{"id":605312,"date":"2026-05-21T11:50:24","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T11:50:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/?p=605312"},"modified":"2026-05-21T11:50:24","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T11:50:24","slug":"harry-enten-points-to-data-suggesting-democrats-can-absolutely-win-texas-senate-seat-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/?p=605312","title":{"rendered":"Harry Enten points to data suggesting Democrats can \u2018absolutely\u2019 win Texas Senate seat"},"content":{"rendered":"
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CNN\u2019s Harry Enten thinks Democrats \u201ccould very well\u201d pull out a victory as he looked into polling from Texas\u2019s U.S. Senate race.<\/p>\n

The network\u2019s senior data analyst told anchor John Berman that he wanted to dispel suggestions that Democrats have no path to victory in the Lone Star State, where, he said, President Donald Trump is \u201cconsiderably less popular.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s simply put\u2014they\u2019re looking at the numbers. They are looking at numbers, and the idea that Democrats can\u2019t win in Texas, I want to put that to rest. They could very well do it. James Talarico could very well win in Texas,\u201d Enten said Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\n

Talarico winning in Texas is no fantasy.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s polling better than any Dem Senate nominee at this point since 2002.<\/p>\n

Unlike O\u2019Rourke in 2018, Talarico\u2019s ahead now. Paxton\u2019s much less popular than Cruz was.<\/p>\n

Trump is less popular now than in 2018.<\/p>\n

The GOP is right to be scared. pic.twitter.com\/Kg5ceNn46j<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 (((Harry Enten))) (@ForecasterEnten) May 20, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cAnd I want to use a comparison point with 2018 because there was all this talk about Beto O\u2019Rourke, right? \u2018Oh, could he beat Ted Cruz?\u2019 He could beat Ted. The numbers at this point in that campaign simply put did not support that conclusion. But the numbers at that point absolutely support the conclusion that James Talarico can win,\u201d Enten continued, referring to the state lawmaker who won the Democratic Senate nomination earlier this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo take a look. Texas Senate polls in May of the election year. When you matched up O\u2019Rourke, Beto O\u2019Rourke versus Ted Cruz, Ted Cruz was up by 7 points. He was clearly ahead. But look at the polling average now when you match up Ken Paxton versus James Talarico. It\u2019s actually Talarico that\u2019s ahead by 4 points,\u201d Enten continued his analysis, adding that Talarico \u201cis polling better than any Democrat in at least 24 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to go all the way back to 2002 to find a Democrat even polling anywhere close to where Talarico is polling right now. Texas Democrats have dreamt about turning it blue. This time, the numbers actually support the idea that they may actually be able to do it,\u201d he contended.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s the difference between Cruz and Ken Paxton?\u201d Berman asked, bringing up the 2018 elections.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, the idea that Ted Cruz was not that popular\u2014that\u2019s a falsehood. That is simply put a false statement,\u201d Enten responded, noting that \u201cTexas GOP candidate net favorability, Ted Cruz\u2019s net favorability was actually plus seven points in my average. Look what Ken Paxton is. The complete inverse of that\u2014he\u2019s seven points underwater.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 2018, Democrats had this dream of turning Texas blue. The numbers didn\u2019t support it in large part because Ted Cruz is actually decently popular. But Ken Paxton is anything but. In poll after poll after poll, he is underwater. No wonder Republican senators are running scared, especially after that Trump endorsement of Paxton yesterday,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrump is considerably less popular in Texas, which of course matches what we\u2019re seeing nationally, which is that Donald Trump is less popular now than he was at this point in term one,\u201d Entend concluded, putting it \u201call together\u201d to contend that \u201cTexas is absolutely in play.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDoes that mean that Democrats will finally win their first Senate race since 1988 in Lloyd Bentsen? I\u2019m not saying that. But it is a real possibility,\u201d he told Berman. \u201cWhat you are saying is 2026 is different than 2018. It is different than every campaign that I have been around for.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CNN\u2019s Harry Enten thinks Democrats \u201ccould very well\u201d pull out a victory as he looked into polling from Texas\u2019s U.S. Senate race. The network\u2019s senior data analyst told anchor John Berman that he wanted to dispel suggestions that Democrats have no path to victory in the Lone Star State, where, he said, President Donald Trump… Continue reading Harry Enten points to data suggesting Democrats can \u2018absolutely\u2019 win Texas Senate seat<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":605299,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[18,19,10,21,12,11,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-605312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cancel-culture","category-censorship","category-civil-liberties","category-election-integrity","category-equal-justice","category-free-speech","category-religious-freedom","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=605312"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605312\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/605299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=605312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=605312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=605312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}