Republicans fret as Talarico bombards airwaves and Paxton awaits Trump team’s cash

By Manu Raju, Patrick Svitek, David Wright, CNN

(CNN) — Senate GOP leaders gave President Donald Trump a clear warning before the Texas primary election in May as he weighed endorsing Ken Paxton over longtime incumbent John Cornyn: If the state attorney general won, Trump’s political operation would have to bankroll the expensive general election campaign to help make the controversial Paxton more appealing to voters, according to multiple Republican sources.

But more than three months later, MAGA Inc.’s wallet has so far been closed. And Republicans are growing anxious — as the Democrat, state representative James Talarico, has had the airwaves largely to himself for weeks, spending roughly seven times more than the GOP since June.

“They keep saying they’ll spend, but they haven’t,” said one senior GOP source involved in the discussions.

With polls now showing the race that could help determine which party controls the Senate to be tight, Trump is beginning to put more of his attention in Texas, headlining a Thursday fundraiser in Houston that he described as an effort to help Paxton. And a separate, pro-Paxton outside group unveiled a new $800,000-ad blitz on Friday, the latest example in recent days of Paxton getting more air support.

“I’m going to help Ken Paxton and I’m going to spend a lot of time in Texas,” Trump told reporters at the White House before leaving for Houston.

The fundraiser was not for Paxton’s campaign, but for the Republican National Committee. A recent Supreme Court ruling gave groups such as the RNC new power to coordinate with campaigns on spending, a development that Republicans hope will be especially beneficial to candidates like Paxton who are financially behind in must-win races.

Yet it’s still unclear how much Trump’s outside group, MAGA Inc., will spend of its $400-million-plus war chest to come to Paxton’s defense. The state attorney general has faced a long list of scandals over the years, including a 2023 impeachment vote by the Texas House of Representatives over allegations of bribery and corruption. The state Senate later acquitted him of all the charges.

The lack of spending has frustrated top Republicans, who had insisted repeatedly to the White House that a Cornyn victory would be far less expensive to a party looking to deny Democrats the four seats they need to flip the chamber.

MAGA Inc. has declined to publicly preview any spending plans for the midterms. But it has begun ramping up its activities, starting with an event scheduled for Monday in Michigan with Vice President JD Vance as the headliner. A spokesman for the group, Alex Pfeiffer, said in a statement that MAGA Inc. “will be hosting events throughout the nation” ahead of the midterms.

But MAGA Inc.’s decision to wait to spend its vast resources has effectively given Democrats and Talarico a chance to dominate the Texas airwaves since other big-spending GOP outside groups have also sat out for now.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee and the super PAC tied to Senate Majority Leader John Thune, the Senate Leadership Fund, both of which strongly backed Cornyn in the primary, have been looking for MAGA Inc. to take the lead in the general election. A spokesperson for the Senate Leadership Fund said it was “confident” Paxton would win but otherwise declined to comment on any spending plans.

Since the June start of the general election season, Texas voters have been seeing mostly Talarico spots across the airwaves, with Democrats outspending Republicans on advertising by about $31.5 million to $4.7 million in the race, according to AdImpact data.

Talarico’s campaign, fueled by its robust fundraising, accounts for the majority of the spending, about $31.3 million. With the airwaves virtually uncontested, his campaign has run ads thousands of times introducing the first-time statewide candidate to voters while emphasizing cost of living concerns.  On Saturday, Talarico unveiled his first negative ad about Paxton, attacking him over the allegations of corruption.

Paxton’s campaign, bruised and drained from the runoff, has spent just over $150,000 on advertising since June, a far cry from the staggering sums spent by his rival.

Paxton has taken to conservative media to plea for help.

“We’re a little behind on TV,” Paxton told Newsmax earlier this month.

While Talarico continues to dominate the airwaves, outside spending for Paxton has picked up in recent days. As of last week, at least four different groups had entered the fray to target Talarico on TV, including the main pro-Paxton super PAC, Lone Star Liberty PAC, and Truth and Courage PAC, a super PAC aligned with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX).

All of the initial attack ads target Talarico over his opposition to a 2025 bill to ban Texas land sales to certain people from China and other countries deemed a national security threat. The bill passed the state House, and Gov. Greg Abbott signed it into law months later.

The ads nonetheless portray Talarico as enabling an active foreign encroachment on state land.

“Communist China is buying up Texas because Talarico sold us out,” a narrator says in an ad from Truth and Courage PAC.

Talarico’s campaign has countered that Paxton is the one who is too close to China, citing a 2019 trip he took there with other state attorneys general that concerned some of his own staff, according to Fox News. “There’s a reason Republicans call him ‘Commie Ken,’” Talarico spokesman JT Ennis said in a statement.

Republicans are also eyeing America PAC, the super PAC funded by Elon Musk, as a potential aid to Paxton. While a spokesperson declined to comment on the group’s plans, it has increasingly attacked Talarico’s record on social media in recent days, including in a post that vowed: “Texans will reject this.”

Meanwhile, the main super PAC supporting Talarico, Lone Star Rising PAC, unveiled it first general election ads Tuesday, including one that calls Paxton “the most corrupt politician in Texas.” The ads are part of an initial seven-figure buy running statewide on streaming and digital platforms.

Republican strategists in Texas, granted anonymity to frankly discuss the race, have said for weeks that Paxton needs more advertising from their side countering the moderate image that Talarico is projecting on TV.

One longtime Republican operative in the state said a major issue for Paxton is lack of support among “non-MAGA Republicans” who probably won’t vote for Talarico but could sit out the race. Polls have shown Paxton is not consolidating support from his party as much as Talarico is.

The operative said it was “frustrating to watch” because many Texas Republicans have known since the start of the election cycle that Paxton would be a weaker nominee than Cornyn if he won the primary.

Another Texas Republican strategist, who is working on down-ballot races, predicted Talarico’s polling position would soften once the onslaught of attack ads takes a toll. Right now, Talarico is “gaining the positives without the negatives,” especially in the eyes of independents and moderate Republicans, the strategist said.

“It has to become a drumbeat that voters can’t ignore,” the strategist said of the anti-Talarico ad blitz. “The volume and the frequency matter.”

Sen. Tim Scott, the chair of the NRSC, didn’t say directly when asked if his committee would help bankroll Paxton in an air war during the final weeks of the campaign.

“The strategy in Texas is strong,” Scott told CNN. “It’s going to be very well-funded. We have no actual reasons to be concerned about Texas. Paxton is working hard.”

Asked if Trump’s organization should begin to spend money in the state, Scott said he anticipated the money would begin to flow.

“We know that they’re going to be fully engaged,” the South Carolina Republican said.

But as party leaders await Trump’s help in the race, whether more traditional Republicans will come to Paxton’s aid also remains to be seen.

Asked by CNN earlier this month if he planned to campaign on behalf of Paxton, Cornyn deadpanned.

“No,” he said.

Correction: This story has been corrected to note that polls show no clear leader in the race between Talarico and Paxton.

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