Karl Rove and Donald Trump have final showdown in Texas general election 

President Donald Trump and Bush adviser Karl Rove have squared off for what might be the final time over the state of the Republican Party in Texas.

Trump and Rove have clashed in Colorado, Ohio and Arizona in previous races. But for Rove, Texas might be personal.

Trump launched a blistering attack on Rove after it was widely reported that the former Bush political “architect” said he would not vote for a GOP candidate after a social media post by a Texas GOP nominee was labeled as “racist.”

“Karl Rove is so bad for the Republican Party, and completely wrong so often,” Trump wrote on social media.

He called Rove a “loser” who supported candidates and ideas that Trump has consistently defeated over the last decade.

“Why does FoxNews and the WSJ keep his RINO Voice alive,” Trump added, using the acronym for “Republican in name only.”

In comments made at a private club in Austin, Rove told attendees that he would be voting for the Democrat after GOP Railroad Commissioner candidate Bo French posted a photo to social media of reportedly Indian students at the University of Texas (UT) celebrating at a college football game.

The Texas Railroad Commission helps regulate the oil and gas industry.

“I heard UT graduation this year looked like this,” French wrote on X about the foreign student group.

French added that he feels badly for students who aren’t admitted to the university because foreigners take their place.

The post was widely condemned across Texas.

A longstanding feud

Behind the social media posturing is a long-running dispute between Trump and Rove over the direction of the party in Texas.

Rove indisputably helped secure Texas for the GOP, but that was nearly 30 years ago.

Lately, things haven’t been as good for the “architect.”

Rove has close ties to Sen. John Cornyn, who recently suffered a GOP primary defeat by 28 points after Trump endorsed challenger Attorney General Ken Paxton for the spot.

Rove reportedly originally recruited Cornyn to run for Texas attorney general in 1998, in a move designed to defeat former GOP state chair Tom Pauken, a Christian conservative and Reagan Republican, the Texas Observer reported.

The Washington Post claimed Pauken was an avid opponent of both George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, feeling they were too liberal, even if both were Texans.

Indeed, as Texas attorney general, Cornyn reversed an opinion from former Democratic Attorney General Dan Morales, who in 1997 said a federal district court ruling stopped state universities from considering race as a factor in admissions and financial aid.

After four years in the attorney general’s office, Rove’s boss, President George W. Bush, recruited Cornyn to step up to the U.S. Senate, a seat he’s occupied for nearly a quarter of a century.

The recruitment was part of Bush’s push toward “compassionate conservatism,” which muted social policy and Christian conservatism in the GOP platform.

Paxton vs. Talarico

By contrast, Paxton has been a controversial, pro-Trump, activist attorney general. And like Trump, he’s been investigated, impeached and attacked by liberals and institutional Republicans such as Cornyn and Rove.

Paxton converted the Texas attorney general’s office into a battlefront to defend conservative values.

For example, he recently used the office to investigate local school districts that abused their authority to promote the “radical Left’s open borders agenda.”

The liberal Texas Monthly called his office “a kind of right-wing-base-affirming performance art.”

“In the history of Texas, he is the single greatest attorney general you’ve ever had,” Trump told a GOP convention audience in Dallas last week.

Paxton’s activist role drives Cornyn “crazy,” claimed Texas Monthly.

“I have to believe that the attorney general focusing on those sort of high-profile political-social issues comes at a loss to their representing the state and state agencies as their number one job,” he told the publication in September.

Cornyn has refused to stump for Paxton, calling his rival “a poor campaigner.”

Polling shows the race is tight between Paxton and James Talarico, the Democratic nominee, who is showing an average lead of 2.6%, within the margin of error.

It will likely come down to undecided voters, which could account for more than 10% of the vote total.

Trump seems to be taking the threat seriously.

Besides the shout-out at the Dallas GOP convention, the party is beginning to dump money into Paxton’s race.

The Senate Leadership Fund has reserved $32 million in Texas television advertising and is reportedly preparing to spend more than $50 million to support Paxton, said Texas Scorecard.

The publication reported that a Trump-aligned PAC will spend another $10 million in advertising, while an Elon Musk-backed PAC has begun voter-registration and get-out-the-vote operations on Paxton’s behalf.

No Democrat has won statewide office in Texas since 1994, and no Democrat has been elected to the U.S. Senate from Texas since Lloyd Bentsen in 1988, who was the Democratic vice presidential nominee that year.

The election will take place Nov. 3.

Whatever the outcome, it’s likely the last time Trump, 80, and Rove, 75, square off over Texas – at least with Trump as president.

(Image credit: Wikimedia Commons)