The Republican effort to rescue Texas Senate nominee Ken Paxton (R-TX) came under new strain as a third leaked recording caught him faulting President Donald Trump's Iran war.
Several Republicans involved in that effort are frustrated with Paxton's private complaint that Washington is running his campaign, Politico reported Wednesday.
Paxton, the state's attorney general, made that remark at a closed-door fundraiser in Washington last month. Axios published the latest recording from the same event Wednesday.
Republican groups, including the top Senate GOP super PAC and the Trump-aligned MAGA Inc., are pumping more than $200 million into what Politico described as the "rescue effort." Paxton faces state Rep. James Talarico (D-TX), who has narrowly led most polls, according to Axios.
"I've never been in a race where I felt less control over the campaign and, like, what issues are going to matter because it's all coming — you know — from D.C.," Paxton said in a clip first published Monday by Politico's Playbook newsletter.
"He is welcome to raise his own money and say whatever he wants," one Republican involved in the effort told Politico, speaking on condition of anonymity. "In fact, if he did that, he'd probably be winning right now, and we wouldn't need to spend all this money."
"Beggars can't be choosers. 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," a Texas-based GOP consultant told Politico.
"As usual, he communicates something that is unhelpful, that is undisciplined, that is politically self-harmful and, like most things, lacks any gratitude whatsoever," the consultant added.
"There is only so much we can do," a senior Senate GOP aide told Politico. "And I feel like we're doing a lot."
Paxton's allies have said his comment about Washington referred to Republican super PACs, which candidates are not allowed to coordinate with, Politico reported.
"AG Paxton is thankful for the support and knows how important Texas is to keeping the majority, which is why he's on the ground every day," Paxton campaign adviser Nick Maddux said after Playbook's report, according to Politico.
In the latest recording published by Axios, an attendee asked Paxton what issues were "dragging" on his campaign.
"It's not tariffs. ... It's the war, it's gas prices, it's diesel," Paxton replied.
When an attendee said Paxton "can't stop the war," he agreed and said he had "no control over gas prices," Axios reported.
"So many factors in this federal race are uncontrollable. I don't make the decisions, and I don't ... know what's behind some of the decisions," Paxton said.
Trump called Paxton "the greatest attorney general in America" at the Republican midterm convention in Dallas last month, The New York Times noted.
"So to be honest with you, the numbers — when we did that convention — it dropped our numbers. Everybody's numbers dropped. Right now, yeah, not good," Paxton told the donors, according to audio from the same meeting obtained last week by the Times.
The latest recording surfaced the same day Trump was set to rally with Paxton in San Antonio.
"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," a former Trump fundraiser told Politico, describing how the president might react if Paxton loses.
"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," the person added.