Donald Trump’s pick in a must-win race is doing worse than any other Republican candidate for that seat in more than 25 years, according to CNN’s resident numbers wizard.
“Congratulations to Ken Paxton, you have done it,” network data guru Harry Enten told viewers on Thursday. “You are the least popular Texas Senate GOP nominee this century. When I was looking at the data, no one else was even in the negative—and you’re at -16 points!”
Enten also joked that the Texas attorney general, 63, is now locked in a “mini-faux battle” with the president, 80, for voter disapproval in the deep-red state, and that Texans have now decided: “They both stink! They both stink!”
Trump, whose favorability has dropped to 43 percent in Texas and 32 percent nationwide, backed Paxton in the Republican primary earlier this year over incumbent Sen. John Cornyn despite anxiety among GOP strategists that it would cost the party a fortune for Paxton to win the seat.
The attorney general was caught on leaked audio earlier this week bashing Trump for having hurt his numbers in the state following the Republican midterm convention in Dallas in September.
The MAGA candidate has spent much of the past decade fighting scandals on multiple fronts. Lawmakers in the GOP-controlled Texas House impeached him in 2023 over allegations that he abused his office to help a donor whom he then persuaded to hire a woman with whom he was having an affair.
The Texas Senate acquitted him in 2023, even if that didn’t stop his wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton, 64, from divorcing him on “biblical grounds.”
Strategists warned ahead of time that Paxton’s record would likely force the party to spend between $200 million and $250 million to give him a fighting chance against rising Democratic star James Talarico, with whom he is competing for the Texas Senate seat.
GOP-aligned groups have since poured at least $131 million into campaigning for Paxton, with just under five weeks still to go before voters head to the polls.
Trump’s plummeting approval ratings have more broadly helped Democrats gain a 9-point lead on the generic congressional ballot ahead of the November election that will decide which party gets control of the House and Senate.
Spending on Paxton’s campaign comes amid reports that Republicans have set aside an additional $888 million for advertising in more than three dozen House races previously considered safe wins for the party.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House and Paxton’s campaign for comment on this story.
