Has Trump just helped make the worst MAGA politician a senate candidate?

What’s the story?

Anti-abortion, anti-trans, a believer in the conspiracy theory that Trump won the 2020 US election, corruption and fraud allegations, divorced over adultery – Ken Paxton is the perfect MAGA politician.

Donald Trump endorsed Paxton in the Texas primary, where he won the primary runoff against incumbent John Cornyn, and will now stand in the 2026 midterms.

It was, Emily Maitlis says, an “extraordinary” primary runoff.

"The only thing you really need to know is that Donald Trump loves one and he hates the other," she says.

Cornyn, she adds, is a “spineless critic” of Trump, voting for his policies in most instances, but daring to push back ever-so slightly on his more extreme policies.

"Donald Trump wanted, this time round, to back the MAGA candidate, Ken Paxton, one of the most euphemistically controversial candidates in this entire Senate race," Emily adds.

"This is somebody whose own staff called the FBI on him to impeach him because of his murky dealings."

Jon Sopel describes Paxton as "ethically confused" and says Donald Trump would have been "dancing around his ballroom – if it had been built" and the MAGA candidate's win.

Paxton will stand against Democratic candidate James Talarico, a young pastor who they believe could flip the deep-red state.

This isn't Trump's first rodeo

This is just the most recent incident of Trump helping kick a critic out of the race in order to place an acolyte on the polling card.

The president also endorsed and campaigned for Ed Gallrein in Kentucky, helping oust Thomas Massie, the Republican who helped make the Epstein Files public.

Is Ken Paxton’s success a gift for the Democrats?

Trump got the senator he wanted, but so did Talarico and the Democrats, who believe Paxton’s long list of alleged wrongdoings and political “baggage” could endear him only to the most hardcore MAGA supporters.

"He comes with huge questions surrounding him, which, if you cared about the ethics of your politicians, would represent a real problem," she says.

Wasting no time since his win on Tuesday 26 May, Paxton has already published an attack-ad about Talarico, highlighting his veganism, support for trans people, and suggesting America should welcome migrants as being intrinsically anti-Texan.

"Radical Talarico is what they're calling him," Emily says.

"That is probably going to hit exactly where they want it to in a deep red Republican state like Texas.

"He is this great new hope for the Democratic Party, they think there genuinely is a chance, and in some ways they think that Ken Paxton is helping them because he is such a MAGA candidate that they believe he might push more people in the centre to Talarico."

Donors seem to think so too, with a huge rise in donations to the Talarico campaign immediately after Paxton’s Primary win.

Does power lie in the hands of Hispanic voters?

In 2024, a huge number of Hispanic voters in Texas backed Trump, impressed - Jon Sopel says – by his "rather macho style", and led by their concerns about the southern border.

"Since then, he has been hemorrhaging support from Hispanic voters," says Jon.

"That's because of the ICE policies, of the crackdown on illegal immigrants, because of the way that anyone who happens to be brown is just being picked up, arrested and roughed up by ICE officers – and that is costing Donald Trump.

"Talarico himself is young, charismatic, speaks the language of God, is a pastor, and I think the Republicans are terrified by this."

Is Trump handing the midterms to the Dems?

It may not only be Texas that Trump has put at risk with his poor leadership, but the Republicans chances in the entire midterms.

Trump is telling people, publicly, that he doesn’t care about the results of the midterms, but after the tantrums and insistence he won the 2020 election, it's widely accepted he cares about nothing more than national popularity contests.

"The Strait of Hormuz is still shut and the cost of fuel in America is still very high, and he doesn't care about any of that," says Jon.

"You can be sure that the Republican party as a whole is absolutely crapping itself about that.

"So when Donald Trump says: 'oil prices don't care, I don't care about the midterms', I think the Republicans start tearing their hair out."

Listen to the latest episode of The News Agents.