Former President George W. Bush turned up as a special guest at a Dallas, Texas fundraiser for Republican Senate candidates on Monday, September 21, 2026, lending his name to campaigns in several states. He did not lend it to Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general who carries President Donald Trump’s endorsement in the state’s Senate race.
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, hosted the event, which benefited the Maintain the Majority fundraising committee. Cornyn lost to Paxton in what was the most expensive Republican Senate primary ever. The proceeds were earmarked to boost six sitting Republican senators and GOP hopefuls in the midterms, spread across Alaska, Ohio, Michigan, Iowa, New Hampshire and Minnesota.
As of September 23, Cornyn is refusing to campaign with Paxton, and one of his staffers has joined the campaign of Democrat James Talarico.
No money was set aside for the Republican on the ballot in the host’s own state. The old-guard Republicans in the room offered Paxton no public endorsement, leaving the former president to raise money for Senate Republicans across the map while skipping Paxton in the marquee contest unfolding at home.
As of September 23, Republicans were split over what the snub meant. A Paxton donor told the Deseret News it reflects a “loser mindset” that could jeopardize the midterms, while a Republican strategist told the outlet that Bush could be indirectly helping Paxton secure national support.
A Texas Seat Republicans Fear Losing
The timing is awkward for a party already uneasy about a seat Texas normally delivers without drama, and some Republicans have warned that Paxton could sink the GOP’s hold on it. The 10 most recent public polls have Paxton tied or trailing Talarico by 1 to 6 points in a contest both parties count among the most closely watched in the country, and Talarico has outraised him by more than 3-to-1, taking in $27 million in the first quarter and $30 million in the second, as of September 23. Trump carried Texas by 14 points in 2024. Voters decide the race on November 3.
The money is moving anyway. As of September 23, a super PAC tied to Senate Majority Leader John Thune has nearly doubled its Texas broadcast ad reservations for Paxton, bringing the group’s total to nearly $119 million, up from the $63 million disclosed through September 18, according to AdImpact and FEC filings. Trump’s MAGA Inc. put in $10 million at the start of September. Asked about Paxton’s chances, Thune said: “but it is going to be expensive, and we knew that going in. That’s no surprise to anybody.”
Democrats see more here than one Texas seat. A Talarico win would go a long way toward putting the Senate in reach for the party, which is also widely expected to take control of the House in November away from the GOP. Democrats have not captured a statewide office in Texas since 1988 — a drought Talarico is trying to end — and a victory would also deliver the party its first Texas Senate seat in decades.
Impeachment, a Divorce and a Primary Win
Paxton carries considerable baggage. In 2023, the Republican-controlled Texas House impeached him on accusations of corruption, bribery and obstruction of justice. The Texas Senate acquitted him, though corruption allegations kept dogging him afterward. After rumors of an affair surfaced, his wife filed for divorce, citing “biblical grounds.”
That record explains why establishment Republicans lined up behind Cornyn in the primary. Thune endorsed the incumbent, and party veterans argued that Cornyn stood a far better chance of holding the seat. Primary voters went the other way, handing Paxton the nomination with 64 percent of the GOP primary vote and beating Cornyn in the May runoff primary by nearly 30 percentage points. Sen. Mike Lee has urged the party to rally around Paxton regardless of his past.
Not the First Bush-Paxton Collision
This is not Paxton’s first clash with the Bush family. Back in 2022, he beat George P. Bush, a nephew of the former president, for the GOP’s attorney general nomination in Texas.
The family name is still stitched into Texas institutions. The Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University opened in 1997, grounded in President George H.W. Bush’s belief that there is nobility in public service. Students train in College Station, Washington, D.C., and online.
As of September 23, Paxton had attacked Talarico’s church in a post on X.
Rove Breaks With a Texas Republican
Bush is not the only old-guard Republican keeping his distance from the party’s newer standard-bearers in Texas. Karl Rove, the veteran GOP strategist who ran Bush’s winning campaigns for governor and for the White House, has said his ballot in the Texas Railroad Commission contest will go to Democrat Jon Rosenthal rather than Republican Bo French.
French had circulated an image on X of University of Texas students who are not white cheering a college football win, captioned: “The problem is now obviously far worse than anyone imagined.” Rove’s vote against him followed that post.
In an opinion piece for The Wall Street Journal, Rove wrote that the GOP now has a growing number of “Bo Frenches,” describing a party that increasingly makes room for antisemites hiding behind innocent-sounding questions, for misogynists devoted to hypermasculinity, for conspiracy theorists who chase clicks for profit, and for religious bigots who lump Muslim American patriots together with terrorists.
Trump’s support does not solve the problem the Dallas event laid bare for Paxton: the party’s old guard in Texas is, at minimum, declining to vouch for him in public. The committee’s checks are headed to states including Alaska, Ohio, Michigan, Iowa, New Hampshire and Minnesota. No money went to the Senate race being fought in the very city where it was raised.
