Republicans contend with a fatal problem in the Texas Senate race, and I've got three interviews,

Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate in Texas, James Telerico, Pot Save America co-host Tommy

Vitor, and Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate in Illinois, Juliana Stratton. I'm Brian

Tyler Cohen, and you're listening to No Lie. Republicans have been contending with one problem after another in Texas.

So first, James Hilariko, who'd been consistently polling highest against either John

Cornyn or Ken Paxton, won the Democratic primary.

Then Trump endorsed the worst polling Ken Paxton, who went on to win the Republican primary.

But it was this latest update that poses

a legitimately fatal issue for Republicans' hopes of keeping the Senate seat. According to a new poll

from Texas public opinion research, which took place after the Republican runoff, not only is

James Tala Rico leading Ken Paxton 47 to 44, but 30% of Cornynanoff voters say they would vote for Tala Rico in the election.

That is untenable if you are Ken Paxton.

And lest you think that this was just some poll of like crunchy liberals, the same poll

has Republican Governor Greg Abbott leading his Democratic challenger Gina Inahosa, 46 to 41,

in the governor's race, which means that many of the same people who are voting for Greg Abbott

are also avowed voters for James Talarico now. And that all might be owed to the fact that

Talarico has a net positive favorability of seven points, while Paxton's favorability is at

negative 19 points.

Also worth noting that Beto O'Rourke, who came within two and a half points of beating Ted Cruz

in 2018, was actually trailing Cruz at this point in the cycle by about 10 points.

The fact that Telarico is up by three points is obviously good news if you're looking to

flip Texas from red to blue,

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