'Bigger fish' problem lands at Trump's door as GOP donors want him to rescue struggling race

WASHINGTON, DC: President Donald Trump's pick for Texas has now become a political headache, as GOP donors want him to personally 'rescue' Ken Paxton's struggling campaign.

Trump backed the loyal Ken Paxton in the Republican primary runoff against incumbent John Cornyn. Paxton is now scheduled to face Democratic nominee James Talarico in the general election.

Donors say Trump broke it, now owns it

GOP donors were not happy when Trump decided to endorse Attorney General of Texas Ken Paxton against incumbent John Cornyn, and now they say it's on him to fix the fallout

Half a dozen Republican donors and operatives spoke with Politico for a report published on Friday, August 21. The report says things have gotten strained between Trump and donors when it comes to Ken Paxton and other candidates.

“The message to Trump world is, ‘You broke it, now you own it. You gotta spend some of your money to defend him because we’ve got bigger fish to fry,’” one GOP donor said.

Paxton is now in a surprisingly tight race with Democratic candidate James Talarico, and donors are afraid that Democrats could potentially earn such a major win in a deep red state.

“The general view is that it’s Trump’s responsibility to bankroll, especially since Paxton took out one of the GOP Senate’s best fundraisers and is currently running a lackadaisical campaign,” a second GOP donor said.

MAGA Inc is the pro-Trump Super PAC that could jump in and help in the race.

“While MAGA Inc is committed to retaining and building the GOP majorities in the House and Senate, we are not in the habit of sharing our battle plans,” a spokesperson for the Super PAC said.

Donors don't want their money to go to Ken Paxton

A person close to Trump’s team also noted that donors have been open about not wanting their money to go to Paxton, preferring to focus on other races instead.

“It’s just been an ‘Oh, I’m not going to be in Texas this time around,” the person said.

A third donor told the outlet, "To make Texas a toss-up is just a foolish, foolish decision."

The person urged that money be spent in other states, noting just how much resistance there is to Paxton on his own side.

“There’s a lot of people that, one, don’t really like Paxton at all, they think he’d be a terrible senator or they were loyal to Cornyn, or both,” the donor said. “This is a situation that we didn’t need to spend this money at all. We need it in North Carolina, in Georgia.”