Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, candidate for US Senate, waves, as US Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) applauds, during US President Donald Trump's visit to Peterbilt Motors in Denton, Texas, US, October 1, 2026. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
MS NOW's Nicolle Wallace was blown away on Monday by the newly leaked audio from Texas Senate candidate Ken Paxton, as he struggles against poll after poll showing him down against Democratic opponent James Talarico.
"Things are going so badly" for Paxton, said Wallace, that "I almost but not quite feel bad for him. He's running a dumpster fire of a campaign that continues to get worse by the week."
Wallace played the newly leaked tape, which, she noted, has Paxton effectively claiming "that he has functionally no control over his campaign. Something I've never heard of before."
"It comes down to your messaging, which in a federal race comes from other people," said Paxton in the clip. "A lot of times, which you don't control. So I have a little control over my bucket. That's about it. And my little bit of time that I can go out and get to as many people as I can. But I've never been in a race where I felt less control over the like the campaign and like what issues are going to matter because it's all coming, you know, from D.C. And I don't control the message or what we're doing or. And I can't, I have no, I don't have ability to change anything. So I have to live with whatever I've got. So it is a challenge."
Wallace barely held back her laughter.
"Who in D.C. is controlling Ken Paxton's losing campaign?" she said. "Fire them. That can't be true."
The true irony, she continued, is that "being beholden to D.C. used to be a dealbreaker for Paxton during the primary," since he said of incumbent Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), "his money is coming from the D.C. establishment. That's how he can afford these commercials. And that's how they always try to convince us from Washington, with their money, that we should select their person. Well, I'm not their person, and I'm never going to be their person."
Flash forward to now, said Wallace, and Paxton is "saying he's so much their person, he can't make any of his own decisions."