Texas Senate Fundraising: James Talarico Out-Raised Ken Paxton $64 Million to $18 Million in the Third Quarter
The final-weekend money picture, as reported Saturday: Talarico's campaign raised $64 million from July through September against Paxton's $18 million — while outside groups backing Paxton have spent more than $200 million, in what the Texas Tribune calls the most expensive Senate race in the country.
The Texas Senate race enters its final weekend with the money split two ways. Democrat James Talarico's campaign raised $64 million from July through September, while Republican Ken Paxton's campaign raised $18 million over the same period, and Talarico has raised more than $146 million since launching, according to the October 31 fundraising briefing read in full this cycle, which compiled the campaigns' filings as reported by the Texas Tribune, Fox News and AdImpact.
Paxton's side of the ledger runs through outside groups. Republican outside groups have put more than $200 million into Texas to support Paxton, nearly all of it bankrolled by Elon Musk, according to Fox News as cited in the briefing, and MAGA Inc., President Donald Trump's principal super PAC, has spent another $33.7 million on ads for Paxton, according to AdImpact. The Texas Tribune calls it the most expensive Senate race in the country; the briefing also notes Paxton's own party spent nearly $100 million during the primary calling him unfit for office — a figure the desk carries as the briefing's account of the Tribune's reporting.
The polling frame the money is chasing stayed narrow in the same reporting: the Daily Wire's latest account has Talarico up 1.5 points, with some polls showing a dead heat or a slim Paxton advantage, and the Epoch Times counted Talarico leading in 18 of 19 polls since July. More than 6.8 million Texans cast ballots through the first 11 days of early voting, over 40 percent ahead of the same point in 2022, the Secretary of State's figures as reported by the Tribune show. Turnout tallies show who voted, not how — the briefing's caution, and this desk's: the money and the polls are the campaign's weather, and Tuesday is the count.
