Trump Snubs French, Sheets and 8 Nominees
for Texas Congressional Seats in Latest Plugs
Greg Abbott Gets Newest Pitch from President as His Kalshi Odds Hit Record Low for Fall Fight
while James Talarico Probability of Senate Victory Jumps to All-Time Highs on Prediction Markets
Texas General Election Polls
General Election Rankings
Capitol Inside
October 22, 2026
President Donald Trump gave the cold shoulder to a pair of Republican statewide candidates in Texas and eight GOP nominees for Congress on Thursday when he made a pitch for all of the other GOP nominees at those levels on the ballot for the midterm election 11 days from now.
Texas Railroad Commission contender Bo French and agriculture commissioner hopeful Nate Sheets both came up empty when Trump posted a list of Texas Republicans who he expects the voters to support. Trump also ignored the Republican candidates in eight U.S. House races in districts where they appear to have no chance when reminding the voters here who he's backing this fall in the Truth Social post.
But Sheets and French are dueling Democrats in down-ballot statewide contests for offices that could go blue if U.S. Senate hopeful Ken Paxton or Governor Greg Abbott or both lose at the polls on November 3 in fights with Democrats James Talarico and Gina Hinojosa respectively.
The latest plugs that Paxton and Abbott received from the president came as the probabilities of winning for Talarico and Hinojosa both vaulted on Thursday to record highs on the prediction markets Kalshi and Polymarket.
Talarico was listed as a 68 percent favorite in the Texas Senate race on both prediction platforms while Abbott's odds on Kalshi fell to 63 percent - a drop of 11 points since Monday. The governor hit a new low in the fight with Hinojosa on Polymarket as well on Thursday when his chances for keeping the job were rated at 66 percent there.
French faced a massive backlash in September when he posted a photo on X that showed Asian students in the stands at the University of Texas football game against Ohio State. French claimed the state's flagship campus had been overrun by foreigners and illegal immigrants.
Abbott, a UT graduate who's a huge Longhorns fan, condemned racism in general in the midst of the uproar over French. But none of the Republicans on the statewide ticket pulled their support for the RRC nominee as a consequence of the rant. Trump appears to be the first to take such action against the former Tarrant County GOP chairman - unless French's omission on the endorsement list was accidental.
French is doing battle with Democrat Jon Rosenthal for one of the three seats on the commission that regulates Texas oil and gas. Sheets faces Democrat Clayton Tucker in the fight for the agriculture commissioner position that Republican Sid Miller has held for nearly a dozen years.
Sheets unseated Miller in the GOP primary election in March. Trump issued an endorsement to Miller on the weekend before the primary vote several days later. But it proved to be too little too late when Sheets - thanks to heavy support from the governor - beat the incumbent by 5 points with nearly 53 percent of the first round vote.
Miller has appeared to be working actively against Sheets and Abbott both now without officially endorsing either Tucker or Hinojosa. Miller made an appearance on MS NOW on Wednesday with Tucker. Miller penned on op-ed this week on why Sheets should be the agriculture commissioner. But the outgoing state farm and ranch chief his keeping his cards to the chest on whom he plans to support at the ballot box - saying that's between him and God.
more to come ...
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