Sen. Ted Cruz fired back at JD Vance for suggesting he’s already focused on a 2028 presidential bid, calling the vice president “insecure” while insisting he’s focused on the 2026 midterms.“In my experience, people engage in political bomb-throwing when they’re feeling insecure,” Cruz said in a phone interview Saturday. “So he’s welcome to make whatever comments he likes. I’m going to keep focusing on the midterms and helping us win on Election Day in the next 30 days.”Cruz’s comments came in response to an NBC News interview Thursday with Vance in which the vice president suggested Cruz was prematurely eyeing a White House run.“It is really obvious to me that, at this very moment, Ted Cruz is running for president,” Vance said. “At this moment, I’m not. I’m trying to help elect Republicans. That’s what I’m going to keep on doing.”Vance is widely viewed as the frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination, but Cruz has said he doesn’t believe Vance is the sure-fire nominee and suggested he might throw his own hat in the ring. “I’ll certainly be part of the discussion,” he told MS NOW in August.On Saturday, Cruz told POLITICO he is dedicated to helping Republicans maintain control of both chambers of Congress. He pointed to his travel this cycle to campaign with candidates in Georgia, Iowa, Nebraska, South Carolina as well as in his home state of Texas as proof. He also said he has trips planned this month to campaign with Republicans in Alaska, Florida, North Carolina and South Carolina.“Over the last 10 years, there’s no Republican in the country who has campaigned for more Senate candidates, more House candidates, more gubernatorial candidates than I have, and this year will be no exception,” he said.Cruz rattled off a list of a dozen GOP candidates he’s helped bolster in past years, including former Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, U.S. House candidate Karoline Leavitt — and the vice president.“Indeed, ironically, I spent a full day on the road with JD Vance, campaigning with him when he was running for Senate in Ohio [in 2022],” Cruz said. “I was very glad he won that race. I was very glad to help him.”A spokesperson for Vance did not immediately respond to Cruz’s latest comments.Vance campaigned in Texas and Florida this week and will hold a rally in Alaska on Monday.This article originally appeared on Politico at https://www.politico.com/news/2026/10/03/ted-cruz-blasts-jd-vance-as-insecure-says-hes-focused-on-helping-gop-win-midterms-01106033

President Donald Trump on Saturday pressured Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas to support a bill to make daylight saving time permanent, urging Americans to call what appeared to be the personal cellphone number of Cotton, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. The Sunshine Protection Act passed the House in July, but it faces roadblocks in the Senate where some Republicans are strongly opposed. Proponents, including the White House, argue that the change would provide more daylight during the times that Americans are most active. Detractors said permanent daylight saving time would lead to darker and potentially more hazardous winter mornings when children will be waiting for school buses and parents will be driving to work in darkness. It was a remarkable escalation on Trump’s part of a longstanding fixation shared by both men — with Trump supporting making daylight saving time permanent, and Cotton vociferously opposed — at a time just weeks before the midterms, when Republicans would prefer that the president focus on talking about affordability issues and the party’s achievements. Cotton is also up for reelection this November, although that race is not expected to be competitive. Trump calls daylight saving time ‘depressing’ Daylight saving time is that period between spring and fall when clocks in most parts of the United States are set one hour ahead of standard time. Not all states observe it — and under the bill, states can opt out of the change if their respective legislatures act to do so before the bill’s enactment. “It’s a lot of work for a lot of people, running around for two days, changing all the clocks in the house,” Trump told reporters as his left the White House on Saturday for a rally in Vandalia, Ohio. “It discombobulates everybody,” he said. Trump said the time change gives golfers less time on the greens and tennis players less time on the courts. He blamed Cotton for stopping the bill. “So, everyone in Arkansas, a State I love, and won 3 times, the last by by 34 points, tell Tom to, GET IT DONE! It will be appreciated by all,” Trump said on social media on Saturday morning, kicking off the fight. Trump included a phone number with an Arkansas area code. The Associated Press called the number, but no one answered and the voicemail box was full. Cotton, a member of Republican leadership, reiterated his opposition to permanent daylight saving time in a social media post of his own Saturday afternoon. He is not the only GOP senator who opposes the policy, though he has been among the most vocal opponents. “No one likes changing the clock, me included, but Congress has enacted permanent Daylight Savings Time multiple times before and repealed it each time once Americans experienced absurdly late sunrises in the winter,” Cotton wrote. “Arkansans don’t want their kids going to school in the pitch dark, and I’ll always put Arkansas first.” The fight over changing the clock went on all Saturday Trump promptly fired back in another post. “If Tom Cotton were putting Arkansas first, he would give them an extra hour of daylight and, more importantly, they wouldn’t have to run all over their houses, farms, work places, and everywhere else, twice a year, having to change their Clocks, and often forgetting to do so,” Trump said, adding that “that is really putting Arkansas FIRST.” As his motorcade was rolling back to the White House from his golf course, Trump added that “a table full of very distinguished people just told me that they HATE, immediately after a mandatory time change, going home at night – and it’s DARK.” “It’s depressing!” Trump continued. “One of the gentleman stated that, ‘I just hate going home in darkness.’ It’s also, in Crime Ridden Blue States, a lot more dangerous to be walking home in the dark!” A 2025 poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows that if forced to choose, most Americans would prefer to keep that extra hour of daylight in the evening. Only 12% of U.S. adults favor the current system of daylight saving time, which requires people in most states to change their clocks twice a year, while 47% oppose it and 40% are neutral. Members of Congress have long been interested in the potential benefits and costs of daylight saving time since it was first adopted as a wartime measure in 1942. The Senate passed a bill four years ago to make daylight saving time permanent, but it stalled in the House. This is not the first time Trump has released personal information about a senator While competing for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, the late Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina described Trump as “unfit for office” after Trump denigrated the military service of Sen. John McCain of Arizona. Trump then released Graham’s personal cellphone number. That prompted a viral video in which the senator dramatically destroyed a series of flip phones. Graham later became a close ally of Trump. In contrast, although they share many of the same policy positions, Trump and Cotton are not known to be close. Cotton, one of the Republican Party’s most prominent national security voices, has advocated for a more hawkish approach on Iran, particularly as Trump entertains pauses in military strikes amid the seven-month war. In Trump’s first term, Cotton was a critic of the president’s attempts at overhauling the nation’s sentencing laws, calling the proposal a “jailbreak.” Earlier this year, Cotton had temporarily defied Trump’s attempts at stalling the confirmation process for his own nominee for director of national intelligence, Jay Clayton. The president had wanted to ensure his interim pick for the intelligence job, Bill Pulte, would be able to serve in that role at least briefly when the former director, Tulsi Gabbard, left the job. But the appointment of Pulte, who had no known national security credentials, drew bipartisan condemnation from Capitol Hill and Cotton had tried to expedite Clayton’s confirmation process, which could have prevented Pulte from being installed as acting director. But Trump ultimately ordered Clayton to not appear before Cotton’s committee for his confirmation hearing, and Pulte served in the job for several weeks this summer. Clayton was eventually confirmed by the Senate in late July. ___ Associated Press writer Mary Clare Jalonick in Washington contributed to this report.This article originally appeared on Associated Press at https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/trump-urges-calls-arkansas-sen-172243675.html

Tennessee’s top prison official is stepping down after the state’s failed attempt to execute Christa Pike, Gov. Bill Lee announced Saturday.Correction Commissioner Frank Strada will leave this month. In a statement, he said resigning was “in the best interest of Tennesseans” while an independent review examines what happened Wednesday, when Pike survived two doses of pentobarbital.Strada said he still believes the state “carried out its responsibilities in accordance with the established protocol.”Pike survived two doses of lethal injection drugs in Tennessee’s death chamber Wednesday and was taken to a hospital in critical condition.Pike, who was sentenced to death in 1996, was unconscious, intubated and breathing with help from a ventilator at a Nashville-area hospital as of Thursday night, her lawyers said in a court filing Friday. Hospital staff were trying to save her life and flush the pentobarbital from her system, the filing said.Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has paused executions in the state in response.Pike, 50, remained alive and snoring loudly after being given two doses of pentobarbital, her attorneys and other witnesses said. She was subsequently taken to a hospital.Both of Pike’s arms were “swollen, burned, and blistered” when she arrived at the hospital, her lawyers wrote. They believe the IV lines were placed incorrectly or her veins burst, so that some or all of the drug went into the tissue of her arms instead of her bloodstream.The filing asks a state court to order the Tennessee Department of Correction to preserve all evidence from the execution attempt.”Last night was not just inefficient, it was cruel, and it was torturous,” attorney Randy Spivey said Thursday. “It was also predictable.”Spivey said Pike’s legal team warned the state of Tennessee and the courts that her medical condition of thrombocytosis “would cause her to suffer an agonizing death.” They said it could increase clotting and pain during the execution process and that her veins are difficult to access. Pike’s attorneys said the state and the court dismissed their client’s concerns.”She was not seeking to delay her execution,” attorney Stephen Ferrell told reporters Thursday. “She was seeking to have that execution performed humanely and as quickly and as painlessly as possible.”Lee ordered “a comprehensive, third-party review to determine exactly what occurred” and said that another scheduled execution later this year had been paused.”There are very few answers this morning. It’s very early,” Lee told reporters Thursday morning. “There are a lot of questions. The people of our state deserve to have those questions answered.”This is a tragedy. There is no one who wanted what happened last night to happen. It’s deeply disturbing to me that this has happened in this state.”Pike’s attorneys said Thursday that the governor’s independent review doesn’t go far enough after being in solitary confinement for more than 20 years and the botched execution attempt.”Christa has endured punishment greater than any other person in the history of the American death penalty,” Spivey said. “The governor must commute Christa’s sentence now.”Spivey said the execution team tried to establish an IV line for over an hour and that he counted at least seven needles used in her left arm alone, one of which appeared to be bent when it was pulled after an unsuccessful attempt.May Martinez, the mother of Pike’s victim, Colleen Slemmer, told NBC News the execution attempt had been a “mess,” adding, “They didn’t say anything, and then, all of a sudden, they asked all the victims to leave. We didn’t know anything until we got up to the office and saw the commissioner. And he said that it didn’t work … and she’s on her way to the hospital.”In a statement posted on Facebook, Sen. Marsha Blackburn called for the state to return to the electric chair as a means of execution. “This situation is tragic,” she said. “Christa Pike should have been executed long ago. Now, this botched process is extending the pain for the family of Colleen Slemmer. While there should be a thorough review of what happened and why the process failed, the answer is simple: bring back the electric chair and deliver justice for these victims swiftly.”Lee said he had paused another execution scheduled for Dec. 3 this year. “Carrying out a lawfully imposed sentence is among the state’s most serious responsibilities, and the people of Tennessee expect it to be done in a manner that is not only legal and constitutional, but is effective,” he said.What happens next?Tennessee officials have not said whether they will try to execute Pike again, or explained what went wrong.Her condition could complicate any future attempt. Under Supreme Court precedent, a person can’t be executed unless they have a “rational understanding” of why they are being put to death, the New York Times reported. Dr. Joel Zivot, an Emory University anesthesiologist retained by Pike’s defense team, told the BBC it is “very possible” she suffered a brain injury because resuscitation was delayed.Pike’s lawyers have asked Lee to commute her sentence to life in prison. Lee had denied her clemency before the execution attempt.President Trump questioned how the execution could have failed, telling reporters it “shouldn’t be very difficult,” according to AFP. United Nations human rights chief Volker Türk urged Tennessee not to try again.What happened during the execution attempt?Pike had been scheduled for execution at 10 a.m. Wednesday for killing Slemmer in 1995, at the age of 18. She would have been the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years.An appeals court stopped the lethal injection just an hour before it was to start, a stay that was subsequently overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court.Media witnesses said officials raised the curtains to the execution chamber at 7:27 p.m., showing Pike strapped to a gurney. “I’m going to leave this world the way I spent most of my life, and that is in love,” she said in her “last” words.However, Pike remained conscious after the first dose. Nashville Banner reporter Steven Hale said she lifted her head off the gurney at 7:54 p.m. She also reportedly asked prison officials if her arm was supposed to feel that way.Tori Gessner, a journalist with WKRN News 2 in Nashville, said Pike was seen pointing at her arm and asking, “Does this happen like that?”By 8:26 p.m., witnesses reported that the second dose of pentobarbital had been administered.Pike continued to be heard snoring behind the closed curtain until the microphone was cut off at 8:53 p.m. At that time, an announcement was made to escort media witnesses out of the area.Christa Pike, pictured in January 2023.Tennessee Department of Correction via APPike’s legal team said in a statement to the Tennessean newspaper on Wednesday night, “We take no pleasure in being right, but the concerns raised by Ms Pike proved to be true: difficult vein access, blown veins, degraded pentobarbital, no emergency medical care available when things inevitably go wrong, all under a protocol that remains veiled in secrecy.”Robin M. Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, said what Pike experienced was “singular and unparalleled.”Seven other people have survived medical problems caused by an execution team’s failure to access a vein to administer lethal injection drugs, but no one has remained alive after receiving the drugs used in such executions, she said.”I’ve witnessed, I believe, five executions in Tennessee,” Gessner said. “Nothing about today was normal, typical at all, and the court delay was just the tip of the iceberg.”A source told NBC News that there was no medical oxygen or mask in the execution chamber, meaning they had to be brought in from a prison clinic. Some of the medication had worn off by the third time staff checked on Pike, the source added.The Tennessee Department of Correction said that it “followed every step of the state’s lawful, established execution protocol approved by the attorney general’s office.”The state’s execution protocol calls for a secondary set of drug syringes to be administered “if the inmate is not deceased” after the first set. It does not specify what happens if the subject is still alive after the second set.Lawyers for Pike filed an emergency motion late Wednesday with the Tennessee Supreme Court seeking to immediately halt and stay the execution, saying she was in “unnecessary agony” and that the execution was violating her right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment. They also filed motions in the Sixth Circuit and a district court.Pike was sentenced to death in 1996 after being convicted of first-degree murder of Colleen Slemmer the previous year on the University of Tennessee Agricultural campus.According to legal documents filed with the Supreme Court, Pike “tortured, and killed Colleen Slemmer” on Jan. 12, 1995 because Pike “just felt mean that day.” Pike is reported to have cut Colleen’s throat multiple times and crushed her skull with a piece of asphalt.Pike was also convicted of attempted first-degree murder after trying to strangle fellow inmate Patricia Jones in 2001.Who is Frank Strada?Strada took over Tennessee’s Department of Correction in January 2023 after serving as deputy director of Arizona’s prison system. In late 2024, he announced Tennessee would switch to a single execution drug, pentobarbital.Death penalty lawyers told the Guardian that Pike’s was the fifth “botched” execution Strada has overseen in two states since 2022. That count includes Tennessee’s failed attempt to execute Tony Carruthers in May, when staff couldn’t find a vein, and three 2022 executions in Arizona in which teams struggled to place IV lines.Kit Thomas, a death row attorney, told the Guardian that training requirements for execution teams were loosened under Strada. “He reduced the training requirements and we’ve seen disastrous results,” Thomas said.A day before announcing the resignation, Lee defended the department, telling reporters, “So far as we know, the department of correction followed exactly the protocol that was outlined.”How common are botched executions?According to the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC), there were 75 botched lethal injections between 1982 and 2010. Compared to other methods, lethal injections face complications at a significantly higher rate. There have been a number of botched executions since 2010 that don’t appear in the DPIC’s tally. Most of these were executions that went wrong in some way, but still ended in death. But there are seven known instances in which an execution failed entirely. One of them was earlier this year in Tennessee, when staff were unable to find a vein to administer the lethal drugs to inmate Tony Carruthers.Tony Carruthers was scheduled to be executed on May 21, 2026.Tennessee Department of Correction via APMore than 20 pharmaceutical companies have also refused to have their products used in executions, which has left states struggling to find the drugs they need to perform lethal injections. In some cases, they have experimented with unproven alternatives, with disastrous results.An Oklahoma prisoner named Michael Lee Wilson said he could feel his “whole body burning” as he was being executed using a controversial drug cocktail in 2014. There have also been instances of prisoners gasping for air, heaving and coughing, convulsing and being subjected to “three hours of pain” before finally dying.In April 2022, Tennessee called off the execution of Oscar Smith about an hour before it was scheduled to begin after the state discovered that its lethal injection drugs had not been properly tested. An independent investigation found that the state had repeatedly failed to follow its own drug-testing protocols between 2018 and 2022.Tennessee then revised its protocol, resuming executions in May 2025 and using a single, lethal drug: pentobarbital.There’s also growing evidence that lethal injection may not provide a peaceful death even when everything appears to go right.Difficulties with lethal injections have led some states to revive previously discarded execution methods. South Carolina carried out three executions by firing squad last year. There had been three total firing squad executions in the U.S. in the previous half-century combined. There were 47 executions in 2025, according to the DPIC, higher than the recent average of fewer than 30 per year. These included the lethal injection of South Carolina inmate Marion Bowman, who received twice the intended drug dose, and Tennessee inmate Byron Black, who reportedly showed sustained cardiac activity for nearly two minutes after prison staff pronounced him dead.This article originally appeared on Yahoo News at https://www.yahoo.com/news/us/article/tennessee-death-row-inmate-christa-pike-survives-2-doses-of-execution-drugs-081613268.html

The co-pilot of the FlyDubai plane who allegedly attacked the plane’s captain and attempted to crash a flight bound for Israel on Wednesday is an Omani national who was previously suspended from flying by Oman Air after being identified as a security risk, according to senior intelligence and law enforcement officials.Multiple sources familiar with the investigation identified the suspected attacker as 29-year-old Hamam Al Hammami.The officials told ABC News that Al Hammami, while working as a co-pilot trainee for Oman Air in 2024, was found to be in possession of extremist materials. The suspect was allowed to continue working for the airline in an administrative role, the sources said.United Arab Emirates Attorney General Hamad Saif Al Shamsi on Saturday said the aircraft’s co-pilot had attempted to carry out a terrorist act and that he began executing his plan during the flight by assaulting the pilot inside the cockpit using a crash axe and attempted to seize control of the aircraft’s controls, according to WAM state news agency.This is the first confirmation by UAE authorities that the co-pilot had attacked the captain and identified the weapon used as a crash axe. Previous UAE statements had described the incident as a security incident and said an investigation was underway to determine whether it involved terrorist activity or prior planning.’The last push, Smit’: FlyDubai captain Smit Machchhar recounts harrowing cockpit attackThe attorney general stressed that investigations are still ongoing to establish all the circumstances and motives surrounding the incident, as well as any related links. He added that technical examinations and the analysis of physical and digital evidence are also being completed, with the final findings to be announced once the necessary procedures have been concluded.Officials investigating the incident are still trying to determine how the suspected attacker was subsequently permitted to fly for FlyDubai and how he ended up as the first officer in the cockpit of a plane headed for Israel, the sources said.Al Hammami — who was transferred Thursday from Saudi Arabia to the United Arab Emirates — is said to be “cooperating” with authorities investigating the incident and has indicated that his intent was to crash the aircraft in Israel, according to sources briefed on the investigation.”We recognise that there are many questions at this stage; however, the circumstances surrounding the incident are still under investigation,” FlyDubai said in a statement obtained by ABC News on Saturday. “We are therefore not in a position to comment further beyond our published statements. We remain fully committed to supporting the ongoing investigation and are in close coordination with the relevant government authorities and regulators.”Representatives for Oman Air and the Omani Embassy did not immediately respond to a request for comment from ABC News.FlyDubai issued a statement earlier Friday, attributed to its chief executive officer, saying that, at the request of the authorities, FlyDubai had “temporarily suspended operations to Tel Aviv until further notice,” and saying “a full official investigation, led by the relevant authorities and fully supported by flydubai, is underway.” A disaster was averted when the flight’s captain, Smit Machchhar, fought back and a number of passengers subdued and restrained the attacker, who had sent the plane into a rapid dive.Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images – PHOTO: A flydubai Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft prepares for landing at Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport in Lod, Sept. 30, 2026. One of the passengers, Israeli plumber Yaniv Hayoun, said he pulled back on the controls to steady the plane until a third pilot, who was traveling in the passenger cabin, took over. The flight eventually landed safely in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.One of the passengers who ran to the front of the plane, Dr. Shota Musaev, told ABC News in an interview this week that the attacker — who was bloodied and restrained on the floor outside the cockpit — told him he was from Oman. Musaev said that at one point the suspect asked Musaev to kill him.”He said, ‘Kill me please, kill me please,'” Musaev said.Israeli officials are expected to be on the ground and involved in the questioning of Al Hammami, sources said.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday said that the suspected attacker, who he didn’t name, had undergone “Islamist radicalization.””He came to crash the plane with all passengers on board,” Netanyahu said in a video released by his office. “We are investigating whether he was sent, and whoever sent him will pay a very heavy price.”Netanyahu also again heaped praise on Hayoun and the other heroic passengers for preventing a “tragedy like 9/11.”A threadbare internet biography page believed to belong to the suspect indicated that he had studied aviation management at a British university and engineering at an Australian university.A source at the Buckinghamshire New University confirmed that Al Hammami completed a three-year distance-learning course and graduated with a degree in aviation management in 2023. The source stressed that Al Hammami did not take any pilot training at the school.Royal Air Maroc — Morocco’s national carrier — confirmed to ABC News that Al Hammami completed a three-month theoretical training period with the airline in 2025 as part of its pre-employment process. At the end of the training, he was not selected for employment, the airline confirmed, but it wouldn’t say why.A representative for the school in Australia declined to comment and referred an inquiry from ABC News to the Australian federal police.- ABC News’ Dragana Jovanovic contributed to this report.This story has been updated.This article originally appeared on ABC News at https://abcnews.com/US/suspect-flydubai-incident-previously-identified-security-risk-officials/story?id=136960488

Republicans know they have to spend big to save Ken Paxton. They’re increasingly worried MAGA Inc. won’t throw down in time.In private conversations over recent weeks, senior Hill Republicans and GOP officials have nudged President Donald Trump’s team to start spending more on the Texas Senate race before it’s too late, according to three people with direct knowledge of those conversations, who were granted anonymity to discuss them.Those fears escalated after audio leaked of Paxton privately trashing Trump’s midterm convention, with some worrying it could impact whether MAGA Inc. continues spending after a current wave of GOP ad bookings run out Oct. 12.A Trump operative told POLITICO that MAGA Inc. and its affiliates are expected to spend near $45 million on direct mail, TV, and digital advertising in Texas through Oct. 12, an increase from its previous $20 million to boost Paxton. But they said the team is still assessing how much more money to send in the final weeks, in consultation with Senate Republicans and their top super PAC, the Senate Leadership Fund.The Trump operative, who like others in this article was granted anonymity to speak candidly, would not commit to any plans when asked by POLITICO.With national Democrats starting to finally spend for their Senate nominee, James Talarico, after months of holding off, and as polling of the race tightens, Republicans expect the cost of salvaging Paxton’s campaign will only skyrocket. And, they’ve started to panic.“It’s a five-alarm fire, no doubt,” one GOP senator said. “Can we put it out? I hope so.”“This is a slow-moving car crash that we’re witnessing right now,” a Republican strategist in the state said. “And there’s a 75% chance that the ultimate result here will be catastrophic from a GOP Senate majority standpoint.”A fourth Republican, a national operative, spoke to the urgency factor: “While it’s money we shouldn’t have needed to spend, it needs to be spent now,” said a national GOP operative, describing the state as more winnable than North Carolina, Georgia and potentially Ohio.Even with a massive war chest, Texas is turning into a huge money sink for the GOP that senators worry could hurt them in other tight races as they work to defend deep-red states and try to flip blue seats in Michigan and New Hampshire.Trump himself nodded to some of the concerns at a rally just across the Texas border in Oklahoma Thursday night, saying those voters aren’t the ones he’s concerned about.“We’re worried about Michigan. We’re worried about Texas,” he told the crowd. “We’re worried about a few states.”The president is scheduled to visit Texas again next week for a rally in San Antonio next Wednesday.SLF poured another $60 million into Texas on Wednesday, bringing its total expenditure there to a record-breaking $131 million. With the MAGA Inc. money and additional GOP ad reservations, the race is already on track to top $200 million from outside Republican groups hoping to save Paxton. Paxton’s own campaign recently announced a $20 million ad buy — one of the largest single media investments in a Texas Senate race.Some Republicans want MAGA Inc. to take over spending for Paxton in Texas in the final few weeks, so SLF can focus its resources elsewhere. MAGA Inc. could also funnel money into SLF’s recently established Texas PAC. But, according to two people with direct knowledge of that matter, that hasn’t happened.“At some point I think the people spending that money are going to have to make hard choices and figure out where the money can have the biggest impact, and certainly Texas is the most expensive,” Sen. John Cornyn, who lost to Trump-backed Paxton in the primary, recently told POLITICO.SLF Executive Director Alex Latcham indicated to POLITICO the group will keep spending in Texas: “Senate Leadership Fund’s investment through Texas PAC affirms our commitment to maintaining the Republican majority and defeating Far-Left liberals like James Talarico.”But Republicans’ money concerns have been complicated by Paxton himself. A growing number of GOP senators and top operatives have been stunned by what they described as unforced errors by the Texas Senate nominee. For example, he crossed one of the brightest red lines with Trump, telling a group of donors that “everybody’s numbers dropped” after the president’s GOP convention in Dallas last month, according to the audio leak reported by The New York Times.“There seems to be very little strategy there,” said another Republican senator, granted anonymity to candidly discuss the race. “Sometimes, I think [Paxton] wants to lose.”The White House did not respond to a request for comment.Trump, while on his way to Texas to tour a motor facility on Thursday, told reporters he hadn’t talked to Paxton about his convention comments. Later, he told a crowd in Texas that “Ken Paxton was at my side more than anybody, and I have to always remember that because he can be a pain in the ass sometimes. I’ll be honest.”Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) told reporters this week that he hadn’t seen the audio of Paxton trashing Trump’s convention. He acknowledged the stakes in his home state were high — and that the influx of cash is key.“The reason that it is a serious race and a close race right now is that for several months the Democrats were massively outspending us,” he said, “and I am glad now that we are seeing money invested in communicating with the voters.”The White House has attempted to reassure concerned senators, with chief of staff Susie Wiles telling Senate Republicans this week that there will be enough money available for competitive races in the final stretch, according to two people with knowledge of the meeting.GOP operatives in both Michigan and New Hampshire said they feel that some of the cash being shoveled toward Texas should be going to their states instead. Most polls show Republicans running narrowly behind or neck and neck in both states, even though they hold a spending advantage on the airwaves there.“We’re focusing so much on ‘we’ve got to put this money into Texas.’ Why? We’ve never had a problem in Texas. Let’s focus on taking back a seat we haven’t had in years,” said an ally of former Sen. John E. Sununu, who’s in a tight race against Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas. “There are real chances in Michigan and New Hampshire,” said the person, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly about the dynamics.Sununu’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.Latcham, who heads SLF, said that “Texas PAC is a dedicated effort that will not take resources from our other ongoing investments across the Senate map.”Recent polling still shows the Texas Senate race with a razor-thin margin. Most public polling over the past two months shows Talarico with an edge, though Paxton’s campaign released an internal poll Tuesday that shows Paxton leading by three points among likely voters, 48% to 45%.“I don’t think the needle has moved in the last month,” said one Texas Republican elected official, granted anonymity to speak frankly. “Unless it’s the worst polling that’s ever been done in political history, all this spend hasn’t changed anything, and I think people have made their mind up.”Lisa Kashinsky, Samuel Benson, Alex Gangitano and Kelsey Brugger contributed to this report. This article originally appeared on Politico at https://www.politico.com/news/2026/10/03/paxton-texas-senate-trump-gop-money-woes-01105707