The Republicans could be privately considering how much longer they should continue to spend money on Ken Paxton’s Senate campaign, as a third leak of an incendiary audio recording threatens to make the MAGA candidate an even greater expense for the party.
The most recent recording, which Axios released on Wednesday, shows Paxton blaming his difficulties in the race against Democrat James Talarico on President Donald Trump’s policy towards Iran, high fuel prices and decisions beyond his control.
“Republican Senate campaign committee is def laying the groundwork to abandon him,” X user David Leake wrote in response.
The response comes at a time when Republicans are already having private discussions about what will happen when the large amount of spending for Paxton that is aligned with Trump runs out.
Politico previously reported that senior Republican members of Congress and other GOP officials have been asking Trump’s team for more money for Texas. However, following the release of Paxton’s first recorded message, some people started to worry that MAGA Inc. might cease its spending when its current advertising reservations expire on October 12.
A Trump associate stated that MAGA Inc. and its affiliated groups intended to spend around $45 million by that date, although they were still deciding how much additional money to commit afterward.
Irritation towards Paxton has led some Republicans to make exceptionally direct evaluations.
“There seems to be very little strategy there,” one Republican senator told Politico. “Sometimes, I think [Paxton] wants to lose.”
One Republican senator compared the race to a “five-alarm fire,” and a Republican campaign strategist called Paxton’s campaign a “slow-moving car crash.” Outside spending by Republicans in the race is expected to surpass $200 million.
This latest leak is unlikely to make the decision any easier.
When asked what was bothering him politically, Paxton told his donors, “It’s not tariffs. … It’s the war, it’s gas prices, it’s diesel.”
Paxton described affordability as “by far our biggest problem” and complained that the factors influencing the race were outside his control.
“I don’t make the decisions, and I don’t … know what’s behind some of the decisions,” he said.
This is the third recording to have come out of the September fundraiser.
One captured Paxton saying that Trump’s Dallas midterm convention “dropped our numbers,” and another stated that he had “never been in a race where I felt less control” since the campaign decisions were coming from Washington.
Trump subsequently called Paxton a “pain in the ass” while campaigning for him, though he continued urging Republicans to elect him.
Paxton’s campaign rejected the latest recording, stating that Texans are already aware that fuel prices are high.
Since Republican operatives were already discussing how much additional money to send after October 12, a third leak has given those who were thinking about when to stop the rescue operation yet another reason to change their minds.