Leaders of the U.S. Hispanic Business Council knew it would be hard to get Ken Paxton to show up to their Senate town hall event. So, they turned to an unexpected ally: Sen. Ted Cruz.
Javier Palomarez, the council’s president and CEO, needed help since his own background – as both a Democrat and longtime ally of Paxton’s rival in the primary, Sen. John Cornyn – wouldn’t appeal to the Texas attorney general.
Cruz, however, was eager to step in. Soon, Palomarez was discussing logistics for the town hall with Paxton’s team; Paxton joined the event last week.
“We needed to find common ground and people that he trusted, that I trusted … and that clearly was Ted Cruz,” Palomarez said. “I don’t agree with Ted on a litany of shit, but at the end of the day, the guy’s always been a good partner to me and to the small business community.”
Cruz’s involvement hints at the significant behind-the-scenes role he is playing in this year’s high-stakes Texas Senate race — part-time adviser, part-time bundler, full-time believer that Paxton will pull out a win and keep Cruz from representing Texas alongside a Democrat.
Paxton’s inner circle is dotted with longtime Cruz allies, and Cruz’s aid could further cement his position as a Texas kingmaker in retiring GOP Sen. John Cornyn’s absence, earn new allies and boost his national profile ahead of a potential 2028 presidential bid. But if Paxton fails, it could be a black eye for Cruz.
“It is absolutely critical that Texas stay red, that Republicans keep a majority in the U.S. Senate and the House, and that we elect Ken Paxton instead of James Talarico,” Cruz said in an interview. “And so I am all in.”
Paxton’s campaign declined to comment for this story.
For decades, Cornyn has been the gatekeeper to Texas’ GOP donor class. But his loss has put Cruz even more at the center of Texas’ deep-pocketed donor community, letting him flex muscles first developed during his 2016 presidential run as Paxton tries to hold off Talarico and his fundraising machine. Paxton raised $18 million in the last quarter, some of those donations coming from first-time donors introduced to him by Cruz.
“Ted doesn’t go through a meeting in Texas where he’s not telling donors they’ve got to get on board,” said one person close to both Cruz and Paxton, granted anonymity to discuss private conversations.
Cruz has regularly campaigned alongside Paxton and frequently jabs Talarico on his popular podcast. His super PAC has gone on air with anti-Talarico advertising. And in addition to greasing the rails with his big-money donors in the Lone Star State, he’s acting as an informal adviser, regularly speaking withPaxton, according to two people familiar with their conversations.The political orbits of Cruz and Paxton have significant overlap. Axiom Strategies — the GOP firm run by Jeff Roe, who led Cruz’s 2016 presidential campaign — has long worked with both men. Nick Maddux, senior adviser to the Paxton campaign, was a key staffer in Cruz’s 2018 and 2024 reelection efforts. Sam Cooper, a longtime Cruz adviser, is now a senior strategist for the pro-Paxton Lone Star Liberty PAC.
Cruz stayed neutral during the messy primary between Cornyn and Paxton. He came off the sidelines after the runoff.
“Ted was one of the first ones that understood that, hey, this guy just got hit with $200 million of negative advertising. He’s running against an opponent who’s going to be well-funded,” said Cooper. “He’s going to need some help.”
Within a week of Paxton’s primary runoff victory in May, Cruz emceed a Washington fundraiser for Paxton, urging attendees to come together and support the Republican nominee. Days later, Cruz joined Paxton for a Texas fly-around, stopping in Dallas, Houston and Midland all in one day, to meet with donors. Cruz said they secured $3 million in donations on that day.
Cruz has presented himself as an emissary between more traditional GOP donors and Paxton’s hardline MAGA world.
“The case I’ve been making to donors who previously supported John Cornyn is, at this point, it’s a binary choice, and I think the choice is very clear,” Cruz said, noting he’s had “hundreds of conversations” with donors. “Many, if not most, of the longtime Paxton donors are also supporters of mine, but many, if not most, of the longtime Cornyn donors are supporters of mine, as well. And so I do think I’m able to bridge those two worlds.”
But Cruz’s involvement also carries some risk. Paxton is trailing in most recent polls, and Democrats are increasingly hopeful this is the cycle they finally flip a Texas Senate seat. If Paxton goes down, he could stifle Cruz’s momentum ahead of 2028, when other Republican hopefuls may attempt to lay the blame at Cruz’s feet.
“This is smart on Ted’s part,” said one longtime Texas Republican strategist not affiliated with either man, granted anonymity to speak openly. “It cements him with Paxton supporters as being the guy who stood up for him, and it allows him to expand his reach and have a greater claim on having a unified Texas behind him if he makes a run in 2028.”
If Paxton loses, “he put his best foot forward, and it’s going to be Paxton’s fault that he lost, not Ted Cruz’s,” the person said.
Cruz’s super PAC, Truth and Courage, was one of the first to go up backing Paxton, reserving over $2 million on air with an anti-Talarico ad, according to data from tracking firm AdImpact — though that spend has since been swamped by major buys from the Senate Leadership Fund’s PAC and other pro-Republican groups.
Cruz has hosted or participated in several fundraisers for Paxton, both in person and on Zoom. One of them — a fundraiser hosted by Cruz’s PAC on the sidelines of the Republican midterm convention, a confab Paxton later said “dropped our numbers” — featured dozens of donors crammed into an apartment in a glitzy uptown Dallas high-rise, in such close quarters that some of Paxton’s staffers were relegated to work on the balcony.
“It was incredibly well attended,” recalled Rep. Randy Fine (R-Florida), who spoke at the fundraiser. “You couldn’t move.”