President Donald Trump travels to San Antonio, Texas, on Wednesday to campaign for Ken Paxton, the Republican nominee in the Texas U.S. Senate race, as questions continue over his repeated comments about Paxton’s appearance.

The remarks have drawn fresh attention since the New York Times reported a leaked audio recording on Sept. 30, in which Paxton privately complained that Trump’s speech at the Republican midterm convention in Dallas may have hurt his campaign numbers.

The president has not commented on the audio.

Last week, Trump campaigned in Denton, Texas, where he said Paxton “can be a pain in the ass sometimes,” questioned whether Paxton was in the room (he was), and then called him “the greatest attorney general in the United States of America.”

On Sept. 10, the last night of the Republican midterm convention, Trump said, “I said, ‘Ken, I don’t want to embarrass you, but I don’t agree with a lot of things. … I’m not sure if I like your look, I’m not sure if I like the way you dress, I don’t like the way you talk.’”

The night before, Trump said, “[Paxton] may not dress right, he may not talk perfectly, and he may not be the best-looking guy I’ve ever seen.”

Earlier in September, Trump spoke about Paxton’s Democrat opponent, James Talarico, while in the Oval Office, but then said, “We have a guy named Ken Paxton. And some people don’t like the way he dresses, or some people don’t like the way he interviews or talks.”

Less than five weeks out from the midterm election in November, the Texas Senate race is competitive. According to the most recent New York Times/Siena poll from Oct. 3, Paxton trails Talarico by six points.

Trump’s comments on Paxton’s appearance seem to be part of a pattern.

Dan Cassino, a politics professor at Fairleigh Dickinson University, told HuffPost that Trump has always publicly equated masculine, physical traits with good leadership.

“The underlying issue is that Trump has a clear idea of what a good candidate is and what a good candidate looks like,” Cassino said. “That good candidate is a man; it is a tall, attractive man who dresses the way Trump thinks people should dress. And if you are a candidate who does not look like that or does not fit that stereotype in any way, then Trump thinks you are less of a candidate.”

Trump has often commented on his own looks, too. While speaking in Nebraska on Monday, Trump claimed his supporters have told him he looks so good he’s better than former presidents George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.

While serving his first term in 2016, he asked a crowd, “I think I am presidential. Do I look presidential? I think I look presidential. … How handsome am I, right?”

“This [mentality] causes problems for Trump when he’s asked to endorse people or campaign with people that he doesn’t think meet that,” Cassino said. “What he’s saying [about Paxton] is he doesn’t think he’s masculine enough, and therefore he doesn’t look like a good candidate; he doesn’t look like a winner.”

Why is Trump doing this to Paxton specifically?

Brandon Rottinghaus, a politics professor at the University of Houston, said Trump may be protecting himself in case Paxton loses.

“The question after it’s all said and done is, who’s to blame?” Rottinghaus said. “The president may be setting up a moment where Paxton gets the blame for a possible loss in Texas. … Trump doesn’t want to be the reason why people say that Republicans lost.”

But Rottinghaus emphasized this is purely his speculation.

“It’s always hard to attribute strategy to the president who tends to speak very extemporaneously on these issues,” he said. “Paxton needs Trump to validate him, and Trump is willing to use Paxton as a punchline.”

Josh Blank, the research director of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin, offered two other readings. One, the remarks could simply reflect annoyance with the problem Paxton poses for Republicans.

“To the extent that the president is overly focused on an aspect of Ken Paxton’s negatives, it could just be a sign of frustration,” Blank told HuffPost.

Or, they could give voters a trivial flaw to zero in on, so that “it allows for voters to acknowledge his imperfections, but then forgive themselves for supporting him if they want to.”

Paxton has been accused of securities fraud, corruption, bribery, abuse of public office and whistleblower retaliation over the course of his political career. Blank noted that Paxton has also declined to debate Talarico.

“This is not a normal election,” Blank said. “If Republicans start behaving strangely in the last few months of the election, it’s because they’re not used to being in this position.”

Cal Jillson, a politics professor at Southern Methodist University, who studies Texas politics, said Paxton’s base is likely to stick with him.

“I talked to a guy yesterday that I know pretty well who said, ‘You know, I know he’s a crook, but he’s our crook,’” Jillson said about Paxton. “That’s just what the Republican base thinks.”

What’s at stake here?

Paxton is a well-known commodity in Texas, having served in the legislature for a decade before he was elected as attorney general in 2014. He has been a consistent MAGA supporter since 2016, and has received millions of dollars for his campaign in donations from a new Texas PAC connected to Senate Majority Leader John Thune, MAGA Inc. and other GOP groups.

Should Talarico win, he would be the first Democratic U.S. senator from Texas in over 30 years.

A loss would carry wider consequences, Jillson said. “It would be catastrophic … if Paxton were to lose and the governor’s race be very, very close.”

Paxton’s team did not respond to HuffPost’s request for comment by the time of publication.

“President Trump has called Ken Paxton the single greatest attorney general in history and has been clear he will do whatever it takes to make him the next senator from Texas,” RNC spokesman Zach Kraft told HuffPost. “The more Texans learn about James Talarico’s radical plan to eliminate oil and gas, raise taxes, and force sex changes on kids, the more they realize they want nothing to do with him.”