The Daily Blast: Trump Explodes in Wild 2026 Panic as Texas Senate Results Rattle GOP

I'm your host, Greg Sargent.

In the Texas primaries on Tuesday, Democrat James Telerico triumphed, while on the GOP side, establishment-centered John Cornean and Mago Wackjob Ken Paxton are headed for a runoff. This outcome caused Donald Trump to explode on truth social, where he announced he'll soon make an endorsement designed to evert a protracted GOP bloodbath. For Democrats, Texas is like baseball, it keeps breaking your heart.

It Republicans are clearly worried. Whatever is to be in this race, what's happening there now is highly illuminating about this political moment, and we're unraveling it all with Democratic strategists, Sawyer Hackett, a veteran of Texas races. Sawyer, nice to have you on, man.

Great to be with you, Greg.

So in the Democratic primary in Texas, state legislator James Telerico defeated Congresswoman Jasmine Croquette. He's openly religious. He talks about the need to reach out to moderates and independence and even Trump voters. He's mild mannered and genuinely seems to believe in his ability to persuade voters to cross

over. Sawyer, can you sum up James Telerico for us? Yeah, I would say the summary at the best summary I could give would be he's a progressive preacher who can throw a punch. He's somebody who can level a blistering attack against Trump and Republicans in the

Trump era while not shutting the door on voters who may disagree with him on a lot of issues.

He's kind of exactly the kind of candidate that Democrats need to win in a state like Texas, where we do have to win over some of Trump's voters to pull out a victory. He's someone who can both excite the base and widen the tent.

“So I think Democrats are feeling pretty good about his nomination.”

Obviously, it's going to be tough because it's Texas, but we'll get to that. Meanwhile, on the GOP side, Texas Senator John Coranon and attorney general Ken Paxton both fell short of 50% due to a spoiler, they're advancing to a runoff. Trump exploded on truth social over this. He said the GOP primary, quote, "must stop now all caps," you know, when he's bangler.

He uses all caps. He added that Republicans have to totally focus on beating Telerico. Then Trump said, quote, "I will be making my endorsement soon and we'll be asking the candidate that I don't endorse to immediately drop out of the race. We must win in November."

So here, clearly Trump sees this primary as a threat to GOP chances of holding the seat. Reports suggest Trump will endorse Coranon, even though Paxton is the mega diehard and has the support of Steve Bannon. You thoughts on that Trump stuff?

“Yeah, it's funny because you hear a lot, I think, on the Democratic side that, you know,”

the Democratic Party's got its thumb on the scale that it's, you know, pushing certain candidates and hurting other candidates, and here you have Trump, essentially saying, "I'm going to pick the nominee and the other candidates going to drop out before we even get to a runoff," you know, it is completely Trump's party. He's dictating the terms, he's dictating the candidates, and he's dictating the message.

And frankly, that's all toxic for Republicans and to Democrats benefit. Yeah, with thanks so, and Republicans are clearly worried about the race. Two of the most hard-boiled GOP operatives, Chris Lassavita and Tony Fabrizio, both Trump advisors are working for Coranon. Paxton has, you know, got a trail of scandals he's been impeached by the GOP-controlled

Texas House, his wife divorced him for biblical causes on and on and on. Coranon himself has called on Trump to endorse, to settle this thing and get Paxton out of his hair. And one Republican operative told the Atlantic that Democratic chances are much better against Paxton.

Now, this is a hard race for Democrats.

“Do you think it is actually easier against Paxton than against Coranon or not?”

I think definitely it's easier against Paxton, I mean, just in terms of the kind of person he is, the kind of character he has, you know, you see, on the Republican side, frankly, we see a party that is deeply divided and unhappy, you know, the sitting Republican senator who John Coranon who has served four or six year terms in the Senate for Texas is now headed, you know, for a runoff with a far right criminally indicted Republican

impeached fraudster and adulterer who has a toxic political agenda. I think, you know, the Tallahuree GOP camp is kind of hoping and praying that he ends up on the top of that ticket because I think every Democrat in the country would be

and push Paxton out of this race, probably for some sort of cabinet position, I still

think that the race is going to be extremely competitive for Tallahuree GOP. Coranon, I don't think is necessarily beloved across Texas. He has a better approval rating than than Ken Paxton, but not that much better. He's not necessarily known for having notched a whole bunch of accomplishments on behalf of the people of Texas.

“And frankly, I think Trump is the factor, you know, in the general, the biggest factor in”

the general election and the most likely factor to kind of determine how Democrats turn out and how excited Republicans are. Well, do you expect Paxton to drop out if Trump doesn't endorse Coranon, which could come as early as when people are listening to this? I mean, Paxton is a flunky.

He is a Trump die hard through and through. He is up, you're down at Marilago every week, kind of kissing Trump's ass. He has been kind of begging for Trump's support throughout this primary process. And so I honestly do think that he'll do kind of whatever Trump asks of him and I think if Trump does ask him to kind of drop out of this race, there will be something waiting

for Paxton on the other side of it, whether that's, you know, an envelope of cash or

a cabinet position, but yeah, I mean, it's just kind of incredible to see how

Republicans can at a point to finger at Democrats for putting their finger on the scale on these primaries. And you just have Trump kind of dictating. This is going to be our nominee. Is this who we're running?

This is kind of message we're running. Texas is the perennial hardbreaker for Democrats. Beta will work. Okay. Within three points of Ted Cruz in 2018, then, of course, in 2024, it was substantially worse

for Democrats. What is the path for a teleureka? What has to happen in demographic terms? Yeah.

“I mean, I think the headline kind of coming out of this primary cycle beyond, you know,”

teleureka's victory beyond, Paxton and Corgan headed to this runoff is kind of the winning democratic coalition being reassembled, both in part thanks to Trump, kind of pushing voters towards Democrats, whether that's Latino voters who showed a big time yesterday for James Talleriko, but also, you know, you saw black voters turn out strongly for Crockett in a lot of these key areas across Texas.

I think if Talleriko is able to kind of reassemble that winning coalition, if he's able to keep Latino voters on board in the general election, which honestly, I think, again, will be kind of dependent on Trump and how he, you know, presents his agenda for the next few months, but also if Talleriko is able to kind of make inroads and bring you know, those Crockett voters into the fold of his coalition, if he's able to kind

of keep that message that has been resonating, I think, in the suburban parts of the state, outside of these big cities, independent swing voters across Texas, of which there are very many. He has shown that he has the ability to assemble this coalition, but he's going to have to kind of maximize turnout among those key constituencies, Latino voters, black voters.

And I think young voters too, I mean, we saw in this, in this primary, in the early vote,

that there was, you know, 400,000 new voters who had never cast a ballot in a democratic

primary, I think that that's in large part a reaction to the Trump presidency, a protest vote against what people are seeing on their TVs and their phones every single day. Talleriko has to channel all of that energy and building and assembling and keeping that coalition

“is the important work of every nominee, but I think in Texas, it's the most important job.”

And I think Talleriko, based on his message, based on his appeal, has shown that he is the ability to do it. It's just kind of dependent, I think, on a lot of events happening within the next eight months or so before this race shakes out. To stay up to date on all the news that you need to know, there's no better place than

right here on the DSR network, and there's no better way to enjoy the DSR network than by becoming a member. Members enjoy an ad-free listening experience, access to our discord community, exclusive content, early episode access, and more. Use code DSR26 for 25% off discount on sign up at the DSR network.com.

That's code in DSR26 at the DSR network.com/buy. Thank you, and enjoy the show. Just to boil this down, why is Texas so hard for Democrats to win?

Why is it so hard?

Republicans have done a fantastic job of suppressing the vote in Texas, of keeping voters

“at home, of making it extremely difficult to vote in the state, and that's why Texas,”

I think, today, has one of the lowest voter participation rates in the country. Texas also has a lot of unafiliated independent voters out there who have tended over the years to vote Republican. Those voters, I think, in large part, make up areas in the suburbs, outside of the major cities, and parts of rural Texas.

I mean, Texas has a lot of counties, and Democrats have to compete in all of those counties that they want to win. Democrats have not built the infrastructural support needed to compete in every county throughout Texas, the way they're Republicans have. I mean, they have 30 years of voter suppression and organization that have brought them

to this point that have kept Democrats out of power for 30 years. If Democrats want to win, they have to go everywhere, they have to compete everywhere, they have to maximize their voters, they have to divide Republican voters, and they have to win over the sizeable number, you know, 15% or more, unafiliated independent voters that are often in the rural and suburban parts of Texas.

These 15% of unafiliated voters, these are just basically Republican-leaning voters, and that's one of the big hurdles here. There are Republican-leaning voters that, you know, they may have voted for Barack Obama and turned around and voted for Donald Trump. They're unafiliated.

I don't necessarily think that they're kind of, you know, center-right voters necessarily. They're kind of right in the middle, but I do think that over the years they have tended

“to support their Republican Party in Texas, and I think in part that that's due to the lack”

of infrastructure, the lack of attention to these voters by the Democratic Party nationally. Yeah. And so, one big thing that has to happen here is a major turnout surge for Democrats, and there's something important that happened in the primaries.

The total number of votes for the Democrats in the primary was over 2.3 million.

The total votes for the Republicans in the primary was 2.16 million. Dems got more than 150,000 more votes than Republicans did. That's unusual in Texas, right? What do you take from that? It's unusual.

I'll tell you what's even more unusual is that the fact that both Democratic candidates in this race got more votes than either of the Republican candidates. Even Jasmine Crocodile, who ultimately lost this race by a sizeable percentage, receive more votes in the Democratic primary than Republican voters, or than either other Republican candidates in the Republican primary.

“I think that that's in large part due to Trump.”

I think a lot of voters who cast ballots yesterday did so in protest to what they're seeing on their phones and on their computer from Donald Trump. That being said, both Democratic candidates showed that they can turn out voters in their own kind of communities and their own kind of geographic location, but also the coalition that they build in terms of, you know, J.V.

Tellerico turning out Latino voters, Jasmine Crocodile turning out black voters. Democrats are going to need both of those coalitions to win. I think J.V. Tellerico knows that he's going to need Jasmine Crocodile voters to win. So I think the road ahead is going to be, you know, James, you know, working with

Jasmine Crocodile working with Democrats across the state to maximize turnout among black voters, among young voters, among Latino voters, while also, you know, driving a wedge between Republican voters, which is already, you know, a deeply divided party and unhappy party right now. Well, I want to flag something important about the Latino vote, a big thing happened here.

Obviously, Trump made big and rose with Latinos in 2024, and since then, Trump seems to

have basically lost whatever gains he made among them.

Now we're seeing that show off in these primaries, right? What did the primary voting in the Latino heavy counties tell us? What we saw, you know, in the prominent, you know, we don't have a ton of exit polls from these primary races, I don't think the news outlets conduct a lot of exit polls. But when we look at the county data, what you saw is in the predominantly Latino counties

of Texas turnout was both high and, you know, strongly in favor of James Talerego. You saw in the, like I mentioned before, the I-35 corridor that runs from Laredo, all the way past San Antonio, a very, you know, heavily, a Hispanic, a part of Texas went for, for James Talerego. But you also saw in the five different rural majority Latino counties in Texas, more votes

were cast for the Democratic primary than for Kamala Harris in the 2024 election. That is a sign of electrifying turnout happening, I think, as a result of Donald Trump, but also as a result of these two kind of viral stars of the Democratic Party kind of bringing their coalitions to bear in a primary. Well, these rural Texas Latinos are sort of their own demographic, right?

Can you talk about who those people are? Yeah, you know, these voters, you know, Latino voters in Texas, I think, you know, have a deep tradition in Texas politics. They tend to be more religious, I think, than Hispanic, that a national level, you know,

their politics.

These are our communities that have tended to go democratic by pretty wide margins over

the years, you know, I specifically, I'm thinking about the Rio Grande Valley counties like Star County, Cameron County, Hedogo County, these are communities that when Democrats have lost big, they've lost big in those counties, as we saw in 2024, when we had that kind of major attrition of Latino voters in Texas, it was predominately along those communities on the border and up and down the I-35 corridor.

“I think James Saloreco showed that he can compete in those, in those communities, I think”

Latino voters, his message, you know, of kind of faith of, you know, speaking to kind of the compassion and integrity of our state and speaking with moral clarity about who Trump

is and what he represents, I think that does resonate in the Latino community.

I think he's going to have to maximize those numbers, big time in a general election, a primary, different than a general, we know that, but I think the level of enthusiasm we're seeing in terms of the turnout and in terms of the support for Talleriko across those counties shows that that he is the ability to do that. So the basic formula, the basic path is win over all those African American voters that

won for crocket, hold on to those big Latino gains in some of those rural Texas, majority Latino counties and elsewhere and win a big chunk of those right leaning independence, those kind of Republican leaning independence and for that to happen, Trump's approval has got a really keep tanking and he's just got to keep continuing being as disastrous as he has been, just boil this down, what's the, what's the route to winning and what's

the nightmare scenario, what goes wrong, potentially? Yeah, I think you outlined it, you outlined it pretty well, I think we have to run up the numbers in these big cities, I mean Houston, San Antonio, Dallas, for Worth, Austin, we have to have very, very wide margins in the general election in those communities, we have to run up the numbers in the predominantly Latino counties along the Rio Grande

Valley, I-35 corridor, we have to compete in West Texas, in the Panhandle, in the rural counties, we have to be able to compete, we can't just forego those counties to Republicans, when the better came within three points of 2018, he did make a lot of inroads in those communities with those voters, I do think Talerico has very similar skill set to better in that respect, and I think he can appeal to those communities.

“And then also you have to win in the suburbs, I mean these suburbs, I think have been kind”

of, have been the target of the Democratic Party in these statewide races, cycle after cycle, you know, sometimes I think we've tended to over focus on the cities and ignore the suburbs, but I think that those suburbs are really turning against Trump. If you look at the communities surrounding Austin, surrounding Houston, surrounding San Antonio, those voters did strongly support James Talerico in this primary.

So clearly he does have appeal in those communities, he doesn't necessarily turn voters away, he doesn't have, you know, I don't think voters view him as kind of partisan or necessarily, you know, in the tank of the Democratic Party, he can appeal to these all these different constituencies, all these different communities, but it's going to take a lot of work, it's going to take a lot of money, and it's going to take a lot of infrastructure that has to

start right now. And what can go wrong? What's the nightmare scenario? I think the nightmare scenario is something happening at the national level that kind of distracts attention from this race, I think if John Cornan is able to kind of pull away the primary victory and distance himself from Trump, if he is able to kind of pull that out, I think that that would be too as benefit, I don't know that he was going to be able to do that.

I think, you know, if Talerico or the Democratic Party fails to make inroads with Latino voters, fails to kind of solidify that support that he's shown that he has in this primary, if we're not able to kind of solidify that in the general, we cannot win in Texas.

And, you know, I think there's always just the X factor, something happening in the Supreme

Court, something happening with the economies, something happening with these wars that Trump is waging around the globe. There's just a lot of X factors going into a general election. That being said, I think, you know, Texans are pretty squarely focused on the issues that affect them, affordability, immigration, and I think James Talerico is kind of speaking to the moment.

“That's what these primaries are all about, who can speak to the moment as a candidate, and I think”

Talerico's doing that. Man, it's going to be fascinating. Saw your hack it. Thanks so much for that download. We really appreciate it. Man, appreciate the candor. Yeah, great to join you, Greg.