President Donald Trump urged Texas voters Thursday to send Republican state Attorney General Ken Paxton to the Senate, but not without taking another jab at his party’s nominee.
Paxton, Trump said, “could be a pain in the *ss sometimes.”
Speaking at a Peterbilt truck plant in Denton during an event focused on American manufacturing, Trump praised Paxton’s loyalty.
“When I was being hit by the radical Left very hard — harder than very few people could have withstood it, I was being hit — Ken Paxton was at my side more than anybody,” Trump said. “And I have to always remember that because he could be a pain in the *ss sometimes, I’ll be honest.”
“We need Ken so badly, and that’s why I’m here,” he added, calling Paxton “the greatest attorney general in the United States of America.”
Paxton faces Democratic state Rep. James Talarico in one of the country’s most closely watched Senate races. Trump similarly ribbed Paxton during the Republican Party’s midterm convention in Dallas last month, joking that Paxton did not dress or talk the way Trump preferred and even telling the crowd, “I don’t really like the way he looks.”
Trump followed those jokes by calling Paxton the greatest attorney general in the country and saying he deserved to become a senator. “I don’t care as long as he wins,” Trump said at the convention.
With Election Day less than five weeks away, Republicans are defending a 53-47 Senate majority. Republicans and outside handicappers have identified the Texas race as one of the contests that could affect control of the chamber.
A Fox News poll released Thursday found Talarico leading Paxton 51% to 49% among Texas likely voters, a result within the poll’s margin of error. The same survey found Texas voters narrowly split over which party they preferred to control the Senate, with 50% choosing Republicans and 49% Democrats.
National Republican groups have been pouring money into Paxton’s campaign after his fundraising lagged behind Talarico’s.
Trump’s renewed involvement comes just a day after The New York Times reported leaked audio purportedly capturing Paxton privately complaining that Trump’s own midterm convention in Dallas hurt his campaign.
“So to be honest with you, the numbers — when we did that convention — it dropped our numbers,” Paxton said in the recording, according to the Times. “Everybody’s numbers dropped. Right now, yeah, not good.”
The Texas Tribune said it did not independently verify the recording. Paxton’s campaign dismissed the report as “more manipulated nonsense from the New York Times.”
Trump was asked Thursday why he was still traveling to Texas after the comments. “Well, I’ll tell you why. We have to win this election,” Trump said.
At the Denton event, Trump also slammed Talarico, whom he has dubbed “Tala-freako,” and said Republicans need to do a better job communicating their accomplishments to voters.
Trump then left Texas for a rally in Oklahoma as part of a broader campaign push through Republican-leaning states ahead of November. Vice President JD Vance and other senior Republicans are also expected to campaign for candidates across the country in the coming weeks.
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