John Cornyn

Trey Gowdy slammed the president’s disastrous endorsement as fresh polling showed his MAGA pick trailing.

Donald Trump’s decision to pick Ken Paxton to run for the Senate has been savaged after a half-billion-dollar election-spending blitz failed to dent his Democratic rival’s lead in the polls.

On the eve of the midterms, Fox News host Trey Gowdy, 62, attacked the president’s decision to back Paxton, 63, over incumbent Texas Sen. John Cornyn, 74.

His intervention came as a new New York Times/Siena poll put Democrat James Talarico, 37, 7 points ahead of Paxton, at 50 percent to 43 percent, as Texans head to the polls.

“I was laying in bed the other night wondering how do I blow $500 million?” Gowdy, a former Republican congressman who chaired the House Oversight Committee, told Bret Baier on Monday’s Special Report.

Gowdy’s simple answer was that Trump should have selected John Cornyn rather than Ken Paxton.

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He shared his own calculations that Cornyn had voted with Trump 99.3 percent of the time, highlighting how the GOP had spent an extraordinary sum replacing a senator who was overwhelmingly loyal to the president.

Gowdy, who now hosts Sunday Night in America on Fox News, argued that the massive sums spent pushing Paxton could have helped Republicans in competitive Senate contests instead.

The GOP “spent half a billion dollars that could have gone to South Carolina, could have gone to Maine, could have gone to Nebraska, Kansas,” he said. “But they’re trying to drag Ken Paxton over the finish line when all you had to do was nominate John Cornyn.”

When Baier asked whether Paxton would be victorious, Gowdy admitted he doubted Talarico would win, but argued the Republican Party had made the task much harder by choosing Paxton.

Trump, 80, endorsed Paxton in May’s Republican runoff despite warnings from party officials about the Texas attorney general’s political vulnerabilities. Cornyn had finished first in the initial three-way primary contest but lost the runoff after Trump got himself involved.

The resulting campaign has become eye-wateringly expensive, with spending across the primaries and general election at $544.5 million by Nov. 1, according to advertising figures from AdImpact, cited by CBS News Texas. This makes the race the most expensive on record.

A leaked fundraising memo revealed Paxton’s financial difficulties in October, with his campaign struggling to match Talarico’s advertising operation despite massive support from GOP donors and outside groups.

Paxton has also faced questions about his suitability after the Republican-controlled Texas House impeached him in 2023 over corruption allegations, although the state Senate subsequently acquitted him, his wife accused him of adultery in divorce proceedings, and his love of taxpayer-funded world travel.

The warning signs that he may lose the race have continued to grow in the campaign’s final days. On Monday, the Daily Beast revealed that Paxton had received a muted reception at a small gathering near San Antonio, while Talarico held an event at a much bigger venue.

However, the seven-point New York Times/Siena advantage didn’t show up in every survey, and others suggest the contest will be closer.

A Trafalgar poll conducted over the same weekend found the candidates effectively tied, while the RealClearPolling average showed Talarico ahead by approximately 2.6 points.

The Daily Beast has contacted the Republican National Committee and Paxton’s campaign for comment.

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