Reactions are starting to roll in from Republicans who have heard the leaked audio of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton complaining about the GOP taking over his campaign, raising money and deciding his messaging.
According to a Politico report, if Paxton doesn’t like it, he can run his own race and raise his own money.
“He is welcome to raise his own money and say whatever he wants,” said a Republican who identified as “involved in the Paxton rescue effort.”
Over the past several days, audio has been leaked from an event in Washington where Paxton met with several top donors and lobbyists to discuss the state of the race. They asked him about President Donald Trump’s involvement and how he feels about the top issues. In one clip, Paxton claims Washington has taken over his whole race.
“I’ve never been in a race where I felt less control over the campaign … it’s all coming — you know — from D.C.,” Paxton complained.
Another Republican Trump ally said that when it comes to messaging, Paxton “needs the help.”
The whole political drama was prognosticated by Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), who warned both Trump and the GOP that if Paxton won the GOP nomination, he would lose. According to Cornyn, Paxton is lazy and too mired in scandal. Cornyn is now working to help Senate candidates in every state except Texas, while enjoying his “I told you so” moment.
“We warned them about this,” another GOP operative said.
“Since then, the usual crowd of never-Paxton types has expanded into a wider circle of frustrated Republicans who are irked by the effort it’s taking to boost the scandal-plagued Senate candidate,” said Politico. “And Paxton saying he doesn’t control his campaign messaging — alongside his remarks that President Donald Trump’s midterm convention hurt him politically — isn’t helping.”
The leaked audio also revealed Paxton complaining about Trump losing the war in Iran and how it’s hurting the economy and gas prices. He also lamented that Trump’s little convention did nothing for him or anyone else.
“Beggars can’t be choosers,” a Texas Republican consultant told Politico. “He can try to raise federal money at a level that is necessary to save his candidacy at this point, but his arms don’t reach that high. As usual, he communicates something that is unhelpful, that is undisciplined, that is politically self-harmful and like most things, lacks any gratitude whatsoever.”
This far, Republicans have put in more than $200 million attempting to buy the seat for Paxton. This after Trump spent billions to have a huge “convention-style” event in Dallas over the summer. Meanwhile, the AG left mid-campaign to take his girlfriend to Iceland and London.
Trump allies say they’ve done everything they can to try to save Paxton and avoid an embarrassing disaster. Trump will be there again Wednesday to help haul the dead weight over the finish line.
When reporters askesd Trump about Paxton on Tuesday, he claimed, “Ken’s doing much better now that I — everybody is — since starting three, four days ago, since starting the rallies. It’s brought a whole new awareness to how great the Republicans are doing, how great the economy is doing.”
The report revealed that some Republicans are throwing up their hands, content to move on to other races that are in danger of removing incumbent Republicans around the Midwest.
“There is only so much we can do,” the senior Senate GOP aide explained. “And I feel like we’re doing a lot.”
The greater danger is that Trump stuck his neck out for Paxton since he’d led the charge of Republican attorneys general fighting the 2020 election. So, if Paxton loses, it’s not only going to make the GOP look bad, it’ll specifically make Trump look bad.
“If the media coverage related to election night and the autopsy a couple days afterwards is brutal towards Trump, like, horrible economy, inflation’s not that much better than the last year of Joe Biden’s … he will lash out,” said a former Trump fundraiser.
“But if the narrative is, it’s a midterm presidential, this is what normally happens … he’ll move on as fast as he can and never talk about Ken Paxton again. It just depends what the coverage looks like post the November election,” they added.
Out of Trump’s $400 million war chest, he’s dropped about $45 million directly into Paxton. That doesn’t include the Texas convention.