Ken Paxton, Donald Trump’s endorsed candidate in the crucial Texas Senate race, has been recorded making an embarrassing admission that he has little control over his own campaign.
The scandal-hit Texas attorney general was recorded complaining that White House insiders have too much control over his Senate campaign, which could end in a devastating defeat in the Nov. 3 midterms.
“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, according to an audio recording obtained by Politico’s Playbook. “I don’t control message or what we’re doing.”
The remarks were recorded during a private D.C. fundraiser on Sept. 24. Another attendee told Playbook that while Paxton never explicitly mentioned Trump’s team controlling his campaign, “everybody around him knew what he was talking about.”
NEW in @playbookdc: Ken Paxton in leaked audio vents over his campaign being run by DC: “I don’t control message or what we’re doing” “I’ve never been in a race where I felt less control over the campaign…it’s all coming — you know — from DC” https://t.co/mnpUWMm6Y2
— Will Steakin (@wsteaks) October 5, 2026
This is the second damning leaked audio of Paxton badmouthing Trump at the D.C. fundraiser. Late last month, The New York Times obtained separate audio of Paxton saying that the president’s flop midterm convention in Dallas damaged his election hopes.
“Do you feel like he’s a little bit of a drag?” a person could be heard asking Paxton at the event.
“So to be honest with you, the numbers—when we did that convention—it dropped our numbers. Everybody’s numbers dropped,” Paxton replied. “Right now, yeah, not good.”
In both instances, the audio was recorded by someone who opposes Paxton’s Senate bid in Texas.
The clip Playbook obtained also captured Paxton complaining that he misses when he could “get around with all the people,” while seemingly suggesting he is being hamstrung from doing so for his Senate bid.
“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.”
“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.”
“I don’t have the ability to change anything,” Paxton added. “So I have to live with whatever I’ve got. So it is a challenge.”
Polls have frequently shown that Paxton is trailing Democratic candidate James Talarico in the crucial Texas Senate race. On Saturday, a NYT/Siena survey of likely voters found that Talarico leads Paxton by 6 points (51 percent to 45 percent), with the midterm elections just weeks away.
If Talarico pulls off a shock victory and flips the Texas Senate seat, long considered a Republican stronghold, it would go a long way toward Democrats seizing control of the upper chamber in the Nov. 3 elections.
Republican groups are already fearing the worst and plan to spend around $166 million in the crucial run-up to the midterms alone to boost the Trump-endorsed Paxton in what is normally a safe red seat.
In a statement to Politico, Paxton’s campaign adviser Nick Maddux said: “Campaigns don’t coordinate with super PACs and that’s obviously what AG Paxton was referring to.
“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.”
The Daily Beast has contacted Ken Paxton’s team for comment.
