By THOMAS BEAUMONT
DALLAS (AP) — President Donald Trump said he wasn’t going to say it — and then he said it anyway. For the second night in a row at the Republicans’ midterm convention, he mocked Ken Paxton on stage.
“I don’t really like the way he looks,” Trump told the laughing crowd in Paxton’s home state of Texas. But never mind that because “he was our greatest attorney general and he deserves to go to the United States Senate.”
Paxton just grinned. After all, he needs the money. He’s locked in a tight race with Democratic nominee James Talarico, and Trump helped turn the convention stage into a national fundraiser for one of his party’s most important yet outfunded candidates.
“I need your prayers, your votes and your support,” Paxton said during his turn at the microphone.
The money has started to trickle out to him with two months to go. MAGA Inc., Trump’s super PAC, announced last week it would spend $10 million. America PAC, which is connected to Elon Musk, has spent $250,000. And on Friday, the Senate Leadership Fund said it would contribute $13.8 million.
Paxton is perhaps Trump’s biggest political test this year. The president endorsed Paxton on the eve of his defeat of four-term incumbent Sen. John Cornyn in the May primary runoff, over the objections of Republican leaders including Thune, who viewed Cornyn as a far stronger candidate than the state’s scandal-plagued attorney general.
If Paxton wins, it will be hailed as proof of Trump’s political instincts and his ability to mold the Republican Party in his image. If he loses, it would be the first time that Texas has sent a Democrat to the Senate since 1988, and Trump could be blamed for doing too little, too late.
With so much riding on the race, the teasing from Trump seems to be a small price to pay for Paxton, who is enduring quite a lot of mockery.
Trump started it last week in the Oval Office, when he said “some people don’t like the way he dresses, or some people don’t like the way he interviews or talks.”
Later that night in the Rose Garden, it became clear that by “some people,” Trump meant himself.
“It’s so insulting to him, but I might as well say it. You might not love his look. You might not love his television interviews,” Trump said. But he added that Paxton’s record as attorney general “speaks a lot louder than the suit he’s wearing that doesn’t look so great.”
Paxton is not the kind of camera-ready, high-energy political performer that Trump usually prefers. A bit rumpled, he speaks softly, even in front of thousands. But he’s distinguished himself as a conservative legal warrior, especially when he challenged President Joe Biden’s Democratic policies in court.
He also shares Trump’s sense of political persecution.
“The press, the courts and the establishment all tried to take President Trump down, but he’s won every single time,” Paxton told the convention audience this week. “He’s delivered more for this country than anyone before, secured victories for America that no other president could, and always stood up for Texas.”
Paxton has been the target of investigations for years. He was impeached by the Republican-led Texas House but acquitted by the Senate. A federal corruption case was dropped without charges, and a state probe into securities fraud allegations was settled. Paxton has consistently denied wrongdoing.
But Paxton’s victory is an important part of Republicans’ efforts to keep control of the Senate. South Dakota Sen. John Thune, the Senate majority leader who opposed Paxton’s candidacy against Cornyn, held a fundraiser with Paxton on Thursday morning, according to a Republican operative with knowledge of the event but who was unauthorized to discuss the event and spoke on condition of anonymity.
When comparing candidates’ campaign accounts, Talarico has an overwhelming advantage, having raised $68 million to Paxton’s $9 million. Under federal election rules, candidates get cheaper advertising rates than independent organizations like super PACs.
Since the primary, Talarico and one smaller allied group have spent $37.8 million on advertising, while four super PACs have carried almost the entire load for Paxton, spending $24.4 million, according to AdImpact.
While Senate Republican leaders complained loudly last year that Paxton’s record of ethical and legal questions would require at least $100 million more to carry him to victory, even in a Republican-heavy state like Texas, they petitioned Trump and his team to open up their coffers.
“There’s no sense bubble wrapping it. We’ve got a race in Texas,” Sen. John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican, told Fox News last month. He added that “money is an issue” and “we need help from the president.”