Abbott Curse Claims Resurface as Paxton
Leads in Poll and Dem Accused of Trysts
Capitol Inside
June 6, 2026
As Governor Greg Abbott's critics accused him of jinxing the San Antonio Spurs with a cheesy attempt to cash in on an NBA championship series run, a conservative British tabloid on Saturday blew a hole in the GOP's bizarre push to paint Democrat James Talarico as a candidate who isn't manly enough to represent Texas in the U.S. Senate.
"There’s only one person to blame for the 0-2 start to this series," Democratic State Rep. Joe Moody of El Paso said in a post on X this morning complete with the hashtag #AbbottCurse.
The Republicans received a piece of good news that's been rare in the 2026 election season when a new poll that was released on Friday showed the GOP's Ken Paxton with a 2-point lead over Talarico in the Texas Senate battle. While the state attorney general's advantage fell within the margin of error of 3.5 percent, the Quantus Insights poll marked the first time that Talarico wasn't leading or deadlocked with Paxton in surveys on the Senate competition that have been taken since the primary election in March.
Talarico's average lead of 4 points in seven previous polls on the Texas race fell to 3 points with the Quantus Insight survey of 800 likely Texas voters that was conducted a week after Paxton ousted veteran U.S. Senator John Cornyn in a primary runoff election with 64 percent of the vote. The only other poll here after the runoff vote found Talarico leading the newly-nominated Republican by 3 percentage points late last week.
The new Quantus Insights poll found Republicans with their biggest leads yet in other major statewide races - with Abbott up on Democrat Gina Hinojosa by 8 points while Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick in front of State Rep. Vikki Gooidwin by 9 points as the Democrtic nominee in the Texas Senate president's race. The Quantus survey showed GOP State Senator Mayes Middleton leading Democratic State Senator Nathan Johnson by a dozen points in a fight to replace Paxton as the top Texas lawyer. Abbott and Patrick both were backed by 49 percent of the Quantus survey participants while Middleton scored support from 47 percent. Middleton and Paxton both joined the GOP's statewide ticket with victories last week in overtime over U.S. Rep. Chip Roy and Cornyn respectively.
Quantus Insights had been one of the most accurate polling sources in the U.S. in 2024. The firm found Paxton leading Cornyn by 9 points several days before the runoff election after scoring an endorsement from President Donald Trump the week before. A Quantus survey a couple of weeks after the March primary election found him on Cornyn by 8 points. Paxton beat Cornyn by 28 points in the runoff vote May 26.
Talarico may have received a significant break on Saturday - however - when the Daily Mail in London published a story under a headline that Republicans would have been eager to use against him here in the past. Revealed: Texas Senate hopeful James Talarico's history of romantic trysts with young state House staffers includes aide he wooed with flowers, traded heart emojis and called his queen
The tabloid promoted the piece on X with three photos of women who've been ostensible Talarico love interests while working as aides in the House - based on the article. While the DM story gave Republicans another reason to criticize Talarico for being romantically involved with staffers - especially those on his own staff - it shoots a torpedo through bogus claims that President Donald Trump and his allies have peddled on the Democratic Senate contender being a gay vegan who's transitioning to the female gender.
Talarico has made it a point to show himself eating meat in social media posts since Republicans decided for the first time in their history here to make a candidate's diet an issue in a political campaign. Talarico has used the false innuendos to showcase the rising cost of beef that's putting some Texas restaurants out of business as a product of the president's economic policies and the state and federal governments' sluggish response to the first screwworm outbreak in cattle here since the 1960s.
The Republicans won't be able to hit Talarico on his love life in light of mistresses who Paxton was accused of having while he was still married to his wife - Republican State Senator Angela Paxton of McKinney. The AG's spouse sued him for divorce last year on "biblical grounds" stemming from the alleged infidelity.
Abbott in the meantime found himself to be a convenient scapegoat for the Spurs' crushing one-point loss to the New York Knicks on Friday night in game two of the NBA championship series at the Frost Bank Center in the Alamo City. The governor set himself for mockery late last week when he post an AI-fabricated photo that showed him dunking the basketball in a San Antonio uniform in an imaginary game against the Knicks that the Spurs were leading by 60 points in the third quarter. Abbott appears to be knocking Democratic New York Governor Kathy Hochul to the ground in the fake graphic that shows Trump erupting in glee from a seat on the court beside the basket.
Abbott is wearing a Spurs jersey in the picture with the same number that the team's young superstar Victor Wembanyama has on his game shirt. It may or may not be coincidence that the 22-year-old Frenchman who everyone calls Wemby had two of his worst games as a professional after the Texas governor sought to siphon some of the glory that he and his teammates had earned.
After falling 10 points short in game one and falling apart in the final minute of the second NBA finals contest in SA, the Spurs run the risk of being swept now with the next two games on the road at Madison Square Gardens. Fans with a penchant for superstition are pointing fingers at the Texas governor while Hochul is the one laughing now.
The hashtag on the Abbott curse first appeared on X when it was still known as Twitter in his first year on the job as the governor in 2015. Abbott said at the time that he hoped to see the Houston Astros play the Texas Rangers in the Major League Baseball's world series when both teams were competing in conference finals. Neither Texas team advanced beyond that point, however - after Kansas City eliminated the Astros and the Rangers fell to Tornoto.
Abbott rejected claims that he'd been bad luck for the Texas baseball teams. "I don't believe in curses or jinks," the governor wrote in a Twitter post on October 14, 2015. "But just in case they really work: Congratulations @HillaryClinton."
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