Democratic state Rep. James Talarico is reaching across the aisle as his closely watched Senate race in Texas inches closer, hiring a former aide to outgoing Republican Sen. John Cornyn in a rare cross-party move.

Talarico’s campaign announced Tuesday that Jacob Smith, Cornyn’s former deputy legislative director, has been tapped to serve as the Democratic Senate nominee’s deputy policy director.

In a statement on Tuesday, Talarico’s campaign said the hire, first reported by NOTUS, “demonstrates Talarico’s longtime commitment to bipartisanship — bringing Republicans, Democrats, and independents together to fix this broken, corrupt political system.”

“I’ve worked for Republicans like Senator Cornyn my entire career, but this year I’m proud to be joining James Talarico’s campaign,” Smith said in a statement. He called Texas’ scandal-plagued Republican Senate nominee, state Attorney General Ken Paxton, the “most corrupt, self-dealing politician in Texas who would sell out working people’s futures to the highest contributor just to hold onto power.”

“I’m encouraging all my fellow Republicans who know Ken Paxton is unfit to serve in the Senate to finally hold him accountable at the ballot box,” Smith said.

While Talarico and Cornyn disagree on many major policy issues, the two are aligned in their disapproval of Paxton, who handily defeated Cornyn, a four-term incumbent, in the May primary runoff after a last-minute endorsement from President Donald Trump. Cornyn has called Paxton a “crook,” “corrupt” and unfit for office.

Asked for comment on Smith’s new role, Cornyn’s campaign referred MS NOW to previous statements he has made vowing to “support the Republican ticket” in November.

Recent polling shows Talarico and Paxton deadlocked in the closely watched race.

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