, law enforcement, transgender issues, and girls’ sports to appeal to general election voters. “The key has been to try to tell people the truth about what he actually believes, what he actually votes for, what he actually has said over the last 10 years,” Paxton explained. “Because this guy literally has changed every single position, not just a little bit, but 180 degrees to my position.” Paxton also accused Talarico of misrepresenting his record through campaign advertisements and attempting to dismiss authentic recordings of his previous statements as artificial intelligence-generated content. “Part of the problem we’ve had is in his commercials he says all these clips of him are AI,” Paxton said. “It’s not true. None of them are. They’re all real clips.” On economic issues, Paxton identified affordability as a central campaign priority, highlighting proposals involving tax cuts for first- and second-time homebuyers, medical expense deductions, and doubling the child tax credit. “We’re not talking about handouts. We’re talking about letting people keep more of their money,” Paxton said, while criticizing Talarico’s alleged previous positions concerning a state income tax, the cattle industry, and oil and gas production. The interview also addressed Talarico’s use of religious messaging, with Paxton criticizing several statements he attributed to the Democrat about Christianity, gender, and displaying the Ten Commandments in public schools. “If you actually listen to him, and I think just people maybe glaze over what he’s actually saying because he wraps it up in a Christian wrapper, but there’s nothing Christian about what he actually believes,” Paxton asserted. As the interview concluded, Paxton compared the election to a tied football game in its final moments, emphasizing the importance of Republican turnout for securing a victory. “We’re tied. We’ve got the ball, and if we execute, if our people actually take this seriously and they understand the difference between a Marxist, somebody who believes in free markets, they understand the difference between somebody that is a constitutional conservative versus somebody that is an anti-constitutional guy, then we will win the game,” Paxton said. “If you’re listening to this, you need to get you — you need to not only get yourself out, you need to get your family out, you need to get your friends out, you need to go through your contact list, act like it matters,” he urged. “We’re in a fight to save this state, save this country, and if we don’t take it seriously, we are going to lose it,” Paxton concluded. “And if we lose Texas, we lose America.” Breitbart News Saturday airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Eastern.