As a dozen Republicans gathered for a high-profile event in Washington, DC, hidden among them was a mole.
Ken Paxton, the state’s Attorney General and the Republican candidate for the Senate race in November, was speaking freely to donors when he made a comment that sent ripples through the White House and GOP.
Donald Trump’s Republican convention in Dallas, Paxton complained, had hurt the party.
‘Everybody’s numbers dropped,’ he said. ‘Yeah. Not good.’ By Wednesday, the private conversation had been leaked to the New York Times.
By Thursday, Trump was flying into Texas to campaign at Paxton’s side ahead of his showdown with Democrat James Talarico in a battleground race that will be pivotal to the outcome of the midterms.
‘We have to win this election,’ Trump told reporters when asked why he was choosing to return to Texas.
The extraordinary sequence has exposed a bitter Republican war, with Paxton’s allies accusing establishment rivals of trying to sabotage their own nominee while Trump-world sources are questioning whether he can win.
Behind closed doors, senior Republicans are saying that if the election was held today, Paxton would probably lose.
President Donald Trump arrived in Texas to campaign with Ken Paxton on Thursday
Audio of Paxton, the Republican candidate for the Texas Senate race, complaining about the effect of Trump’s Dallas midterms convention was published by the New York Times
Sources close to Trump describe Paxton as undisciplined and lackluster putting him in danger of earning one of the president’s most damaging political labels: ‘low-energy.’
Those close to Paxton say the leak was no accident — and part of a deliberate ploy by a Republican in the room to undermine a candidate who has already faced an affair and impeachment scandal.
Republicans have not lost a U.S. Senate election in Texas since 1988, and no Democrat has won statewide office there since 1994.
But genuine concerns that Talarico could complete an astonishing upset on November 3 have prompted the GOP to pour $100 million into defending the seat.
When Trump was asked about the leaked remarks on Wednesday, he didn’t turn on Paxton, instead he brushed them aside and insisted his convention had been ‘amazing’.
Paxton supporters breathed a sigh of relief, but Republican sources told the Daily Mail that he should not be too comforted.
The leaked audio only adds to Trump’s concerns about Paxton, one former White House advisor told the Daily Mail, acknowledging Paxton has never been the president’s favorite political candidate.
Trump teases Paxton publicly about how he dresses and speaks, even as he realizes the Texas attorney general has the support from some of his most loyal MAGA voters in the state.
Paxton also earned Trump’s loyalty after filing a lawsuit in the Supreme Court challenging the 2020 presidential election on the grounds that states that Joe Biden had won, had undemocratically changed the voting rules to favor Democrats.
But Paxton is now in danger of losing as he struggles to raise money, and appear in interviews and host campaign events.
Democrat Senate candidate James Talarico has conducted 94 events during the senate campaign and Paxton has only held just 34, according to the VoteHub political tracker.
James Talarico, the Democratic candidate in the Texas Senate race, offers his party the first serious chance of beating Republicans in the state for nearly 40 years
Trump told reporters he is determined to support Paxton’s Senate race
Trump has long viewed Ken Paxton as a flawed candidate, sources tell the Daily Mail
‘Everyone knows that Paxton is a very lazy candidate. He just doesn’t campaign, I don’t think he’s been in a debate for over a decade,’ one Republican political operative told the Daily Mail.
The fact that Paxton was holding a fundraiser and talking to donors was a positive sign, sources said, but the leaked comments prove he is still undisciplined.
‘Everyone should know that if you make controversial comments at a fundraiser it’s going to go public,’ one Republican donor said. ‘Mitt Romney’s 47 percent moment taught everyone that.’
The donor, however, argued that the audio published by the New York Times was ‘awkward’ but ‘overblown.’
‘It’s not like he’s sh*tting on Trump, he was just trying to pivot out of a question,’ the donor said. ‘I don’t think Trump’s going to make a big deal out of it.’
One Republican operative told the Daily Mail there was ‘no chance’ of Trump pulling his support or MAGA Inc. from Paxton.
‘Trump’s probably furious, but he’s not likely to go off message right now,’ he said.
Paxton supporters had hoped that after the Texas attorney general beat Cornyn soundly in the primary, Republicans would rally to support him.
But every day they are reminded that establishment Republicans would rather lose a senate seat in Texas rather than see Paxton succeed, one source told the Daily Mail.
Former President George W Bush attended a fundraiser in the state last week with Cornyn for the sake of raising money for Senate Republicans. Paxton, however, was specifically excluded.
Former President George W Bush recently held a fundraiser for Senate candidates but Ken Paxton was excluded
Karl Rove, former political strategist for Bush
Bush’s former strategist Karl Rove also complained publicly last week that Paxton was ‘corrupt’ and that he was hearing every day from Texas Senator Ted Cruz and others that he was in real danger of losing.
‘If John Cornyn were the nominee, this race would be over,’ Rove lamented.
If Paxton loses, MAGA sources told the Daily Mail, it would restore the political status quo in the state to forces aligned with Bush and Rove.
Paxton allies are encouraged by recent signs that campaign spending has lifted his poll numbers even with Talarico in recent weeks, one source told the Daily Mail, leaving Republicans more confident in his chances.
The effort by Trump and the Republican party to label Talarico as weird and out of touch, one source said, would soon pay off.
‘We’re not losing this Senate race,’ a Republican operative said. ‘The base is more forgiving of this s**t and it’s not like they are now going to vote for Talarico.’
