President Donald Trump on Thursday urged Texas voters to send Republican state Attorney General Ken Paxton to the Senate but also blasted the party’s nominee again.
Trump said Paxton “could be painful to the SS at times.”
Speaking at an event focusing on American manufacturing at the Peterbilt Truck Plant in Denton, Trump praised Paxton for his loyalty.
“When I got hammered hard by the radical left — and very few people can withstand that, and I got hammered — Ken Paxton was on my side more than anyone,” Trump said. “And I have to always remember that because he could be a nuisance to the SS at times, I’ll be honest with you.”
“We need Ken badly, and that’s why I’m here,” he added, calling Paxton “the greatest attorney general in the United States of America.”
Paxton will face Democratic state Rep. James Talarico in one of the most closely watched Senate races in the country. Same goes for Trump ribbed Paxton joked at the Republican midterm convention in Dallas last month that Paxton didn’t dress or speak the way Trump likes to, even telling the crowd, “I really don’t like the way he looks.”
After Trump heard the jokes, he called Paxton the greatest attorney general in the United States and said he should become a senator. “As long as he wins, I don’t care,” Trump said at the convention.
With less than five weeks until Election Day, Republicans are defending The Senate has a 53-47 majority. Republicans and outside critics have viewed the Texas race as one of the contests that could affect control of the House.
one Fox News Poll Results released Thursday showed Talarico leading Paxton 51 percent to 49 percent among likely Texas voters, a result that was within the poll’s margin of error. The same survey found that Texas voters are narrowly divided over which party controls the Senate, with 50% choosing Republicans and 49% choosing Democrats.
National Republican groups have Throw money into Paxton’s campaign His fundraising trailed Talarico.
Just a day before Trump stepped in again, the New York Times reported that Paxton privately complained in leaked audio that Trump’s own midterm conventions in Dallas were hurting his campaign.
“Honestly, when we had that convention, our numbers were down,” Paxton said in the recording, according to the Times. “Everybody’s numbers are down. Now, yeah, it’s not good.”
The Texas Tribune said it had not independently verified the recording. Paxton’s campaign dismissed the report as “more manipulated nonsense from The New York Times.”
Trump was asked on Thursday why he traveled to Texas despite his remarks. “Well, I’ll tell you why. We have to win this election,” Trump said.
At the Denton event, Trump also lashed out at Talarico, calling him a “Tara freak” and saying Republicans need to do a better job of communicating their accomplishments to voters.
Trump then left Texas for a rally in Oklahoma as part of a broader campaign in Republican-leaning states ahead of November. Vice President J.D. Vance and other senior Republicans are also expected to campaign for candidates across the country in the coming weeks.