On Saturday, new reporting revealed that GOP officials are increasingly wary of wasting money on a MAGA Senate candidate in Texas who appears unlikely to win. According to Politico, the candidacy of Ken Paxton is a “slow motion car crash,” and Republicans may be finished throwing money into the wreck — especially after he was caught on tape trashing their efforts.
“Republicans know they have to spend big to save Ken Paxton,” writes Politico. “They’re increasingly worried MAGA Inc. won’t throw down in time. In private conversations over recent weeks, senior Hill Republicans and GOP officials have nudged President Donald Trump’s team to start spending more on the Texas Senate race before it’s too late, according to three people with direct knowledge of those conversations, who were granted anonymity to discuss them. Those fears escalated after audio leaked of Paxton privately trashing Trump’s midterm convention, with some worrying it could impact whether MAGA Inc. continues spending after a current wave of GOP ad bookings run out Oct. 12.”
According to insiders who spoke with Politico, “With national Democrats starting to finally spend for their Senate nominee, James Talarico, after months of holding off, and as polling of the race tightens, Republicans expect the cost of salvaging Paxton’s campaign will only skyrocket. And, they’ve started to panic.”
“It’s a five-alarm fire, no doubt. Can we put it out? I hope so,” said one GOP senator. “This is a slow-moving car crash that we’re witnessing right now,” agreed a Texas Republican strategist, who noted, “and there’s a 75 percent chance that the ultimate result here will be catastrophic from a GOP Senate majority standpoint.”
But even with a massive war chest, Texas is turning into a huge money sink for the GOP that senators worry could hurt them in tight races across the country as more and more money is poured into what should be a reliably red state. According to Politico, “With the MAGA Inc. money and additional GOP ad reservations, the race is already on track to top $200 million from outside Republican groups hoping to save Paxton.”
“At some point I think the people spending that money are going to have to make hard choices and figure out where the money can have the biggest impact, and certainly Texas is the most expensive,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), who lost to Trump-backed Paxton in the primary. According to Politico, a number of top Republicans are also tired of Paxton himself, saying they “have been stunned by what they described as unforced errors by the Texas Senate nominee. For example, he crossed one of the brightest red lines with Trump, telling a group of donors that ‘everybody’s numbers dropped’ after the president’s GOP convention in Dallas last month.”
“There seems to be very little strategy there,” said one Republican senator, granted anonymity to candidly discuss the race. “Sometimes, I think [Paxton] wants to lose.”