MAGA Candidate Keeps Quiet as Party Breaks With Trump
MAGA firebrand Ken Paxton is staying mum on in-vitro fertilization after Republicans in his home state broke with President Trump by opposing the treatment.
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The Trump-endorsed Senate candidate finds himself at the center of a growing rift between the president and Texas Republicans after party delegates voted over the weekend to adopt a platform calling for an end to IVF access in the state.
The state delegates also called for a legislative session that would ban IVF and “hold rogue officials accountable for failing to defend life… [and] protect fetal life from destructive practices, such as IVF and commercial surrogacy.”
Paxton, the state’s attorney general, has not made his stance on IVF publicly known. His campaign did not respond to the Daily Beast’s repeated requests for comment.
Paxton has been a staunch defender of Texas’s near-total abortion ban, which defines an “unborn child” as “an individual living member of the homo sapiens species from fertilization until birth, including the entire embryonic and fetal stages of development.”
IVF treatment created an upheaval in conservative politics in 2024 after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled frozen embryos were “unborn children,” prompting clinic closures and national backlash.
Republicans quickly jumped to defend IVF, with MAGA Sen. Ted Cruz proposing federal legislation to “ensure that states do not prohibit access to [IVF] services.”
Trump has also expressed strong support for IVF, telling NBC News in 2024 during the controversy, “I was always for IVF. Right from the beginning, as soon as we heard about it.” His administration has also signed an executive order and announced business agreements in an attempt to expand access and lower costs to the treatment.
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“In the Trump administration, we want to make it easier for all couples to have babies, raise children, and start the families they’ve always dreamed about,” Trump said at an Oval Office event promoting IVF last year.
The party’s platform is largely out of step with the state’s top politicians. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, and Sens. Cruz and John Cornyn have all voiced their support for IVF after the 2024 uproar.
Texas voters also largely support IVF access for women trying to conceive. A 2024 poll from the University of Texas/Texas Politics Project found that 68 percent of voters in the state oppose banning access to IVF treatment, including 65 percent of Republicans.
Trump endorsed Paxton right before his runoff election against incumbent Sen. Cornyn, calling him “someone who has always been extremely loyal to me and our AMAZING MAGA MOVEMENT,” while dissing Cornyn as disloyal and complaining he “was not supportive of me when times were tough.”
But there are already signs that the Trump endorsement may backfire on the GOP in the 2026 midterm elections, which are already expected to be a catastrophe for Republicans.
Some polling suggests that Democratic candidate James Talarico would have an easier time beating Paxton in a general election than he would have if he were running against Cornyn.
And Paxton is no stranger to scandals.
In 2023, the Texas House impeached him over allegations of bribery, abuse of public trust, and obstruction of justice. His ex-wife, Texas state Sen. Angela Paxton, divorced him on “biblical grounds” last year and refused to endorse him in his bid for the Senate.
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