Neil Bush, brother of former President George W. Bush, says he voted for Democrat James Talarico and faulted Ken Paxton’s record in the Texas Senate race.
CBS News reported that Bush said Tuesday he cast his ballot for Talarico as early voting got underway, laying out his reasons in a Facebook post that also hit President Trump’s enablers.
The race pits Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, the Republican nominee, against Talarico, a Democrat and seminarian. Bush framed the choice as one about character, not a quiet shrug at party labels.
Texas has not sent a Democrat to the U.S. Senate since 1988. Even so, Talarico has held a narrow lead in most polls, including a recent CBS News survey, and the network’s Battleground Tracker rates the contest a toss-up.
Bush wrote that two forces drove his vote: worry over Paxton’s record and respect for the traits he sees in Talarico.
"My vote was motivated by two things: deep concern about Ken Paxton's record and genuine admiration for the character and principles I see in James Talarico."
He said he has been a Republican for most of his life and still holds to many traditional Republican principles. Then he drew a hard line.
"But character matters more than party affiliation."
Bush said he has never met Talarico. He still praised the way the Democrat handles hard issues, saying Talarico speaks with respect, looks for common ground, and tries to pull people together instead of splitting them apart.
"Our democracy depends on leaders who respect our institutions, tell the truth, accept accountability, and seek to unite rather than divide."
Bush said he is deeply troubled by Paxton’s conduct as attorney general, especially Paxton’s decision to challenge 2020 presidential election results in other states in an effort to help Donald Trump stay in power. That account is Bush’s own description of the fight.
Paxton’s public record is longer than one election dispute. He was indicted on securities fraud charges in 2015 and later resolved the case through a diversion agreement. In 2023, the GOP-controlled Texas House impeached him on separate accusations of bribery and abuse of office. The state Senate acquitted him.
Family history runs through the rivalry. George P. Bush, a nephew of Neil and George W. Bush, mounted an unsuccessful primary challenge against Paxton for attorney general in 2022.
Paxton toppled incumbent Sen. John Cornyn in a bitter Republican primary earlier this year after President Trump endorsed him. Trump has kept up that support in the general election and has made several trips to Texas to campaign for him.
In his post, Bush criticized Trump and “those who have enabled him,” saying they caused “enormous damage to the Republican Party.” That charge comes from Bush, not from any finding in the reporting beyond his statement.
Since George W. Bush left office in 2009, most Bush family members have generally avoided open criticism of a sitting president. Neil Bush’s post breaks that pattern in plain view.
For much of the 20th century, Democrats ran Texas politics. George W. Bush’s 1994 defeat of Democratic Gov. Ann Richards marked a turning point. Within a decade, Republicans had swept every statewide office, redrawn the U.S. House map, and taken majorities in both houses of the Legislature.
That machine is why a competitive Senate race still startles. Democrats see an opening this year. Republicans hold the structural edge built since the mid-1990s, and Paxton enters the general election as the nominee primary voters chose with Trump’s backing.
Bush cast his own ballot as a statement about Paxton’s record and Talarico’s manner. He did not claim to speak for the rest of the family, the state party, or the voters who have kept Texas a Republican Senate seat for a generation.
One famous surname on a Democratic line does not erase what Texas Republicans built, or the verdict primary voters already delivered.
