AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
Texas had one of the first primary elections on the calendar this year, and now it's the first to hold runoffs to get the general election contest set. The race generating the most attention and money is the Republican Senate primary between incumbent senator John Cornyn and state Attorney General Ken Paxton. President Trump finally waded into the race last week and endorsed Paxton, even as some ballots have already been cast. Joining us now to talk about that race and others to watch is Blaise Gainey from the Texas Newsroom. Good morning, Blaise.
BLAISE GAINEY, BYLINE: Good morning, Ayesha.
RASCOE: So let's start with, you know, the Trump of it all. How has the president's endorsement changed the final days of the race?
GAINEY: Yeah, nationally, Republican party officials are upset, but it doesn't seem like it's a love for Cornyn or a dislike of Paxton. It's more about strategy. Cornyn is just the safer pick here. Polls show Cornyn has a better chance of winning in the general election. Not that Paxton doesn't have a chance, but it'll be tougher. He comes with a lot of baggage - a past indictment, a very freshened divorce, due to his infidelity. And so the worry is more so that Trump is placing his name behind the riskier candidate that not only could lose, but will cost a lot to fund a campaign that will likely have to play defense to endless attack. But for the candidates themselves, the four-term senator John Cornyn said at a campaign stop on Friday that this race now feels like it has the most at stake out of any that he's been in, and that's absolutely true for him. He's mostly been in comfortable races, but that endorsement from Trump for Paxton has raised this to a level he hasn't faced before. And for Paxton, he's sort of moving forward as if he's already won. He's focusing most of his time on the general election opponent, Democrat James Talarico.
RASCOE: And so what impact does Trump's endorsement have on voters?
GAINEY: You know, I haven't heard directly from voters, but Joshua Blank, a political scientist at University of Texas at Austin, says Trump's endorsement to him seems more like a stamp of approval.
JOSHUA BLANK: My take on the endorsement is that the endorsement is an indicator that Trump believes that Paxton is likely to be the winner and that - the real question becomes, does his endorsement make that gap bigger than we thought it was going to be?
GAINEY: Of course, that's only what's expected from polling. Cornyn has a lot of name recognition in the state, and that could go a long way.
RASCOE: How has the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate, James Talarico, reacted?
GAINEY: Yeah, Talarico essentially hasn't reacted. He came out with a statement and essentially said, this doesn't change anything for him. No matter what, he was going to be going against a powerful Republican that he believes needs to be out of office. But polling is showing that he has a real chance. In fact, he's tied with Paxton and within a point of Cornyn on a Barbara Jordan Public Policy Research poll. But one thing for certain moving forward is that a lot of money will be spent in this race. Already in the primaries, NPR partner AdImpact shows that 165 million has been spent in TV ads, and most of that is coming from the Republican side.
RASCOE: OK, so what other races are you watching on Tuesday?
GAINEY: Yeah, well, I really want to see what happens in Congressional District 18. That's a runoff in Houston between Congressman Al Green and a guy that's half his age in Congressman Christian Menefee. The two are running in a district that was redrawn by Republicans during the mid-decade redistricting over the summer.
Another race that was also redrawn - or district, rather - is the one where former Congressman Colin Allred is going up against Julie Johnson. The race has a bit of drama that makes it interesting. Allred was originally in the Senate race against Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett and James Talarico, but he left and challenged Johnson. Johnson felt that was disrespectful because essentially, it means Allred thought she was the easier opponent to beat. So there are a lot of districts that are up for grabs, and it'll be really interesting to see what happens.
RASCOE: That's Blaise Gainey from the Texas Newsroom. Blaise, thank you so much.
GAINEY: Yeah, thanks for having me. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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