Paxton’s Private Convention Assessment Collides With Trump’s Public Praise

Ken Paxton, the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate in Texas, privately said on September 24, 2026, that President Trump’s Republican convention in Dallas had damaged his polling, according to audio obtained by The New York Times and reviewed in reports by several independent news organizations.

What did Paxton say about the convention?

Paxton made the comments at a private Washington fundraiser attended by conservative donors and lobbyists, according to The New York Times. When asked whether the president had become a drag on his Senate campaign, Paxton said the convention had lowered Republican numbers. His campaign disputes the account and says his standing improved in September.

• “So to be honest with you, the numbers — when we did that convention — it dropped our numbers,” Paxton said on the recording, according to The New York Times.
• “Everybody’s numbers dropped,” he added, according to the same report.
• “Right now? Yeah, not good,” Paxton said, according to the audio account published September 30.

When and where was the Republican convention held?

The Republican Party held the midterm convention in Dallas from September 9 to September 10, 2026, according to reporting by the New York Post and the Houston Chronicle. The event was the first midterm convention of its kind for the party and placed the president at the center of the Texas Senate contest.

• According to the New York Post, the convention ran from September 9 through September 10, 2026.
• According to the Houston Chronicle, the president later described the convention as successful and said it helped Paxton.
• According to the New York Times, Paxton attended a private fundraiser in Washington the following week, where the recorded discussion took place.

How did the president describe the event?

The president offered the opposite assessment several days after the Dallas gathering. Speaking to reporters in Ireland on September 13, 2026, he said the convention had helped the Texas candidate, according to the Houston Chronicle and New York Post. The public claim now conflicts with Paxton’s reported private account.

“I think the fact that we had such a successful convention really helped Ken Paxton,” the president said on September 13, according to the Houston Chronicle. He also praised Paxton’s record as attorney general, the newspaper reported.

What is Paxton’s campaign saying?

Paxton’s campaign rejected the interpretation of the recording. Nick Maddux, a senior adviser, accused The New York Times of presenting a manipulated account and said independent polling showed improvement after early September. The response did not include a public recording of Paxton making a different statement about the convention.

• “This is more manipulated nonsense from The New York Times to create a story that doesn’t exist,” Maddux said, according to a statement quoted by Forbes.
• Maddux said “every serious pollster” would report that Paxton’s numbers had improved since early September, according to Forbes.
• The audio was supplied to The New York Times by an attendee who opposed Paxton’s campaign and was granted anonymity, according to the newspaper’s account cited by the Boston Globe.

How was the private meeting verified?

The recording came from a gathering of roughly a dozen people, according to The New York Times and the Boston Globe. The person who provided the audio was not publicly identified. Three other people familiar with the event confirmed Paxton attended, while two recalled that he was asked about the convention and one recalled the negative assessment.

Those confirmations support the account of the meeting, but they do not independently establish the accuracy of every word on the recording. The campaign’s denial creates a dispute over the political meaning of Paxton’s remarks, not over the fact that the fundraiser took place.

Why does the recording matter in the Texas Senate race?

The recording exposes a direct disagreement between the Republican nominee’s private remarks and the president’s public message. Paxton is running against Democratic state Representative James Talarico in a closely watched race, according to Forbes. The dispute also places the candidate’s relationship with the White House at the center of the campaign.

• According to Forbes, Paxton has received the president’s endorsement.
• According to Forbes, James Talarico is Paxton’s Democratic opponent.
• According to The Hill, Paxton is the Republican nominee for the Texas Senate seat.

The political question is whether voters respond more strongly to the Dallas convention itself, the leaked recording, or the campaign’s rebuttal. The published reports do not provide a single agreed poll showing precisely how the event changed the race.

What happens next for Paxton’s campaign?

Paxton must now defend his campaign’s public alignment with the president while explaining remarks that appeared to blame the convention for a decline in Republican polling. The campaign has pointed to later September numbers, but the reports available on September 30 do not identify a common polling average or provide a full before-and-after measurement.

The recording is likely to remain an issue as the Senate contest moves forward. It gives Democrats an argument that the Republican nominee privately doubts the value of the president’s political operation. It also gives Republican rivals a reason to question whether Paxton can manage pressure from the White House and the Texas electorate at the same time.