Dozen former GOP leaders back Texas Senate Democrat

Cross-party endorsements are multiplying in the final days before the November election.

In Texas, more than two dozen former Republican officials have backed Democratic U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico. The group includes Kel Seliger, a former GOP state senator, who announced his support this week. Seliger chose Talarico over the Republican candidate, Attorney General Ken Paxton.

"James Talarico is not some wild-eyed socialist," Seliger said. "And he may believe in a lot of things that Democratic Party believes in that I don't. But I think he's going to be honest. And I think he's going to be frank and direct."

Seliger added that he believes Talarico will act in the best interest of the state, not in the interest of billionaire Elon Musk.

Similar moves are occurring in other states. In Alaska, Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski endorsed Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins on Tuesday. In Kansas, former Republican governors Bill Graves and Mike Hayden announced their support for Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Adam Hamilton in September and October, respectively.

Republican officials say they anticipate similar crossover voting for their own candidates. Natalie Baldassarre, national press secretary for the Republican National Committee, pointed to the "Democrats for Mike Rogers" coalition in Michigan. She cited the race between Mike Rogers and Abdul El-Sayed as an example of this trend.

Joshua Blank, research director for the Texas Politics Project, cautioned that these shifts usually involve small numbers of voters. He described the phenomenon as idiosyncratic behavior among a tiny share of the electorate. Blank noted that while these votes might not change the outcome in a wide race, they could be decisive in contests where polling shows statistical ties.