A Republican Senate aide who formerly worked for Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), who lost the GOP primary for the midterm election to Attorney General Ken Paxton, has decided to ditch his values and work for Democrats trying to flip the Senate seat from red to blue. James Talarico, the Democratic Party nominee for the seat, brought on a policy staffer who worked with Cornyn for five years.
The aide, Jacob Smith, who worked as Cornyn’s deputy legislative director and policy adviser, will now take on the role of deputy policy director for the Talarico campaign. It’s highly unusual to see staff members completely switching parties and hints that Talarico wants to try reaching Republican voters in a state that hasn’t elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1988.
Cornyn lost the May 26 GOP primary runoff race to Paxton, ending his Senate tenure, which started in 2002. The loss marked the first time that a Texas Republican lost his party’s renomination for the seat. President Donald Trump backed Paxton the week before the vote took place, referring to the attorney general as a “true MAGA warrior.”
According to a report from The Daily Caller, Cornyn received the most votes in the first primary on March 3, but wasn’t able to get the required majority, which led to a runoff between the two candidates, which he failed to win. As a result, Talarico will be facing off against Paxton in the November general election later this year.
Senate Republican leaders, along with the party’s establishment wing in Washington, threw their support behind Cornyn, viewing him as the safer candidate in a race against Talarico. Paxton has just as many critics in the GOP as he does on the left, many of whom are concerned about his past issues, referring to him as corrupt following a 2023 impeachment on corruption charges that ultimately ended in an acquittal.
Adding credibility to their concerns, Democrats have stated that they would prefer to run against Paxton, stating that his record provides them with a rare opportunity to flip the Senate seat blue. Talarico is a former public school teacher and has held a seat in the Texas House of Representatives since 2018. He defeated controversial political figure and former congresswoman, Rep. Jasmine Crockett.
Crockett has found herself at the center of numerous controversies that have made her an unmarketable commodity for Democrats. She once made a derogatory comment against Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, referring to him as “Gov. Hot Wheels.” Abbott is confined to a wheelchair. She’s also taken several swipes at President Trump.
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She once referred to the president as a “wannabe Hitler” while talking about alleged efforts by Republicans to prevent the infamous files from deceased convicted pedophile and human trafficker Jeffrey Epstein from being released to the public. “[Republican lawmakers] want to show they’re loyal to this, you know, I don’t even know what to call him,” Crockett said in an interview with Alex Witt on MSNBC. “I’ve called him so many things, but wannabe Hitler for sure.”