Texas Republicans and Trump Trade Blame After Democrats Win Every Statewide Race

Since Democrats captured both chambers of Congress on Tuesday, Nov. 3, Republicans have spent two days arguing over who is to blame. Nowhere is the fight uglier than in Texas, where the party lost every statewide race on the ballot.

The results are lopsided. Democrat James Talarico beat Attorney General Ken Paxton for a U.S. Senate seat Republicans had held for almost 40 years. Democratic state Rep. Gina Hinojosa unseated three-term Gov. Greg Abbott. Vikki Goodwin ousted Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick.

Democratic state Sen. Nathan Johnson beat Republican Sen. Mayes Middleton for attorney general. Democratic state Rep. Jon Rosenthal beat Bo French for railroad commissioner. The last Democrat elected statewide in Texas won in 1994.

The Texas Tribune reports Democrats also flipped the Texas House. Republicans had redrawn congressional districts to try to win five more U.S. House seats. Newsweek reports the party failed to gain any.

Texas Republicans point in every direction

Comptroller Don Huffines lost his bid for a full term after three months in the job. He blamed party leadership on election night. "I blame this on Greg Abbott. I blame it on Dan Patrick. I blame it on all the mushy middle people," he said.

Sen. John Cornyn, who lost the May primary runoff to Paxton, went after the nominee. In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, Cornyn wrote that Texas Republicans "were asked to swallow an almost comical list of personal scandals and improprieties." He said nominating candidates like Paxton forced voters "to choose between policy and personal character," which he called "suicidal" for the party.

Derrick Wilson, chairman of the Texas Young Republican Federation, called Paxton "a drag on the ballot," though "not the only cause." A Republican staffer, Decker Reno, answered him: "Please shut up."

Patrick's statement pointed away from himself. He cited "affordability, gas prices, data centers, 765-kV lines" and said, "I respect how the people voted. It was a fair election, and I accept the majority will of the voters."

GOP operative Matt Mackowiak, a senior adviser on Cornyn's campaign, said the party spent years courting "a more narrow and narrow sliver of the electorate, believing the only election they could lose is a primary."

Paxton's camp blames the White House

Paxton conceded gracefully on election night and said he would pray for Talarico. A top aide told the Daily Mail that Paxton privately blames Trump. "He hurt us. We couldn't get away from him," the aide said.

The aide offered one example. A moms' group wanted to host a Paxton event aimed at women voters wary of his personal scandals. The White House called with a few days' notice to say Trump was coming to Texas again, and the event was scrapped.

The aide also said the campaign took "solace" in believing any Republican would have lost in this environment. That is a claim from Paxton's own camp, and Cornyn's op-ed argues the opposite. Trump has said he picked Paxton over Cornyn because of a perceived lack of loyalty, according to the Daily Mail.

Trump blames Fox News

Trump took a different line. In a Truth Social post shortly before midnight Tuesday, he said Fox News "bears responsibility for these losses by constantly and consistently putting on the Dumocrat opposition, and worse."

He also called in to Fox and criticized its polling. Anchor Bret Baier answered on air: "Tonight, actually, the results are pretty close to what Fox polls showed."

Trump had told voters to "pretend I'm on the ballot." Exit polls cited by New York Post columnist Miranda Devine put his approval at 38%, the lowest for a president in almost 20 years. Voters in those polls blamed him for high prices and gas costs and called the Iran war a mistake. Devine wrote that Trump "can't pretend" the result was not a referendum on him.

Vice President JD Vance has pointed to the Iran war as the cause. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said in May that gas prices would decide the midterms. On Wednesday he recalled that the Labor Day average was about $4.55 a gallon.

Mike Madrid, a longtime Republican strategist and co-founder of the anti-Trump Lincoln Project, called it "a perfect storm of disaster for the Republicans" in comments to Newsweek. He listed a historically unpopular president, midterm trends, an unwanted war and rising gas and grocery prices.

Immigration enforcement and local factors

University of Texas at San Antonio political scientist Jon Taylor said the data implicates both Trump's policies and the state officials who carried them out. "The Trump brand is now toxic and any Republican that was linked to it was going to be collateral damage," he said.

An October ACLU poll in the Rio Grande Valley found 53% of respondents said state and local immigration enforcement makes life harder without making communities safer. Another 63% said ICE had gone too far. The ACLU is an advocacy group that opposes the enforcement push.

Newsweek also lists data centers, which have drawn opposition in Texas over electricity and water use and their effect on energy bills, among the issues driving voters.

What Republicans face next

Mackowiak's point is the one nobody in the party has answered. After more than 30 years of winning, Texas Republicans have a generation of candidates and operatives trained for primaries. They now have to learn how to win a general election against a Democratic Party that just proved it can sweep the state.

Whether the party lets Trump, Paxton or the economy take the blame will shape the next round of Republican primaries, and none of the principals has yielded.