Texas Senate hopeful Ken Paxton privately admitted that Donald Trump’s midterm convention dragged down his poll numbers in a leaked audio recording.
The Republican nominee made the remarks last Thursday at an intimate fundraiser in a conference room near Capitol Hill, where roughly a dozen conservative donors and lobbyists had gathered to hear from him, according to the recording obtained by The New York Times.
One attendee asked Paxton whether a certain figure was weighing down his campaign: ‘Do you feel like he’s a little bit of a drag?’ The muffled recording does not make clear exactly who the questioner meant.
‘When we did that convention… it dropped our numbers. Everybody’s numbers dropped,’ Paxton replied. ‘Right now, yeah, not good.’
The candid confession is a complete break from the Texas attorney general’s public image as one of the president’s most devoted loyalists.
Paxton owes his spot on the ballot to Trump, whose endorsement propelled him past longtime incumbent Republican Senator John Cornyn in a contentious primary earlier this year.
The president personally pushed for the unusual midterm gathering, which was held in Dallas this month and largely doubled as a celebration of his time in the White House.
Paxton was front and center throughout, landing a prime seat in the arena and working the room for donor cash. Trump hailed him onstage as the best attorney general in the country even as he ribbed him about his looks and fashion sense.
Texas Senate hopeful Ken Paxton privately admitted that Donald Trump’s midterm convention dragged down his poll numbers in a leaked audio recording
The candid confession is a complete break from the Texas attorney general’s public image as one of the president’s most devoted loyalists
Paxton owes his spot on the ballot to Trump, whose endorsement propelled him past longtime incumbent Republican Senator John Cornyn in a contentious primary earlier this year
The president personally pushed for the unusual midterm gathering, which was held in Dallas this month and largely doubled as a celebration of his time in the White House
The recording was handed to the Times by an attendee who opposes Paxton’s campaign, and three other sources with knowledge of the fundraiser confirmed he was there.
Senior Paxton adviser Nick Maddux accused the Times of manipulating the audio to invent a story.
‘Our latest poll from the last week has Ken Paxton leading by three points, and every serious pollster will tell you that our numbers have improved since early September,’ Maddux said.
‘Ken Paxton is going to win this race, and he looks forward to closing strong alongside President Trump including when he comes to Texas this week.’
But with Election Day just five weeks away, Paxton has narrowly trailed Democrat James Talarico in a string of recent surveys, and Trump’s super PAC, MAGA Inc., has already thrown $20 million behind his struggling bid.
Trump, however, sees it the opposite way, boasting just days after the convention that the event gave Paxton a major boost.
‘The fact that we had such a successful convention really helped Ken Paxton,’ Trump said at the time. ‘He was a big part of it…the convention helped Ken Paxton a lot.’
Despite Trump’s public upbeat comments, GOP insiders and candidates privately fear that November’s midterm elections could strip Republicans of their majorities in both the House and Senate.
Paxton has narrowly trailed Democrat James Talarico in a string of recent surveys, and Trump’s super PAC, MAGA Inc., has already thrown $20 million behind his struggling bid
Democrats currently hold at least slim polling leads in six of the likeliest Senate tipping-point states, Texas, Maine, Ohio, Iowa, Michigan and Alaska, according to multiple polling averages.
Losing either chamber would hand Democrats the power to launch committee investigations into the Trump administration, and potentially open the door to another impeachment.
