PAC spent $131 million in 17 days to rescue Paxton in Texas Senate race
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Texas Attorney General and GOP Senate candidate Ken Paxton at a campaign event in Houston. Photo: Antranik Tavitian/Getty Images
The new Texas PAC spent a staggering $131 million in just 17 days to boost Republican Ken Paxton in his battle for a U.S. Senate seat, new financial reports reveal. And tens of millions more could be on the way.
Why it matters: The political environment is bad across the country for GOP candidates, but Paxton's numerous scandals have left him particularly vulnerable to becoming the first Republican to lose a statewide race in Texas in more than three decades.
- Paxton is the state's attorney general and is essentially tied in the polls with Democratic state Rep. James Talarico, a seminarian who has cast Paxton and Republicans as corrupt and beholden to billionaires.
- Republicans want to define Talarico as too progressive for Texas.
The big picture: The Texas contest is on pace to be the nation's most expensive Senate race this year.
Driving the news: On Wednesday, Texas PAC filed an FEC report showing the group had just spent more than $61.4 million in two days on ads and other activities for Paxton and against Talarico.
- That brought the PAC's total spending on Paxton's behalf to more than $131 million in 17 days — more than $7.7 million a day.
- The PAC, created last month, is affiliated with the GOP Senate Leadership Fund.
Democrats backing Talarico are unlikely to come close to the spending by Paxton-backed groups, but they're stepping up their spending plans on the Democrat's behalf.
- Senate Majority PAC, the main super PAC for Senate Democrats, just launched its bid to boost Talarico and target Paxton. A PAC backing Talarico, Lone Star Rising, has spent $13.9 million supporting him since January.
- As of Monday, Talarico's team had booked about $35 million in ads for the last two months of the campaign — on track to be outspent nearly 5 to 1 by pro-Paxton groups, the New York Times reported Tuesday.
Zoom in: Texas was not considered a serious battleground state by Republicans until President Trump, angry at Republican Sen. John Cornyn, endorsed Paxton in their primary, leading to the incumbent's defeat.
- Now Trump's MAGA Inc. super PAC and the Senate Leadership Fund are having to spend hundreds of millions of dollars they might have directed to other races to try to bail out Paxton.
Inside the room: The Times reported Wednesday that Paxton was secretly recorded at a fundraiser complaining that Trump's recent midterm convention in Dallas might have been counterproductive because it "dropped our numbers."
- At the convention, Trump was supportive of Paxton — while insulting his appearance and clothes.
- "He may not dress right, he may not talk exactly perfectly, and he may not be the best-looking guy I've ever seen. But you know what he is? He's the greatest attorney general in America, and he deserves to be your next senator," Trump said at the convention.
- Trump likes Paxton in part because the attorney general has been a loyal MAGA warrior who was one of the most prominent voices supporting Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
What they're saying: "When we told people [Texas] would cost $150 million to $200 million, we weren't making that up," one Republican involved in Senate campaigns said.
- "We took a lot of heat for keeping our powder dry, but Texas is so expensive that you have to time your spending. We've got more to come."
- Said one analyst on X: "The election version of the Battle of Verdun, folks."
