"I don't control message or what we're doing," Texas GOP Senate candidate Ken Paxton said during a small fundraising event in September.

Ken Paxton is less than a month out from the conclusion of a D.C.-outsider campaign for a Texas U.S. Senate seat that he privately admitted is being run by Washington.

"I've never been in a race where I felt less control over the campaign and, like, what issues are going to matter because it's all coming " you know " from D.C.," Paxton said during a small fundraising event last month, according to an audio recording obtained by POLITICO from a person in the room who does not support Paxton, and verified by another attendee.

"I don't control message or what we're doing."