Former President George W. Bush appeared as the special guest at a Dallas, Texas, fundraiser for Republican Senate candidates on Monday, September 21, 2026, and lent his name to campaigns in several states — but not to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who carries President Donald Trump’s endorsement in the Texas Senate race.
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, hosted the event, which benefited the Maintain the Majority fundraising committee. Cornyn lost to Paxton in what was the most expensive Republican Senate primary ever. Sitting senators and challengers alike were set to receive the proceeds the committee earmarked in Ohio, Michigan, Maine, Iowa, New Hampshire and Alaska, with Minnesota tacked on at the last minute — and the Republican running in the host’s own state left off that roster.
Bush raised money for Senate Republicans across the map while skipping Paxton in the marquee contest in his own state. The crowd of old-guard Republicans offered Paxton no public endorsement. Senate races stretching from Alaska to Maine will get the committee’s checks. Left out was the one contest in the state that hosted the fundraising.
Republicans Break With Paxton
Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina told CNN over the weekend before September 29 that backing Paxton was a “colossal mistake.” He added: “We would not be spending tens or hundreds of millions of dollars in Texas if Cornyn had won.”
A veteran GOP strategist, Karl Rove guided Bush into the governor’s mansion and then the White House. He spoke about the Texas Senate race at a festival organized by The Texas Tribune. “If John Cornyn were the nominee, this race would be over,” Rove said.
A Texas Seat in Play
Some Republicans have warned Paxton could sink the GOP’s hold on a seat Texas normally delivers without drama. Several polls have shown Democrat James Talarico narrowly ahead of Paxton. A Texas Southern University survey taken September 15–19 put Talarico at 47 percent to Paxton’s 46 percent. The Real Clear Politics polling average had Talarico leading Paxton 47.6 percent to 44.7 percent, with 38 days to the election, and Decision Desk HQ gave Talarico a 56 percent chance of winning.
Voters decide the race on November 3, and both parties count it among the most closely watched on the map. A Talarico victory would go a long way toward putting the Senate within reach for Democrats. Forecasters also widely expect the GOP to lose control of the House in November. Talarico is trying to end a drought that has run since 1994, the last time a Democrat captured a statewide office in Texas. A win would give Democrats their first Texas Senate victory since Lloyd Bentsen in 1988.
The New York Times interviewed 12 Trump 2024 voters — six Republicans, two Democrats and four independents — who are considering or committed to backing Talarico. Asked the first word Paxton brought to mind, they offered “crook,” “amoral,” “disgusting” and “corrupt.”
Glenn Rogers, a former Texas Republican state representative, appeared in a 30-second ad paid for by a super PAC supporting Talarico. Rogers said in the ad that he “will never support Ken Paxton and the last place he should be is the United States Senate.”
Federal Election Commission data show that at the end of June, Talarico had more than $21.5 million for his campaign while Paxton had less than $1.8 million on hand. Trump’s super PAC MAGA Inc. has donated $15 million to Paxton’s Senate bid.
Paxton’s Record in Texas
The Republican-controlled Texas House impeached Paxton in 2023 on accusations of corruption, bribery and obstruction of justice. The Texas Senate acquitted him, and corruption allegations kept dogging him afterward. Paxton has been charged with securities fraud. His wife filed for divorce, citing “biblical grounds,” after rumors of an affair surfaced, and the divorce is ongoing.
Establishment Republicans lined up behind Cornyn during the primary because of Paxton’s record. Senate Majority Leader John Thune was among the figures who endorsed the incumbent. Party veterans argued that holding the seat was a far likelier outcome with Cornyn as the nominee. Primary voters saw it differently and handed Paxton the nomination anyway.
Rove Backs a Democrat
Democrat Jon Rosenthal, not Republican Bo French, will get Rove’s vote in the Texas Railroad Commission contest, Rove has said. That decision came after French posted an image on X showing University of Texas students who are not white celebrating a college football win. French captioned the image, “The problem is now obviously far worse than anyone imagined.”
A growing number of “Bo Frenches” now populate the GOP, Rove argued in an opinion piece for The Wall Street Journal. Antisemites who hide behind innocent-sounding questions fill the party he described, along with misogynists devoted to hypermasculinity, conspiracy theorists chasing clicks for profit, and religious bigots who lump Muslim American patriots in with terrorists.
The Dallas fundraiser was not the first Bush-Paxton collision. In 2022, Paxton beat George P. Bush, a nephew of the former president, for the GOP’s attorney general nomination in Texas.
The Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University opened in 1997. President George H.W. Bush held a conviction that gave rise to the school: that there is nobility in serving the public. Students still train there in College Station, Washington, D.C., and online.