A MAGA Victory in Texas, and the Trump Administration’s New Ebola Plan
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From The New York Times, it's The Headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Wednesday, May 27th. Here's what we're covering.
Tonight, we just sent a Texas-sized message to Washington. I said it in March, and I'll say it again now. Today, change was on the ballot, and change won.
In Texas, Ken Paxton, the state's far-right attorney general with a long history of scandal and controversy, took down longtime Senator John Cornyn. It was essentially a decisive victory for the MAGA movement over the state's old guard of conservatives.
President Trump is the leader of our party, and his endorsement is the most powerful force in politics. And I'm honored to have his support.
The runoff election was the most expensive primary in American history, and Paxton pulled out a win despite being outspent on ads by roughly $80 million. The endorsement of President Trump helped carry him to what is, as of right now, a nearly 30-point win over Cornyn. And it has proved once again that when Trump backs a candidate, he brings voters with him. That's been the case in Louisiana, Kentucky, and Indiana, where just in the last few weeks, the president's preferred candidates have all taken down GOP incumbents that Trump turned on. Now, looking ahead to November, Democrats actually see Paxton's primary victory as an opportunity for them.
They see an opening to run against Paxton for his own scandals, but also tie Paxton to the president, who is becoming more and more unpopular and losing support among the very voters who boosted him to victory in 2024.
Lisa Lair is a national political correspondent for The Times. She says Democrats are feeling confident about Paxton facing off against their candidate for Senate, James Tallarico. No Democrat has won statewide office in Texas for decades, but Tallarico's quickly become a national name, gaining a huge amount of momentum, a lot of fundraising, and giving the party what they hope is their best chance in a generation.
He's a seminary student. He's trying to really imbibe his message with sort of Christian faith, which is important in a state like Texas where evangelical voters hold quite a large amount of political sway. But of course, Tallarico also carries what Republicans believe are a fair amount of liabilities. Republicans believe that they can cast Talrico as out of step with Texas voters and really far to the left. They've spent weeks bringing back up his history of comments as a Texas state legislature, where he's talking about his support for abortion rights, offering support for transgender rights, saying things like God is non-binary. And they're bringing those comments up to try to paint a picture of someone who, as they say, is, quote, a woke weirdo.
Look, no matter how strong a candidate the Democratic nominee is, this is still Texas, which is one of the reddest states in the country. And it's going to be an uphill battle for any Democrat.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Ebola outbreak has now become the third largest on record. And The Times has learned that the Trump administration is planning to send U.S. citizens who've been exposed to the virus to Kenya. It is a starkly different approach than how past administrations have responded to outbreaks. In those cases, health care workers and other Americans who were exposed to Ebola were brought back to the U.S. to be treated in specialized medical units. One public health expert told The Times he was surprised by the change. Ebola has a high death rate, about 50 percent, and he said people's chances of getting through an infection would be higher in the specialized facilities.
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