Paxton privately admits: Republican convention sank poll numbers, ‘everybody’s dropped’

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, the Republican candidate for the United States Senate from Texas, has privately admitted to a group of conservative donors and lobbyists that Republicans’ poll numbers fell because of the party’s much-discussed midterm convention, held in Dallas earlier this month.

“To be honest with you, the numbers — when we did that convention, it brought our numbers down. Everybody’s numbers dropped,” Paxton told the gathering last week, according to an audio recording obtained by The New York Times. “Right now, yeah, not good,” he added, as the New York Post reports.

Paxton is in a fierce race with state representative James Talarico, who aims to become the first Democrat elected to the Senate from Texas since 1988. According to the RealClearPolitics polling average, Talarico currently leads Paxton by 2.9 percentage points.

Paxton’s campaign adviser, Nick Maddux, called the story “more manipulated nonsense from The New York Times”, claiming their latest poll from last week puts Paxton ahead by three points and that the numbers have improved since early September.

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump is scheduled to appear on Thursday at a Peterbil Motors facility in Denton, Texas, as part of his final push to elect Republican candidates and maintain control of the House of Representatives and the Senate.