A Senate leadership-aligned PAC just reserved $32 million in Texas television ads to rescue Ken Paxton.
Texas PAC, a newly formed group tied to the Senate Leadership Fund, locked in the buy Friday across Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, San Antonio, and Austin media markets. The figures come from ad-tracking firm AdImpact, and they represent the first general election television purchase in Texas from the political network aligned with Senate Majority Leader John Thune.
That detail matters. Thune and his allies actively worked against Paxton during the Republican primary. Now they are spending tens of millions to keep his Senate seat in GOP hands.
Special offer for our readers:
Tackle your credit card debt with 0% intro APR into 2027
The move follows a $10 million commitment from MAGA Inc., the super PAC aligned with President Donald Trump, making it that group’s first general election expenditure of the entire midterm cycle. Thune had publicly urged Trump’s operation to step in, citing the enormous cost of advertising across Texas’ 20 media markets.
As originally reported, Republican leaders had been reluctant to pump national money into Texas, a state the party has controlled for decades. But Paxton’s fundraising disadvantage, combined with Democrat James Talarico holding a narrow lead in most recent public polls, pushed GOP power brokers to treat this race as a legitimate battleground.
Paxton won the Republican nomination after defeating longtime Sen. John Cornyn in a late-May runoff. Senate Republicans had originally backed Cornyn, a veteran fundraiser, and warned that controversies surrounding Paxton could make the seat costlier to defend. OneNation, a nonprofit affiliated with the Senate Leadership Fund, spent millions promoting Cornyn during the summer of 2025. After Paxton’s primary win, Republican leaders fell in line, hosting fundraisers and publicly endorsing him.
Until Friday, though, the Senate Leadership Fund’s network had stayed out of the Texas television fight entirely.
The broader picture shows just how much is at stake. Republican organizations have spent or reserved $60.8 million in Texas advertising since Paxton secured the nomination, including bookings running through the end of September. Democratic spending sits at $43.7 million, with nearly all of it coming directly from Talarico’s own campaign.
That gap is smaller than it looks. Candidate campaigns receive more favorable broadcast and radio rates than outside super PACs, meaning Talarico’s dollars buy more airtime than the outside money supporting Paxton.
Paxton’s campaign has not yet made a major television purchase of its own, despite qualifying for those cheaper advertising rates. Outside groups, including Trump’s political operation and Elon Musk’s America PAC, are currently carrying the load.
The Senate Leadership Fund had previously reserved $342 million across eight competitive Senate contests nationwide, five involving Republican-held seats and three targeting Democratic ones. Resources have also flowed into races in Michigan, Ohio, and North Carolina. Texas is now firmly on that list.
