The campaign to re-elect John Cornyn recently published an attack ad aimed at Ken Paxton.
“Crooked Ken Paxton is soft on radical Islam,” the ad claims.
The ad goes on to argue that Paxton helped the Biden Administration resettle refugees during the withdrawal from Afghanistan – and this is not the only political race in Texas that has made Islam a talking point.
All across the state, Republicans are taking hard lines on Islam.
Forrest Wilder, senior writer at Texas Monthly, has been following has been following the story. He joined Texas Standard for a discussion. Listen to the interview in the player above or read the transcript below.
This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:
Texas Standard: I want to read the headline, the subhead. “Inside the Texas GOP’s Anti-Muslim Campaigning: With national prospects looking bleak for Republicans heading into the midterms, the party has dusted off an old bogeyman.”
Say more about that. Republicans concerned about what might happen here in the mid-terms?
Forrest Wilder: The midterms are never great for the party that’s the president’s, and also Trump’s approval ratings are dropping.
Some of the issues that were really salient for bringing Trump back to power are waning a bit. The border is quiet, thanks to Donald Trump, but the salience of that issue has decreased a bit, and some of the panic around transgender issues has waned.
And so I think it’s not a coincidence that you’re seeing some of these fears about the so-called “Islamification” come back to the fore as a campaign issue, a flashpoint for Republican candidates.
I want to underscore something because I can remember — this gets to the “bogeyman” comment that’s in your story — I can remember when anti-Islamic rhetoric was a political talking point in the wake of 9/11 and for many years after.
But you know, we’re talking about 20 years or more ago. Why do some politicians in Texas think Islam has political salience now in 2026?
Yeah, it is a little strange, right, because after 9/11, I mean, it’s not hard to figure out why there would be a panic around radical Islam in the wake of 9/11 terrorist attacks. Now it seems a little stranger, but I think it ties in with broader fears about immigration.
The fact of the matter is Muslims in Texas remain a small minority group, about 2% of the state. However, the percentage is growing, particularly in certain areas of North Texas, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, and also in Travis County. And some of the visibility has increased.
For example, there is Ismaili Center, this 150,000 square foot facility for the Ismaili Faith that opened in Houston. Some schools – for example, Collin County – or neighborhoods have large populations of South Asian immigrants, many of whom are Muslim.
And so I think for some people, that’s scary. And so you see politicians capitalizing on that…
Is there any evidence that this is messaging that’s being orchestrated in some way by Texas Republicans or are we talking about individual candidates seizing on something that they think could benefit them?
Well, I don’t think it’s like everyone gets in a room and decides on this. I think it really, the dynamic is that they do polling, they figure out where Republican base voters are.
Cause keep in mind, we have a Republican primary coming up. So a lot of this is about the Republican primary, not necessarily the general. And then, you know, everyone gets the memo, not in a literal sense, but they all kind of figure out this is what we’re running on this season.
Now, to be fair, some people have been on the Muslim-bashing kick for a long time. They’re not Johnny Come Lately’s. Other candidates, they’re a little late to the game, right? They’re just kind of jumping on the bandwagon now because it’s the thing that might help get them elected.
» GET MORE NEWS FROM AROUND THE STATE: Sign up for Texas Standard’s weekly newsletters
Texas has a rather large and growing Muslim population. I think the Texas Almanac said it was something like 400,000 – that would make it one of the largest Muslim communities in the U.S.
What about people in those communities? Is there any sign this could backfire against Republicans in November?
Yeah, it’s interesting because let’s not generalize too much because Islam is one of the world’s great religions. It’s practiced by two billion people. It’s an extremely diverse community. Not all Muslims are immigrants. So you don’t wanna overgeneralize.
However, if you take a broad view, it’s a mixed communit,y politically, tending to be socially conservative. There are many Muslims who are sort of natural Republicans who vote Republican. And, you know, the folks that I talk to are, as you can imagine, really upset about this.
I won’t make any predictions about what it might do politically. But I think that it’s at a personal level. You know, this is pretty hurtful rhetoric.
These are folks who are part of communities who are proud to be Texans, proud to be Americans, who are here for a reason, and feel like they’re being attacked for nothing that they’ve done other than their identity and their existence.
