Michelle Cottle

In the Republican Senate primary, we are seeing very different political models fighting for the nomination down there.

You know, I spent some time down there going to various events, talking with people.

Always a good time.

Love it.

What we're looking at right now.

In the Senate race, a highly divisive MAGA warrior, State Attorney General Ken Paxton, who we have talked much about on this show because what perhaps defines him more than his politics is his huge pile of scandals that he carries around with him.

In this corner, we have Representative Wesley Hunt, a young, charismatic, conservative military vet who would be Texas's first Black senator.

And over here, the four-term incumbent, John Cornyn, who is seen as too establishment and not nearly Trumpy enough by many in his party's base.

So...

What kind of champion does the party need this cycle to keep Texas deep red, but also maybe to start moving the party into, dare we dream, a post-Trump era?

These are top senior hardcore staffers.

A seminarian, no less.

So one of the things we're looking at with Texas in particular is how the party is holding on to or not holding on to the gains that it has made among Hispanic voters, who make up about a third of the electorate in the state.

So in 2024, with Trump on the ballot, we saw a significant shift of Latino men specifically toward the GOP.

Now that support seems to be slipping away.

And again, it's always different when Trump is not on the ballot.

And I know that I've done reporting at the border about the Republican Party trying to woo Latino voters up and down the ballots, you know, even in years when Trump wasn't there.

But observers in the state note that

The Trump policies have not been all that Latino voters were hoping for.

So one question, in this race, what does the party do to stop the slippage among this demographic?