Trump makes third trip to Texas in less than a month despite Ken Paxton audio leaks
By Betsy Klein, CNN
San Antonio (CNN) — President Donald Trump is making his third trip to Texas in less than a month to stump for a Senate candidate who’s privately questioned his political capital and whom the president has publicly insulted in personal terms.
Such is the final sprint to the November 3 midterm elections as the GOP faces an increasingly uphill battle to hold on to the Senate, with the path to the majority running through Texas.
Republicans are pouring millions into bolstering state Attorney General Ken Paxton, who polls have shown is facing a closer-than-expected race against Democrat James Talarico in a state Trump carried by more than 13 points in 2024 and that hasn’t elected any Democrats statewide since 1994.
Trump’s Wednesday appearance in San Antonio, one Texas GOP strategist said, will be closely watched for whether it can improve Paxton’s standing — which could determine continued investment in the state.
The president’s latest Texas trip — which comes less than a week after his last stop here — is part of an aggressive midterm travel blitz that has taken him to traditional red strongholds he overwhelmingly won two years ago, including Alabama, Oklahoma and Nebraska. The president has repeatedly told his rally crowds to “pretend” he’s on the ballot this fall, and his advisers believe their best hope for November is boosting base turnout.
But some Republicans, even in these red states, are looking for distance from the unpopular president. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott will not be at Trump’s Wednesday evening rally, citing scheduling conflicts. He skipped last week’s Trump appearance too.
“It’s pretty clear to me the Paxton team has made the calculation that they believe it’s absolutely worth it,” the Texas GOP strategist said.
But as Trump arrives Wednesday, Paxton is also making headlines for seeming to blame the president and some of his agenda for his struggles.
The GOP nominee told a group of donors and lobbyists last month that the Iran war and high gas prices are hurting his campaign, according to audio obtained by Axios on Wednesday. “I don’t make the decisions, and I don’t … know what’s behind some of the decisions,” he said, according to Axios. CNN has not independently verified the audio.
Paxton’s campaign dismissed the story. “The Attorney General said what every Texan already knows: gas and diesel prices are too high, and hardworking Texans are struggling at the pump and at the grocery store,” spokeswoman Madison Cercy told CNN in a statement, adding that Trump “is doing everything he can to bring prices down.”
But that followed The New York Times last week publishing audio of Paxton complaining that Trump’s midterm convention, held last month in Dallas, wasn’t helpful.
“So to be honest with you, the numbers — when we did that convention — it dropped our numbers,” the Texas attorney general said. In a statement to CNN, Paxton senior adviser Nick Maddux called the Times story “manipulated nonsense” to “create a story that doesn’t exist.”
Paxton has been plagued by his own set of scandals, including securities fraud charges, which ended in a pre-trial agreement; allegations of infidelity; and a 2023 impeachment in the state House (the Senate acquitted him). But that baggage didn’t stop Trump from backing Paxton over incumbent Sen. John Cornyn in a primary runoff earlier this year.
Their relationship, however, has appeared fraught, even as Trump told reporters in the Oval Office Wednesday that he has no regrets about backing Paxton.
At a stop in Denton, Texas, last week, the president called Paxton “one of the most loyal people” — but also “a pain in the ass sometimes.”
Then there’s his frequent ribbing of the state attorney general’s appearance.
“Some may not like the way he dresses,” Trump said during a speech at the Dallas convention: “I don’t.”
Will Trump repeat that refrain Wednesday night?
The president “understands how important Texas is to efforts to try to keep the Senate in Republican control, so I think he can put all that aside and probably focus on the bigger picture,” said one Texas GOP operative unaffiliated with the Paxton campaign, granted anonymity to speak freely.
“But I’m sure he enjoys making Paxton squirm at the same time,” the operative added.
Asked about the candidate’s relationship with Trump, Paxton’s campaign pointed to his upcoming appearance on stage with the president.
The utility of a Trump visit
Paxton’s comments reported by the Times underscore how the president’s unpopularity — his approval rating is 34% in the latest CNN Poll of Polls — may make him an unwelcome guest for some candidates.
And he is losing support among a group that helped propel him to victory in 2024. His approval rating among Latino voters was just 27%, according to a NBC News/Telemundo poll earlier this week. Trump may be looking to turn that tide with his visit to San Antonio, where the population is 64.6% Hispanic or Latino.
But that visit, the Texas Republican strategist said, comes with its own risk.
“Why go where you can potentially motivate the other side, rather than going to places like Lubbock or Amarillo or East Texas, where you can try to use that brand to actually motivate, you know, the type of voter that needs to turn out for Paxton to win?” the strategist said.
And Democrats see Trump’s return to Texas as a good sign for their side.
“If you have to pull in Donald Trump four times in the closing stretch of the campaign in Texas, then you have given up on independent voters. This is a loss mitigation strategy,” said one Texas Democratic operative.
A test of Trump’s power in an expensive race
The Senate race — and the GOP primary and runoff leading up to it — is already on track to be one of the nation’s most expensive.
The GOP-aligned bill in Texas is expected to exceed $300 million, with the party and its affiliated groups outspending Democrats by more than 5-to-1, CNN has previously reported. Since the end of the GOP runoff in late May, Republicans have spent $158 million on ads, with an additional $38 million in upcoming ad reservations, according to the ad tracking firm AdImpact. Democrats, meanwhile, have spent about half that: $75 million on ads between late May and Tuesday, with $6 million reserved.
But that level of spending in deep-red Texas comes with consequences for the rest of the Senate map.
“A lot of us are very disappointed that our predictions have proven correct, and it’s going to cost somewhere between $100 and 200 million to save Ken Paxton as the Senate nominee,” said a Texas GOP strategist who had raised concerns about Paxton during the state’s primary.
“If we save Ken and lose the Senate majority because we’ve lost Alaska, Maine, North Carolina, Iowa and Ohio, the Monday morning quarterbacking is going to be biblical,” they added.
But Texas has seen close Senate races before, with Democrats’ hopes dashed at the ballot box. Eight years ago, Trump was a key surrogate for Ted Cruz when the senator faced then-rising Democratic star Beto O’Rourke. Cruz, unencumbered by the personal baggage Paxton is carrying this year, won his race by just 2.6 points.
That’s led to a debate about how much of this year’s close race is a reflection of the candidate matchup or the national environment and an unpopular president.
“If Paxton was a normal person, he probably would still eke it out. I mean, the state’s still structurally conservative,” said one DC-based GOP operative.
And the stakes of this year’s race could be bigger than just control of the Senate in 2027; it could carry ramifications for 2028 and beyond.
The Texas Republican operative compared a potential Talarico win to a “hole in the dam” that could give Democrats momentum to turn the state blue at the presidential level.
Paxton appears to recognize the stakes.
“If we lose Texas, we lose America,” he said in a social media post announcing Wednesday’s rally.
This story has been updated with additional developments.
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
