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Must-Win MAGA Candidate’s Bitter Rant at Republican Senator Is Leaked

Ken Paxton’s Texas Senate bid has been dogged by numerous damning leaks.

Republican Ken Paxton has been recorded complaining that the man he defeated in the bitter GOP primary isn’t now supporting his Texas Senate bid.

Audio from a Washington, D.C. fundraiser last month, obtained by CNN, revealed Paxton complaining that outgoing Sen. John Cornyn is “clearly not helping” him and that Cornyn “wants me to lose” the crucial midterm race.

Paxton defeated Cornyn in the Texas Senate GOP primary after securing Donald Trump’s crucial endorsement. Many Republicans fear that Trump has doomed the GOP to losing the normally safe Texas Senate seat by backing scandal-plagued Paxton over veteran incumbent Cornyn.

Those fears could come true, as Paxton is trailing James Talarico in multiple polls. Talarico could become the first Democrat to win a statewide race in Texas in 32 years on Nov. 3, which would also give Democrats a major boost as they hope to flip at least four seats to regain control of the upper chamber.

Elsewhere in the leaked clip, Paxton recounts a story about a friend who bumped into Cornyn at a Dallas restaurant and thanked him for continuing to “support” the Republican ticket and Paxton after losing the primary.

“And Cornyn’s face went red,” Paxton said. “He backed off and said, ‘Paxton’s going to lose. We need to teach those Republicans a lesson. It’s going to be hard to learn, but they need to know that their decisions have consequences.’

“That’s what he’s trying to do,” Paxton added. “That’s John Cornyn.”

A spokesperson for Cornyn denied that the conversation at the restaurant had occurred.

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“If Sen. Cornyn wanted Ken to lose, I can assure you he’d be more active in the campaign,” Rob Jesmer, a longtime political strategist for Cornyn, told CNN. “He has said he supports the Republican ticket. Given all Ken has said and done, I think that’s a pretty good place for Sen. Cornyn to be.”

Paxton’s campaign dismissed reporting on the leaked audio as “a story that doesn’t exist” but noted that Paxton “has called, texted, and offered to have a conversation” with Cornyn.

“Like all Texans, General Paxton appreciates his decades of service to the Lone Star State,” Paxton senior adviser Nick Maddux said. “We hope he will join us in our fight to preserve the institution that is the United States Senate and help save our majority.”

What’s embarrassing for Paxton is that this is not the first leak from his appearance 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 had 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.”

Days later, Politico’s Playbook obtained another audio recording of Paxton complaining that Trump’s team has too much control over his must-win Texas Senate race.

“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. “I don’t control the message or what we’re doing.”

A third leak from the same event, this time to Axios, revealed Paxton criticizing Trump’s war in Iran and soaring gas prices, saying they could doom him and other Republicans in the midterms.

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“It’s not tariffs. ... It’s the war, it’s gas prices, it’s diesel,” Paxton said. He added that “we’re having a hard time with numbers” because the cost-of-living crisis exacerbated by Trump is “by far our biggest problem.”

On Wednesday, a YouGov poll of likely voters showed Talarico with a six-point lead over Paxton, 50 percent to 44 percent, with the midterms just weeks away.

The Daily Beast has contacted Ken Paxton’s team and John Cornyn’s office for comment.

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