Ken Paxton’s ‘October Surprises’ Are Pure Disinformation

“As polls for the Senate race between Republican Ken Paxton and Democrat James Talarico remain tight, right-wing influencers, media outlets, and Paxton campaign surrogates have taken their shot at ginning up an ‘October surprise‘ by spreading at least two extraordinary stories aimed to discredit Talarico,” the Texas Observer reports.

“The first was that Talarico, who was taking time off the campaign trail early this month to recover from the flu, had actually checked into a psychiatric hospital in Ohio due to a mental breakdown. The second, which unfolded as early voting kicked off, involved unsolicited text messages and mailers sent to Texan voters regarding resources for transgender youth—a topic that Paxton has said is his best line of political attack and that his campaign’s largest financial backer, Elon Musk, has hammered Talarico on in recent weeks.”

“But both stories turned out to be disinformation, spread maliciously or recklessly in many cases by amateur-ish ‘influencers’ whose shoddy work was easily exposed.”