April 21, 2025      3:00 PM

Consultant Jeff Roe reportedly complicating Paxton relationship with Trump in bid for US Senate

All politics is personal for Donald Trump, and never more so than when it comes to Jeff Roe—the Republican mega-consultant whose once-massively successful political firm, Axiom Strategies, was effectively blacklisted by the president for, among many other things, having the temerity to work on Ron DeSantis’s 2024 campaign.

After Trump’s triumph in the G.O.P. primary, Roe went radio silent for the remainder of the cycle to protect his clients. In a post-primary conversation with Puck, he acknowledged that it had been “a mistake to run against a four-time indicted former president who was pretty well-liked.”

So it was somewhat baffling when Ken Paxton, the controversial right-wing Texas attorney general, hired Roe earlier this month to help launch his Senate primary campaign against John Cornyn, a four-term Republican incumbent. Paxton is a more vociferous Trump ally, and the president has offered kind words in return. But in hiring Roe, Paxton may have jeopardized Trump’s support in what is expected to be a nasty and personal primary, according to multiple people close to the White House.

“This certainly has not strengthened Ken Paxton’s hand,” one of them said. “Jeff Roe’s involvement will hurt Ken Paxton more than help him for numerous reasons,” said another.

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