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Gov. Greg Abbott used a high-profile Sunday appearance on ABC’s This Week to push back hard against rising Republican anxiety over Ken Paxton’s Senate campaign, telling host Jonathan Karl that Democrat James Talarico represents the same brand of socialism voters are grappling with in New York City’s mayoral race. “The same ideology of Mamdani is on the ballot box in the state of Texas,” Abbott said, invoking Zohran Mamdani by name to frame the race as a referendum on socialism rather than a simple partisan contest between two candidates fighting over the same seat.
The governor’s comments came as a source of reassurance for a Republican base that has watched a Texas Pulse poll show Talarico leading Paxton by four points, 47% to 43%, and as even Sen. Ted Cruz has publicly conceded that the Democrat has “a real chance” of winning what was once considered a safely red Senate seat in a state Republicans have carried in every statewide race for decades.
Details & Background
Paxton has spent much of the summer working to close the gap after a bruising three-month runoff that drained his time, attention, and campaign resources. Abbott addressed that head-on, telling Karl, “[Paxton] was in a three-month-long runoff that demanded capital, it demanded campaigning, demanded his attention, and so he’s just now catching up in the campaign process with Talarico.” The framing casts Paxton’s slow start as a temporary product of primary math rather than a genuine warning sign about the general election ahead, and Abbott made clear he expects the gap to close quickly.
Talarico, a state representative and former teacher, has built his campaign around cost-of-living and healthcare messaging while facing Republican efforts — including a Cruz-aligned super PAC’s $1.7 million ad buy — to brand him as an extension of the national progressive movement. Abbott’s “Mamdani acolyte” line extends that same strategy, betting that tying Talarico to an avowedly socialist New York politician will resonate more with Texas voters than his locally focused platform does heading into the fall campaign.
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Abbott struck a notably unbothered tone throughout the interview, telling Karl, “Elections are about choices. And when voters go to make a choice on November the 3rd, the contrast they will see between Ken Paxton and James Talarico is so extraordinary. That choice is going to be easy.” He argued that August polling numbers are largely meaningless compared to where the race stands once general-election attention kicks in, saying plainly, “What matters in elections is not in August, what matters in elections is November.”
The governor also previewed the broader message Republicans plan to run on statewide, describing a contrast between “common sense that’s offered by Republicans versus the crazy that’s offered by the Democrats.” Democrats have dismissed the Mamdani comparison as a distraction from local Texas issues, arguing Talarico’s campaign is built on affordability concerns that have nothing to do with New York City politics or a mayoral race a thousand miles away from Texas voters.
Why This Matters to You
Texas hasn’t elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1988, but a Cook Political Report downgrade and a genuine polling lead for Talarico have Republicans nationally paying close attention to a race they assumed would be a formality months ago. If Abbott’s wait-until-November bet is wrong, it could cost Republicans a seat central to their Senate majority heading into a difficult midterm map already stacked with competitive contests.
Abbott’s willingness to publicly downplay the polling — rather than treat it as a five-alarm fire — signals how the party plans to spend the next two months: nationalizing the race around socialism rather than litigating it on Paxton’s specific baggage, a strategy that will shape how contested Senate races are run across the country this cycle and beyond.
