Must-Win MAGA Senate Candidate Makes Excruciating Error

Welcome to Midterms Meltdown, a special pop-up newsletter from The Swamp—bringing you up to the minute with the secrets the politicians don’t want you to know about the race to November 3.

It is the most consequential election campaign since 2024, and the nooze will be oozing around the nation to shape D.C. for the next two years and beyond. Our David Gardner, Farrah Tomazin, Sarah Ewall-Wice, and Laura Esposito, are getting down and dirty with the inside stories from the battlefields every Monday and Friday.

Melting down in The Swamp today are: Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, James Talarico, Ted Cruz, Tracy Duhon, Jared Isaacman, Pete Rickets, Brandon Gill, Ken Paxton, Ned Lamont, Jessica Tarlov, John Kennedy, and Aphrodite.

Paxton on Cruz Control After Talarico Calls Out Mediterranean Mix-Up

Given Ted Cruz’s history of vacationing in hotspots when floods and ice storms paralyze Texas, it is hardly surprising voters were confused by a typo from Ken Paxton that suggested the two Republicans were going to a rally together on a sunshine island.

The Texas attorney general, Trump’s pick for the Republican Senate seat in Texas, thanked supporters who attended a campaign event in Lubbock. “The campaign continues to grow every day,” he, or his team, posted on social media. “Next stop: Cyprus with the great @Ted Cruz. We will keep Texas, Texas.”

But there’s something of a flaw with going to Cyprus to “keep Texas, Texas.”

Swamp readers will remember we revealed in July 2025 how Cruz was vacationing in Athens right after the Guadalupe River burst its banks and swept away dozens of lives. Cruz, 55, also flew to Cancun right after Winter Storm Uri paralyzed Texas in February 2021.

This time, though, the senator with designs on a 2028 White House run was staying in Texas. No Mediterranean rally at the birthplace of Aphrodite. It was at Cypress, near Houston, and Paxton had simply misspelled it.

The Senate hopeful, 63, deleted the post, but not before his Democratic Party rival James Talarico, 37, pounced on his mistake.

“It’s Cypress, not ‘Cyprus,’” he wrote. “But for all the time you spend on luxury vacations in Europe, it’s no surprise you don’t know Texas.”

It’s not just Cruz who enjoys a trip abroad, after all. A GOP strategist apparently told the San Antonio Current that Paxton ‘has more baggage than a 747.” The remark came after he was busted by a U.S. tourist in London while vacationing on July 4 (the 250th anniversary of the United States FWIW) with his lover, Christian influencer Tracy Duhon, 58.

And Second MAGA Texan Misfires

Speaking of Texas, Rep. Brandon Gill is being crucified online for an ad he cut that was meant to attack Talarico. It shows the Republican Texas congressman talking directly to camera from behind the wheel of a vehicle. It was created to look like he’s driving, with captions meant to criticize the Democratic Senate candidate appearing on the screen beside his head.

But in a major blunder for those behind the ad, Protecting America’s Future Super PAC, the clip never shows an image of the very person it’s supposed to be against, and if watched on mute, viewers could easily get the impression that it is an anti-Gill ad, going so far as to show the Republican Texas lawmaker on screen with the words “Stands With Child Predators” right next to his face. Not exactly the message makers would want associated with a person some in MAGAland have hailed as the future of the GOP.

Hey Big Spender… Sorry Two of You, Right?

Despite GOP fretting about how much President Donald Trump will help them out with their midterm spending, the president has been raking in whopping amounts of cash ahead of the November election. MAGA Inc. raised more than $23.7 million last month, its latest monthly FEC filing showed. At the same time, it spent just over $11 million and had nearly $416 million in cash at the end of last month. The super PAC’s biggest donors were the crypto twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, who gave $10 million in bitcoin. (Collectively, not each.)

NASA administrator Jared Isaacman also gave $2 million. The filing was the last one before Trump’s PAC started dolling out some larger sums for races across the country. It already dropped $15 million directly to help save Ken Paxon’s Texas Senate bid, but the No Going Back PAC tied the MAGA Inc. has more recently started spending millions in a series of Senate and House races across the country.

Burning Bridges on the Way Out

Retiring Democratic Rep. Jared Golden, fresh off facing wrath for bucking House Democratic leadership as he heads for the congressional exit, turned heads with another jab on his way out the door: writing an op-ed in support of GOP Rep. Mike Lawler. Some might argue the New York Republican’s race is already locked in for him, but it’s still rated a “toss-up.” In the Maine Democrat’s essay titled “I’m a Democrat in Congress. NY should re-elect Mike Lawler,” Golden praised Lawler as a “true partner” in Congress. Perhaps that shows just how tough the race really is for Lawler as he touts an endorsement from an outgoing Democrat from 500 miles away, while also heading down to Dallas just a few weeks ago to drum up MAGA support at Trump’s convention.

The Big Poll Loser

Ryan Fazio is polling 17 points behind opponent Ned Lamont.

A rising blue tide is good news for a string of incumbent governors, but (thanks to term limits) few have the longevity of Connecticut’s Ned Lamont. “Ned Lamont seems favored to win a third term as governor, as his opponent Ryan Fazio fights a name recognition handicap in a predominantly Democratic state,” said Doug Schwartz, Associate Vice President and Director of the Quinnipiac University Poll.

What Donald Trump Is Saying

The president, putting his own name in quotation marks: “Gas prices were much higher under Biden than under ‘TRUMP.’ So were almost all other prices.”

What the Democrats Are Saying

“Less crazy.” Jessica Tarlov, Democratic strategist and Fox News’ resident liberal, gives Bill Maher the most succinct of elevator pitches.

What the Republicans Are Saying

“I’m here for one reason besides the fact that I love Nebraska. I shouldn’t say this, but I love Nebraska better than sex. Not really, okay, but I love Nebraska, but that’s not why I’m here. I’m here for Pete Ricketts,” Republican Sen. John Kennedy.