Must-Win MAGA Senate Candidate Makes Excruciating Error

Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty/Reuters Welcome to Midterms Meltdown, a special pop-up newsletter from The Swamp—bringing you up to the minute with the secrets the politicians don’t want you to know about the race to November 3.

It is the most consequential election campaign since 2024, and the nooze will be oozing around the nation to shape D.C. for the next two years and beyond.

Our David Gardner , Farrah Tomazin , Sarah Ewall-Wice , and Laura Esposito , are getting down and dirty with the inside stories from the battlefields every Monday and Friday.

Melting down in The Swamp today are : Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, James Talarico, Ted Cruz, Tracy Duhon, Jared Isaacman, Pete Rickets, Brandon Gill, Ken Paxton, Ned Lamont, Jessica Tarlov, John Kennedy, and Aphrodite.

Paxton on Cruz Control After Talarico Calls Out Mediterranean Mix-Up Given Ted Cruz ’s history of vacationing in hotspots when floods and ice storms paralyze Texas, it is hardly surprising voters were confused by a typo from Ken Paxton that suggested the two Republicans were going to a rally together on a sunshine island.

The Texas attorney general, Trump’s pick for the Republican Senate seat in Texas, thanked supporters who attended a campaign event in Lubbock.

“The campaign continues to grow every day,” he, or his team, posted on social media.

“Next stop: Cyprus with the great @Ted Cruz.

We will keep Texas, Texas.” But there’s something of a flaw with going to Cyprus to “keep Texas, Texas.” Swamp readers will remember we revealed in July 2025 how Cruz was vacationing in Athens right after the Guadalupe River burst its banks and swept away dozens of lives.

Cruz, 55, also flew to Cancun right after Winter Storm Uri paralyzed Texas in February 2021.

This time, though, the senator with designs on a 2028 White House run was staying in Texas.

No Mediterranean rally at the birthplace of Aphrodite .

It was at Cypress, near Houston, and Paxton had simply misspelled it.

The Senate hopeful, 63, deleted the post, but not before his Democratic Party rival James Talarico , 37, pounced on his mistake.