On October 1, 2026, Ken Paxton was caught on a hot mic saying Trump is hurting his Senate campaign. The same discussion noted James Talarico leading in Texas, Senate leadership planning to spend a couple hundred million dollars to help Paxton, and Florida polling showing Dave Jolly ahead of Byron Donalds for governor and Jose Javier Rodriguez up five points on James Uthmeier for attorney general. By mid-October, Trump had blamed John Cornyn and Karl Rove for a Paxton loss that has not happened yet. Neither Paxton nor Trump has responded to the remark itself.