Texas Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico needs to flip some Republican voters this November to win in the largest red state in the U.S., but his opponents are calling out claims of Republicans backing him as inauthentic, if not fraudulent."Any chance that Talarico has building any type of Republican coalition is a pipe dream for him," Republican National Committee Chairman Joe Gruters told Fox News Digital in an interview."Nobody is going to follow him.
He’s completely out of touch with Texans."Gruters' rebuke came after women voters interviewed on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" claimed to be Republican crossover supporters, only to have longstanding ties to Democrats and anti-President Donald Trump groups – not exactly people that would be voting for Republican Senate nominee Ken Paxton in one of the Senate's biggest ticket races in the battle for the majority."The people that he had come out and say that they were on his team have been proven to be basically Democrat, liberal activists that have been supporting Democrat candidates for 10-plus years," Gruters continued.'FAKE' MODERATE TALARICO'S TEXAS SURGE TESTS PAXTON IN FIGHT TO HOLD CRUCIAL GOP SENATE SEATDemocratic U.S.Senate candidate James Talarico speaks during a press conference at the Hyatt Centric Congress Avenue in Austin, Texas, on July 22, 2026.
The discussion comes as data centers have emerged as a major political issue in Texas, with Gov.Greg Abbott calling for stronger oversight of their expansion.
(Getty Images)"I just don't believe it," Gruters said."This is Kamala Harris' 'White Dudes for Kamala.' It just doesn't exist.
It's a wannabe or an attempt at them to try to build some crossover support."Talarico has emphasized building a broad coalition in his campaign, which says it intends to "go everywhere and talk to everyone" ahead of the November election.But Republicans have seized on the political histories of some of Talarico's backers as evidence the outreach is less bipartisan than adver...