GOP Goes On Texas Spending Blitz After Convention

Senate Republicans’ primary outside spending group has jumped into the Texas Senate race with an initial $32 million ad buy supporting Ken Paxton, just days after President Donald Trump’s political operation committed another $10 million to the contest.

Texas PAC, a new group connected to Senate Leadership Fund, purchased roughly $32 million in broadcast television advertising on Friday across the Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, San Antonio, and Austin markets, according to Politico. Senate Republicans are reportedly preparing to spend more than $50 million on the race.

The new spending marks Senate Leadership Fund’s first financial involvement in Texas since the Republican primary. The super PAC, affiliated with Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD), previously stayed out of the Texas contest despite reserving hundreds of millions of dollars for other competitive Senate races.

The investment follows a $10 million ad buy from MAGA Inc., Trump’s super PAC, earlier this month. That money was split evenly between positive ads for Paxton and negative ads against Democratic state Rep. James Talarico, according to a Federal Election Commission filing.

Elon Musk’s America PAC has also spent more than $2.6 million on phone calls, text messages, printed advertisements, and other efforts supporting Paxton and opposing Talarico, according to The Texas Tribune.  

Republican groups have now spent or reserved $60.8 million in advertising since Paxton won the May runoff, compared with $43.7 million from Democrats, according to the media-tracking firm AdImpact. Nearly all the Democratic spending has come from Talarico’s campaign.

The spending surge comes after polling shows an unusually competitive contest in a state that last elected a Democratic senator in 1988. An AARP survey released Thursday found Talarico leading Paxton 48% to 44% among likely voters, with 8% undecided. 

Thune supported Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) over Paxton during the Republican primary and had previously described Paxton as “scandal-plagued.” After Paxton defeated Cornyn in the runoff following Trump’s endorsement, however, Republican leaders began publicly urging Trump’s political operation to invest in the race. Thune told Fox News that Republicans needed to help Paxton because Texas has an unusually expensive media environment, with 20 television markets across the state.

The Republican leadership’s new investment comes as Trump has repeatedly emphasized the importance of keeping Texas in Republican hands. 

At the Dallas convention, Trump said Republicans “have to elect Ken Paxton,” adding that he would return to Texas “twice or three times” if necessary to campaign for him. Trump also used his convention appearances to attack Talarico while defending Paxton, though he continued his pattern of joking about Paxton’s appearance and mannerisms.

“He may not dress right. He may not talk exactly perfectly, and he may not be the best looking guy I’ve ever seen,” Trump said, before calling Paxton “the greatest attorney general in America” and saying he deserved to be the next senator.

Senate Majority PAC, the Democratic Senate super PAC, has not yet reserved advertising time in Texas. A spokesperson for the group described the Republican spending as evidence that Paxton’s campaign requires significant outside assistance.

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