Do voters in 2026 care about a politician’s affairs or otherwise messy love life?
That’s the question Democrats are navigating as they try to defeat Ken Paxton, the Republican nominee for Senate in Texas, who overcame a blitz of TV ads from his G.O.P. primary rival assailing him as a “wife cheater” and publicizing his wife’s decision to file for divorce on “biblical grounds.”
James Talarico, the Democratic nominee, showed off one answer on Monday, when The Daily Mail published photos and a video of Mr. Paxton traveling with another woman over the weekend to Reykjavik, Iceland. Mr. Paxton is separated from his wife, with the divorce not yet final — but that didn’t discourage the British tabloid from headlining the article “Married Texas Republican caught on video with mistress on secret romantic getaway.”
In a social media post, Mr. Talarico shared the Daily Mail article, seizing on the Iceland vacation to try to portray Mr. Paxton as distant from working-class Americans.
“Ken Paxton was impeached for taking bribes from donors,” Mr. Talarico wrote on X late Monday, referring to Mr. Paxton’s 2023 impeachment on corruption charges, of which the State Senate acquitted him. “He became a multi-millionaire on a government salary. He takes lavish vacations in Iceland while Texans can’t afford the basics. Ken Paxton doesn’t serve us — he serves himself.” He did not directly refer to his opponent’s love life.
Mr. Paxton did not confirm or deny that he was romantically involved with the woman, and did not respond to a request for comment. His trial for divorce from Angela Paxton, a Texas state senator, was previously set to take place this month but was delayed.
Mr. Talarico’s love life also became fodder for speculation after he revealed on a podcast that he had a girlfriend “of many years” and met her while they worked together. The conservative online publication Current Revolt soon reported that he was dating Brianna Menard, Mr. Talarico’s former chief of staff, who is now a lobbyist at the Texas Medical Association. His campaign told The New York Post that the pair didn’t start dating until January 2023.
“After they developed feelings for each other, James’ girlfriend left the office to pursue other opportunities,” the campaign told The Austin American-Statesman in a statement.
The dust-up over Mr. Paxton’s vacation came as a New York Times/Siena poll showed the two candidates in a dead heat, with 47 percent of Texas voters supporting each one.
A majority of likely Texas voters saw Mr. Talarico, a Presbyterian seminarian, as having “good character” and “the right kind of moral values.” In contrast, fewer than 40 percent would say the same about Mr. Paxton, according to the survey.
In the Republican primary race, Senator John Cornyn lost by double digits to Mr. Paxton in May despite outspending him by more than $80 million on advertising and repeatedly slamming him over his scandals.
Whether Mr. Talarico can make such attacks stick in solidly red Texas remains an open question.
His decision not to directly discuss Mr. Paxton’s rocky marriage may reflect an awareness of American voters’ shifting views, strategists said.
Brendan Steinhauser, a Republican strategist in Texas, said that voters had made it clear that they weren’t concerned about candidates’ personal lives.
“Cornyn obviously spent a lot of money delivering messages about this, and it just didn’t work,” Mr. Steinhauser said. “The feedback I got was, ‘We want a disrupter, we want change, we want a fighter, and so we want Paxton.’”
He said that in a polarized country, voters on both sides were willing to overlook adultery if it meant their party had a better shot.
But at the same time, Mr. Cornyn’s work to inform voters of Mr. Paxton’s past controversies might help Mr. Talarico’s campaign, said Matt Angle, who runs the Lone Star Project, a Democratic political action committee.
“John Cornyn has exposed Ken Paxton’s corruption to Texans at a higher level than any Democrat ever has,” he said. “And he’s done a service to this country.”
Republicans have sought to paint Mr. Talarico as “weak and weird,” labeling him “Low T Talarico” in an attempt to question his masculinity. One recent ad spliced together clips of him saying that “God is nonbinary,” that Jesus had helped him “reckon with (his) own Whiteness” and that there were “many more than two genders.”
In a speech at the Texas Republican Convention in mid-June, Mr. Paxton claimed that Mr. Talarico was “the most radical Democrat in our state’s history.”
“No matter what you call him, one thing is clear: James Talarico is a threat to everything we hold dear as Texans,” Mr. Paxton said.
The recent Times/Siena poll, however, suggested that Republicans’ attempts to paint Mr. Talarico as too extreme may not be working yet. More voters in the survey, 50 percent, saw Mr. Paxton as “too extreme” than the 43 percent who saw Mr. Talarico that way.
Mr. Talarico is running an ad this week that is focused on affordability, showing him carrying a bag of groceries into a truck while promising to “take on corruption and keep fighting to lower your costs.”
