U.S. Representative Nathaniel Moran says he’s looking at character and electability
WHITEHOUSE, Texas — Rep. Nathaniel Moran, R-1st District, had never endorsed in any Republican primary… until now.
And he joined Inside Texas Politics to explain why he took a stand and endorsed incumbent Republican Sen. John Cornyn over Attorney General Ken Paxton.
“When we look at these two competitors that are vying for the United States Senate position, what you’re really looking for is a difference between the character on one side and the absence of character on the other. That’s the starting point for me,” Moran explained. “I think that character matters to conservatives. I think that John Cornyn has evidenced that, and on the other side, Ken Paxton has not.”
The Republican says the other reason he decided to endorse in the race is electability in the fall. And Moran thinks Sen. Cornyn has a better shot to defeat Democratic nominee James Talarico, who he thinks will be a “formidable opponent.”
A new statewide survey by the University of Houston’s Hobby School of Public Affairs showed Paxton leading Cornyn by three percentage points, 48% to 45%. That’s among 1,200 likely Republican runoff voters. They survey has a margin of error of +/- 2.83%.
When we asked Rep. Moran if he would back Paxton if he becomes the nominee, Moran answered with “we’ll see.”
We also asked the Congressman if he thought Paxton could defeat Talarico on Nov. 3.
“I have serious doubts about that because I think that there will be a lot of people that go to the polls in November, the ballot box in November that say, ‘you know, I’m just not sure that I want to vote for either one of them.’ So, I anticipate that if you have a Paxton-versus-Talarico race, you’re going to see a lot of under-vote of people showing up to the ballot box and just say ‘I’m just not willing to vote for either one of these guys,’” he answered.
We also discussed the Iran war with the Congressman, as the Pentagon recently told lawmakers it’s cost $25 billion since the start of the war.
Moran tells us Congress needs to have oversight, including timelines and exit strategies.
“Congress needs to have a very strong voice in this. We are the Article 1 branch of government. As the conflict carries on, we need to make sure that we say these are the conditions upon which we will actually allocate funds or not,” he said. “But when you’re talking about national security interests, $25 billion is a great investment.”