Politico’s Dasha Burns said that Republican operatives were “furious” over having to pump cash into Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s (R) campaign after President Donald Trump’s endorsement cinched his defeat of Senator John Cornyn (R).

Burns joined CNN’s Inside Politics on Monday to discuss, among other topics, the closely watched race between Paxton and Texas state Rep. James Talarico. Trump’s late-in-the-game endorsement of Paxton triggered widespread backlash from many within his party, stemming from fears over Paxton’s checkered history and anger over the president’s betrayal of Cornyn, whose twenty years of experience and consistent fundraising chops have garnered him many powerful Washington supporters.

Paxton’s string of scandals, lawsuits, and controversies has been well documented, including his indictment on three felony fraud charges in 2015. Paxton was also impeached in 2023 by an overwhelming majority in the Republican controlled Texas House.

Many GOP lawmakers dually expressed fears of Talarico’s strength as a candidate, reinforced by polling that showed Trump’s endorsement sent the state senator’s numbers even higher. Host Dana Bash asked CNN’s Manu Raju about Republican feelings towards the match-up.

“I mean, the big question is how much money are the Republicans, the Republican leadership specifically, going to spend to save Ken Paxton?” said Raju. “Because they had planned or they had made the case to Trump, they had pleaded with Trump not to get behind Paxton because they were concerned it could cost hundreds of millions of dollars to prop him up because of all those controversies he has from the past.”

Burns underlined Raju’s point, claiming that Republicans lamented the cost of Paxton’s campaign during an already tricky midterm cycle.

She said:

One Republican senior operative called me after the Trump endorsement and said, “You break it, you buy it.” They are furious that there’s going to have to be this resource funnel into Texas now, when there are so many other races they’re concerned about. Look, Ken Paxton is not only climbing uphill with his own baggage. I mean, Republicans have a ton of headwinds that they have to deal with. The thing that I’m hearing that is the lever they’re going to pull the most is simply attack, attack, attack. The economy is not doing great. There’s not a lot that can run on that the White House is being very helpful with. What they can do and what, you know, James Blair and the White House political operation is very good at is going after their opponents, and you can already see that in Texas with the way they’re dealing with Talarico.

Watch above via CNN.

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