Ken Paxton has privately acknowledged that his campaign for a Texas Senate seat is being driven from Washington, saying he has little control over its message or the issues it focuses on.
Speaking at a fundraising lunch in Washington last month, the Republican said: “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.”
He added: “I don’t control message or what we’re doing.”
The 24 September event was hosted by Chris Brinson and Susan Hirschmann of lobbying firm Williams & Jensen and attended by about a dozen people, including Scott Kopple, vice-president of government relations at defence contractor BWXT.
Kopple questioned how issues being discussed nationally would resonate with voters in Texas. Paxton replied that the scale of the state made it difficult to reach voters personally before the election.
“I miss the days when I could go to, get around with all the people,” he said. “But we have 32 million people, so let’s just say for the next 40 days I’m in front of 1,000 people a day — which I’m not — and that’s 40,000 people. Ten to 10.4 million people are gonna vote.”
Paxton continued: “But then it comes down to your messaging, which in a federal race comes from other people a lot of times, which you don’t control.”
An attendee who was present said Paxton did not explicitly name Donald Trump’s team, but that those in the room understood what he meant. The comments came during a wider discussion about the national political climate.
“I don’t have ability to change anything,” Paxton said. “So I have to live with whatever I’ve got. So it is a challenge.”
Nick Maddux, a Paxton campaign adviser, said the candidate was referring to the separation between campaigns and super PACs.
“Campaigns don’t coordinate with super PACS and that’s obviously what AG Paxton was referring to,” Maddux said. “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 talking to Texas, raising money, and taking his message directly to the people including with his statewide television buy that started over this past weekend.”
Paxton trails Democratic challenger in latest poll
A separate recording from the same meeting captured Paxton discussing the impact of a midterm convention hosted by Trump in Texas the previous month.
“Dropped our numbers. Everybody’s numbers dropped. Right now, yeah, not good,” Paxton said. Maddux described that report as “manipulated nonsense”.
The latest New York Times/Siena poll puts Paxton six points behind Democratic challenger James Talarico.
Paxton’s comments come after a bitter Republican primary contest against incumbent senator John Cornyn. During that campaign, Paxton portrayed Cornyn as a Washington insider and “RINO”, while presenting himself as aligned with Trump.
“His money is coming from the D.C. establishment,” Paxton said of Cornyn while campaigning in Texas. “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.”
Paxton has retained a cash advantage ahead of November and announced a 20 million dollar advertising campaign last month. The Senate Leadership Fund, a leading Republican super PAC closely aligned with Senate Majority Leader John Thune, pledged millions of dollars to support him earlier in September.
