Paxton Taped Saying Midterm Convention Hurt His Senate Bid

Ken Paxton has been hugging President Trump tight on the campaign trail—but in private, he suggested Trump's big Dallas convention dinged his own prospects. In a recording obtained by the New York Times, the Texas Republican nominee for Senate told a small group of donors that "when we did that convention—it dropped our numbers. Everybody's numbers dropped. Right now, yeah, not good."

The remarks came at a Washington fundraiser attended by about a dozen people, according to the anonymous attendee—an opponent of Paxton's candidacy who secretly recorded his comments, as well as others who confirmed Paxton's presence. Paxton adviser Nick Maddux dismissed the tape as "manipulated nonsense," saying internal polling shows Paxton up three points and surging since early September. Publicly, Paxton remains closely tied to Trump, who has praised him and whose super PAC has poured $20 million into the Texas race. That's money sorely needed in Paxton's contest against James Talarico, which Houston Public Media notes is on course to "demolish" the state's spending records in a Senate campaign.