Republicans are privately weighing how much longer they should keep spending on Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's Senate campaign ahead of November's midterm elections, as a third leak of an incendiary audio recording threatens to make the MAGA-aligned candidate an even greater expense for the party.

The most recent recording, released on Wednesday by Axios (@AndrewSolender), captures Paxton blaming his difficulties in the race against Democrat James Talarico on President Donald Trump's policy toward Iran, high fuel prices, and decisions he says are beyond his control.

"Republican Senate campaign committee is def laying the groundwork to abandon him," X user David Leake wrote in response.

The comment landed at a time when Republicans were already holding private discussions about what happens once the large volume of Trump-aligned spending on Paxton's behalf runs out. Politico previously reported that senior Republican members of Congress and other GOP officials have been asking Trump's team for more money for Texas — a sign of how high a priority the race has become in the party's midterm plans. However, after Paxton's first recorded message surfaced, some began to worry that MAGA Inc., the pro-Trump super PAC, might halt its spending when its current advertising reservations expire on October 12.

A Trump associate said MAGA Inc. and its affiliated groups intended to spend around $45 million by that date, although they were still deciding how much additional money to commit afterward. Because super PAC spending must by law remain independent of the candidates it supports, decisions about whether that advertising continues past October 12 rest with the groups rather than with Paxton's own operation.

Irritation with Paxton has led some Republicans to offer strikingly direct assessments.

"There seems to be very little strategy there," one Republican senator told Politico. "Sometimes, I think [Paxton] wants to lose."

One Republican senator compared the race to a "five-alarm fire," and a Republican campaign strategist called Paxton's campaign a "slow-moving car crash." Outside spending by Republicans in the race is expected to surpass $200 million, a figure that illustrates the size of the financial commitment the party is now reconsidering.

The latest leak is unlikely to make that decision any easier.

Asked what was troubling him politically, Paxton told his donors, "It's not tariffs. ... It's the war, it's gas prices, it's diesel." He described affordability as "by far our biggest problem" and complained that the factors influencing the race were outside his control.

"I don't make the decisions, and I don't ... know what's behind some of the decisions," he said.

This is the third recording to emerge from the September fundraiser. One captured Paxton saying that Trump's Dallas midterm convention "dropped our numbers," while another had him stating that he had "never been in a race where I felt less control" because campaign decisions were coming from Washington.

Trump subsequently called Paxton a "pain in the ass" while campaigning for him, though he continued urging Republicans to elect him.

Paxton's campaign rejected the latest recording, stating that Texans are already aware that fuel prices are high.

Republican operatives were already discussing how much additional money to send after October 12, and the third leak has given those weighing when to end the rescue operation yet another reason to change their minds. Once the current reservations lapse, continued advertising would require new commitments the groups have not yet made, making the days after October 12 the clearest sign of whether the party's financial backing holds.

Source: Alternet