Republicans Pour $30,000,000 Into Ken Paxton’s Campaign During Final Stretch Of Red-State Race

Texas AG Ken Paxton (Gage Skidmore via Wikimedia Commons)

Texas PAC, the Senate Leadership Fund’s super political action committee backing Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, planned to drop an extra $30 million on television advertisements Friday in deep-red Texas to support Paxton’s Senate bid.

The latest funds bring the PAC’s spending in Texas to about $155 million in television ads and around $200 million overall, a source familiar confirmed to the Daily Caller News Foundation. Republicans are spending heavily on the Texas Senate race while the polls show Paxton trailing Democratic Texas Senate nominee James Talarico.

Talarico led in the polls by an average of 2.8 points, according to RealClearPolling. Cook Political Report, a major elections forecaster, considered the Texas Senate race a “toss up.”

Republicans expected to spend between $150 million and $200 million to boost Paxton’s chances, Punchbowl News previously reported. Texas PAC planned to spend over $100 million in television ads after adding over $35 million to its $65 million in TV reservations.

Texas has not had a Democratic U.S. senator since 1993. Republicans dominate state-wide offices in Texas, including the governor’s office and both chambers of the state Legislature.

Paxton privately told donors that the Iran war and high gas prices caused him to struggle on the campaign trail, according to leaked audio. He publicly defended President Donald Trump’s decision to enter the war, stating in March that Trump “did the right thing” with Operation Epic Fury to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.

“It’s not tariffs. It’s the war, it’s gas prices,” Paxton said. “Diesel is over $6 a gallon … people are feeling the pinch. That’s probably the biggest problem … that’s by far our biggest problem.”

Trump endorsed Paxton over his primary opponent, Republican Texas Sen. John Cornyn, and campaigned with the attorney general during a Wednesday rally in San Antonio, Texas.

Paxton said in the same meeting that Republicans’ numbers dropped after the midterm convention in September, according to leaked audio from Sept. 30. RealClearPolitics’ Generic Congressional Vote showing Democrats at 50.6% and Republicans at 42.3%.

Republican PACs spent heavily in other deep red states such as Kansas and Iowa, where Republicans were also facing competitive races. The Senate Leadership Fund planned to pour $5 million into South Carolina to support Republican South Carolina Sen. Darline Graham, who is neck-and-neck with Democratic South Carolina Senate nominee Annie Andrews in the polls.

The group paused spending in North Carolina and Georgia as they attempted to prevent Democrats from gaining or retaining seats in traditionally Republican-friendly states. Republican North Carolina Senate nominee Michael Whatley’s campaign temporarily pulled television advertisements Wednesday while they reconsidered their campaign strategy.

Talarico has been absent from the campaign trail for unknown reasons for the past 12 days. He stated in 2021 that God was “non-binary” and told a podcaster in May 2023 that he loved transgender children when asked to name something he loved other than his children. He walked back his claim God being non-binary and said he was being “deliberately provocative.”

The Texas Democrat claimed in September that he would vote for a national ban on transgender surgeries for minors. He flipped his position on supporting men in women’s sports.