A former Republican pollster who sits down with Trump voters says one MAGA Senate hopeful has a problem with his own base.
Bulwark publisher Sarah Longwell said on Tuesday's episode of "The Next Level" that disaffected Trump voters in her Texas focus groups view GOP Senate hopeful Ken Paxton as a "huge scumbag," while Democrat James Talarico comes across as a "really nice guy."
"I've done a bunch of focus groups in Texas with sort of the disaffected Trump voters," Longwell said. "And you know what they think? They think Ken Paxton is a huge scumbag and that James Talarico has said some weird things but seems like a really nice guy."
Longwell stressed that the goodwill wouldn't automatically translate into votes. "And that doesn't mean they're all going to vote for him. And some of them aren't going to vote," she said. "But for a lot of them, they were like, he's fine. He's fine. And this is why he's up right now."
She argued that Paxton's allies had thrown nearly everything they could at Talarico without making it stick. "They've put him in a dress in AI. They've said that he doesn't, you know, that he's vegan. They've called him gay a thousand different ways. They said that he loves trans children," Longwell said.
The hosts also tore into the right's push to spread rumors about Talarico's health, which they said had been exposed as false. Longwell noted that Talarico is diabetic and had been knocked out by the flu. "If you're a diabetic and get the flu, it takes you out in a different way," she said.
Longwell then turned to Paxton's own baggage, pointing to his New Year's celebration with two fugitives accused of fraud. "That's who he parties with. And it wasn't just them. It was also his mistress. Like that's who this guy is," she said.
Co-host Jonathan V. Last added that the pair had given Paxton $190,000, "including $25,000 days after he was indicted."
Fellow co-host Tim Miller said Paxton was the latest Republican to try copying Trump's playbook without the skill to pull it off. "This is yet another example of people trying on the right, trying to imitate Trump and Trump's tactics, but just not having the juice to do it," Miller said. "There's no sauce."