Ken Paxton Says DC Controls His Texas Senate Campaign in Leaked Audio - Newsweek

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton was heard on leaked audio complaining that he has little control over his U.S. Senate campaign, saying key decisions and messaging are being directed from Washington.

“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 part, at a private fundraiser last month.

He also said in the leaked audio that securing votes in Texas “comes down to your messaging, which in a federal race comes from other people a lot of times, which you don’t control.”

The recording, obtained by Politico, surfaced amid growing tensions between Paxton and President Donald Trump, who has endorsed the Republican nominee and publicly criticized him on the campaign trail.

Paxton campaign adviser Nick Maddux told Politico on Monday that campaigns do not coordinate with super PACs and said that was what Paxton was referring to. One attendee told Politico that Paxton never named Trump's team directly but said everyone around him "understood what he meant."

The leaked remarks surfaced as Paxton battles to close the gap in a tight contest against Democratic state Representative James Talarico just four weeks before Election Day on November 3.

Newsweek has reached out to the Paxton campaign via email on Monday afternoon for comment.

The latest recording is not the first leaked audio to complicate Paxton's campaign in recent weeks.

Last week, The New York Times published leaked audio that it said revealed Paxton telling conservative donors and lobbyists that the midterm Republican National Convention in Dallas on September 9-10 had damaged his campaign.

In the audio, someone asks, “Do you feel like [Trump's] a little bit of a drag?” to which the man purported to be Paxton replies: “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.”

In response to the remarks, Nick Maddux, a senior Paxton adviser, told reporters: “This is more manipulated nonsense from The New York Times to create a story that doesn’t exist.”

Recent polling suggests Paxton is trailing as the race enters its final month, though most surveys show a competitive contest.

A New York Times/Siena University poll conducted September 21-30 found Talarico leading Paxton 51 percent to 45 percent among 615 likely voters, with 4 percent undecided. A Marist University survey taken September 17-20 also showed a 6-point gap, with Talarico at 50 percent and Paxton at 44 percent among 1,139 registered voters.

A Fox News poll conducted by Beacon Research and Shaw & Company Research from September 24-28 pointed to a closer race. Talarico held 51 percent support to Paxton's 49 percent among 881 likely voters.

Polls commissioned by Republican groups have been more favorable to the attorney general. An internal survey by Pulse Decision Science for the Paxton campaign, conducted September 24-27, showed Paxton ahead 48 percent to 45 percent. A Stratus Intelligence poll for Texans for a Conservative Majority, taken September 22-24, found the two candidates tied at 48 percent.

All of the surveys were conducted after the Republican National Convention in Dallas, which Paxton was heard saying on the leaked Times audio had dragged down Republican numbers.

Trump is scheduled to return to Texas on Wednesday for a rally with Paxton at the Freeman Coliseum in San Antonio. After the Dallas convention in September, Trump vowed to come back to the state "a lot" before Election Day to help Paxton win.

His last visit, to the Peterbilt Motors plant in Denton on Thursday, mixed praise with jabs. Trump called Paxton a longtime friend and "one of the most loyal people," then told the crowd that Paxton "could be a pain in the a** sometimes, to be honest." At one point, he appeared unsure whether the candidate was in the room. "I didn't even know if he's here," he said.

The president also referenced comments he had made about Paxton a day earlier, telling the audience: "I don't know if he'll ever talk to me again."

At a rally later that night in Durant, Oklahoma, Trump again backed Paxton while conceding the attorney general was "a little controversial." He also played a clip of a supporter being asked about the leaked convention audio and whether Republicans remained behind the president.

The ribbing was not new. At the Dallas convention, Trump endorsed Paxton while mocking his appearance and the way he dresses and speaks. Paxton has not responded in kind. While a growing number of Republicans in competitive races have put distance between themselves and the president, Paxton has publicly continued to promote Trump's support and appeared alongside him in Denton.

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Cook Political Report lists Texas as one of seven toss-ups among the 35 Senate seats on the ballot this year, along with Alaska, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, New Hampshire and Ohio. Cook moved the race to toss-up on August 20. It rates North Carolina as lean Democrat, and on September 23 it shifted Georgia from lean to likely Democrat.

Sabato's Crystal Ball, at the University of Virginia Center for Politics, also rates Texas a toss-up. The forecaster moved the race from leans Republican on August 26, describing a contest featuring a flawed Republican, a well-funded Democrat and a national environment that could be as favorable to Democrats as in 2018.

The race has also drawn some of the heaviest spending of the cycle. Republicans spent $122 million on the race in September alone and have reserved another $66 million in airtime through Election Day, according to AdImpact. Talarico has spent $61 million on ads since the general election began, while Paxton, who has been heavily outraised, launched a $20 million ad buy on Friday, his first major statewide campaign.

Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Gabe Whisnant and Dave Siminoff.