Paxton blames GOP ‘enthusiasm gap’ on Republican success. Texas voters disagree.

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Paxton blames GOP ‘enthusiasm gap’ on Republican success. Texas voters disagree.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton drew several hundred to the auditorium of Willow Park Baptist Church on Tuesday night and told them why he thinks so many Republicans have tuned out: Things are going too well.

“We have an enthusiasm gap,” the GOP Senate nominee said. “It happens when you’re in a midterm election and the party in power often has trouble getting their voters out — especially in a Republican state, because those people think everything’s great.”

Republicans, he suggested, have grown “apathetic” because the party has delivered.

Talk to voters across Texas who have backed Republicans for years, and you will hear something else entirely.

Zach Creel supported Donald Trump in 2016, 2020 and 2024. This year, he does not plan to vote at all — and blamed Republicans who, he said, have not followed through on what they promised.

“Everything’s still bad,” Creel told MS NOW. “People can barely afford gas, groceries and et cetera. And it’s just — nothing’s changing.”

He is not alone in that sentiment. New polling from the University of Texas/Texas Politics Project finds that overall voter enthusiasm in Texas is about where it was before the last midterm: Roughly two-thirds of those surveyed say they are “extremely” or “very” enthusiastic about casting a ballot in November.

But that topline conceals a partisan reversal: In August 2022, ahead of that year’s midterm elections, 52% of Texas Republicans called themselves “extremely enthusiastic” about voting. This August, just 39% were — a 13-point drop.

Collin Bohne, who calls himself a moderate and has voted for candidates in both parties over the years, sees the problem in the candidate. He is backing the Democratic nominee, state Rep. James Talarico, because he feels Talarico “genuinely has average people in mind.” And he raised a criticism Paxton has faced with growing frequency: that he is barely campaigning.

“He’s running a pretty low-energy kind of campaign,” Bohne said. “I don’t really see much of anything from him on any TV or social media platforms. He doesn’t seem like he does anything to create much excitement.”

Marina Hernandez, who described herself as “a Democrat with a MAGA family,” said the conversations at home have started to change.

“I think that they are maybe becoming a little more receptive,” she said. “They see the data centers being built. They see their gas prices going up.”

Inside the auditorium of Willow Park Baptist Church, Paxton spent much of Tuesday night on the contrast between himself and Talarico, casting his opponent’s agenda as “radical socialism.”