A former Trump administration official has warned that President Donald Trump could seek to contest the result of the Texas Senate race if Republican Ken Paxton narrowly loses to Democrat James Talarico. Miles Taylor, a former Homeland Security official in Trump’s first administration who has since become a prominent Trump critic, told Newsweek that he expects Trump to launch an effort to overturn the results if Talarico defeats his candidate in one of the marquee U.S. Senate races of the midterms.
Asked for comment, White House spokesperson Lauren Bis told Newsweek: “Miles 'Anonymous' Taylor is a leaker with Trump derangement syndrome. No one cares what this washed-up has-been has to say." In recent days, courts have rejected the Trump administration’s appeal to reject 20,000 mail-in ballots in California, and a bid to block Alaska from certifying the results of a closely watched Senate race. And on Tuesday, the Department of Justice said it has deployed 1,000 federal election monitors and observers to all 50 states in what it said is the largest Election Day monitoring effort in history.
In Texas, the DOJ said monitors are being deployed to seven counties: Bexar, Dallas, Harris, Waller, Blanco, Bowie and Nueces. Taylor said in the event of Paxton's defeat, the Trump administration is likely to focus efforts on Harris County, Texas’ most populous county. Kamin has set up an election protection legal task force of over 30 attorneys, Houston Public Media reported.
"I will not allow anyone, not even a president, to undermine the fundamental right to vote. My office continues to stand up in court to ensure that no agency, at any level of government, interferes with our elections.” Newsweek has contacted the FBI as well as the Paxton and Talarico campaigns for comment via email. Taylor’s comments come as the showdown between Paxton, the state’s attorney general who has been dogged by past scandals and accusations of corruption, and Talarico, a state lawmaker and seminarian, has become a huge test of Republican dominance in Texas, with Talarico giving Democrats their best chance yet of breaking a 30-year losing streak in the state that Trump carried by nearly 14 points in 2024.
The final polls of the race show Talarico ahead in a state that has not elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate since 1988, and where a Democrat has not won a statewide office since 1994. It comes as Republicans are scrambling to defend their Senate majority, as races in reliably red states became unexpectedly competitive as voters grow increasingly frustrated over high costs and the war with Iran, which have contributed to Trump’s falling approval ratings across the country.
Taylor, who is no longer a member of the Republican Party but says he remains a stalwart conservative, said the fact the Senate race in Texas is so competitive is a reflection of how voters feel about Trump’s leadership. Paxton defeated Senator John Cornyn in a primary runoff in May with the help of a late endorsement from Trump, part of his efforts to oust lawmakers he viewed as insufficiently loyal to him. Many establishment Republicans had rallied behind Cornyn, viewing Paxton as a liability in a general election because of his highly publicized history of legal and political troubles.
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