Former President George W. Bush turned up as the special guest at a Dallas, Texas fundraiser for Republican Senate candidates on Monday, September 21, 2026, putting his name behind campaigns in several states. President Donald Trump has endorsed Ken Paxton in the state’s Senate race, but the Texas attorney general was not among the beneficiaries.
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, hosted the evening, which benefited the Maintain the Majority fundraising committee. Cornyn lost to Paxton in what was the most expensive Republican Senate primary ever. The money was earmarked to boost six sitting Republican senators and GOP hopefuls in the midterms, in states including Iowa, Alaska, Michigan, Minnesota and Maine.
The Republican carrying the party’s banner in the host’s own state was left off that roster. Paxton drew no public endorsement from the old-guard Republicans in the room, and the former president spent the night raising money for Senate Republicans elsewhere while skipping Paxton in the marquee contest unfolding in his home state.
In comments reported September 23, a Paxton donor told the Deseret News that the snub reflects a “loser mindset” that could jeopardize the midterms.
As of September 23, Cornyn was refusing to campaign with Paxton, and he raised no objection when one of his staffers joined the campaign of Paxton’s Democratic opponent, James Talarico.
A Texas Seat Republicans Fear Losing
The timing is awkward for the party. A seat Texas normally delivers without drama could be lost with Paxton at the top of the ticket, some Republicans have warned, and Talarico has led him in several polls of a contest both parties rank among the most closely watched on the map. Figures reported September 23 show the 10 most recent public polls with Paxton tied or trailing Talarico by 1-6 percentage points, and Talarico outraising Paxton by more than 3-to-1, taking in $27 million in the first quarter and $30 million in the second. Voters decide the race on November 3.
What happens in Texas carries national weight. Democrats would move much closer to taking the Senate if Talarico wins, and the GOP is also widely expected to lose control of the House in November. Talarico is hoping to be the first Democrat to win a statewide race in Texas since 1988; his party has not held a Texas Senate seat in decades, and a victory would end that drought.
Impeachment, a Divorce and a Primary Win
Paxton carries considerable baggage. The Republican-controlled Texas House impeached him in 2023 over 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 is precisely why establishment Republicans rallied to Cornyn during the primary. Senate Majority Leader John Thune was among those who endorsed the incumbent, and party veterans argued that Cornyn stood a far better chance of holding the seat. Primary voters saw it differently, and Paxton won the nomination anyway.
Sen. Mike Lee has urged the party to rally around Paxton despite his past, noting that he was chosen by 64 percent of GOP voters, in remarks reported September 23.
Not the First Bush-Paxton Collision
Paxton has tangled with the Bush family before. 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 remains stitched into Texas institutions all the same. The Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University opened in 1997, built on the belief of President George H.W. Bush that serving the public is a noble calling. It still trains students in College Station, Washington, D.C., and online.
Rove Breaks With a Texas Republican
Other figures from the Republican old guard are also keeping their distance from the newer names carrying the party’s banner in Texas. Veteran GOP strategist Karl Rove, who guided Bush into both the governor’s mansion and the White House, says he will cast his Texas Railroad Commission ballot for Democrat Jon Rosenthal instead of Republican Bo French.
French had circulated a post on X showing an image 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 increasingly home to conspiracy theorists chasing clicks for profit, misogynists devoted to hypermasculinity, antisemites who hide behind innocent-sounding questions, and religious bigots who lump Muslim American patriots in with terrorists.
The Dallas event left Paxton with a problem no amount of Trump’s support resolves on its own: in Texas, the party’s old guard is at minimum declining to vouch for him in public. Checks from the committee are headed to states including Iowa, Alaska, Michigan, Minnesota and Maine. Organizers left off the list one Senate race — the one being fought in the very city where the money was raised.
