Capehart and Continetti on Talarico's chances against Paxton in Texas

By — Geoff Bennett Geoff Bennett By — Jonah Anderson Jonah Anderson Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/capehart-and-continetti-on-talaricos-chances-against-paxton-in-texas Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript Audio Jonathan Capehart of MS NOW and Wall Street Journal opinion columnist Matthew Continetti join Geoff Bennett to discuss the week in politics, including midterm primary elections showing more signs of strength for President Trump within the GOP, James Talarico’s chances against Ken Paxton in Texas and Jill Biden speaking for the first time about the former president’s health. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. Geoff Bennett: Well, this week's midterm primary elections showed more signs of strength for President Trump within the GOP. That unfolded as Jill Biden spoke up for the first time about the former president's health while he was running for a second term. For analysis of all of this and more, we turn to Jonathan Capehart and Matthew Continetti, Capehart of MS NOW, and Continetti, a Wall Street Journal opinion columnist and scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. David Brooks is away this evening. It's always good to see you, gentlemen. Jonathan Capehart: Hey, Geoff. Geoff Bennett: So, the biggest political story of the day came out of Texas, where Attorney General Ken Paxton routed longtime Senator John Cornyn in the Republican primary there. You have got Cornyn, who represents the Republican establishment, Paxton, who was backed by President Trump. He's faced securities fraud charges dating back a decade. He was impeached for purportedly misusing his office. There had been accusations of infidelity. Jonathan, what does a nearly 30-point margin tell us about where the GOP is right now? Jonathan Capehart: Well, what it says, you take Cornyn's loss by almost 28 points, you take Cassidy's loss in Louisiana, coming in third, another sitting Republican senator losing by 20 points, to me, what it says is that President Trump is king of MAGA in that specific, core base. But it also says he is the ruler of the Republican Party. And if you are a Republican running for office, you fear not getting the president's endorsement. The question is, does that translate to the general? Now, the president's approval numbers are in the 30s, depending on which survey you look at. In Texas, he is underwater by three points, and it went for him by 14 points in the 2024 election. Democrats have always wondered, ooh, Texas, this is the cycle we're going to do it. This might be it. But the test is going to be, does the popularity of the president within his own party translate to the general ballot? Geoff Bennett: And, Matthew, as you well know, Cornyn voted almost in lockstep with President Trump in terms of his priorities. If someone with that sort of profile,