National Democrats are turning on the cash spigot in Texas in hopes of pushing Senate nominee James Talarico across the finish line, despite not spending anything in the race to date.
Senate Majority PAC launched a digital ad in Texas on Tuesday morning homing in on a plea deal that Attorney General Ken Paxton negotiated that is part of a larger campaign that will continue through Election Day. Yet some are worried the money is coming too late, with only 35 days until election night.
It’s unclear how much SMP, which is tied to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), is spending on the ad, but it marks Senate leadership’s first foray into the hotly contested Texas contest.
Some say the investment is long overdue.
“I think that Democrats should have invested 15 years ago,” Democratic strategist Jon Reinish told the Washington Examiner.
National Democratic outside groups did come in with a deluge of spending in the 2024 matchup between Colin Allred and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), but the money did not come until the final week of October, NBC News reported at the time.
But Talarico has proven to be a prolific fundraiser, and he can access cheaper buying rates from TV stations than super PACs, allowing him to stretch his dollar further.
“One of the reasons, though not the only one, is that the guy practically mints money,” Reinish said. “He’s been very well financed, and if Republicans were not pretty d*** worried, they would not be dropping hundreds of millions of dollars that they probably should be spending in Ohio, Kansas, Nebraska, and a lot of other places.”
Polls show the race is tight. Talarico has raised nearly $70 million. Paxton has trailed, but outside money is giving him an edge. Overall, nearly $150 million of GOP spending from Texas PAC, an outside group linked to Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD), as well as pro-Paxton Lone Star Liberty PAC and President Donald Trump’s super PAC, MAGA Inc., is dwarfing the overall Democratic spend.
Thune’s group suggested in a statement to the Washington Examiner that it’s not planning to take its foot off the gas.
“Senate Leadership Fund’s investment through Texas PAC affirms our commitment to maintaining the Republican majority and defeating Far-Left liberals like James Talarico,” said SLF Executive Director Alex Latcham.
Political advertising in Texas carries a high price tag due to its large size and big media markets, with Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston both among the top 10 largest media markets in the country. The unique circumstances in Texas often leave both parties wary of spending in the state when resources could be used across the map. When SMP announced its initial advertising plans earlier this year, it focused on eight states, but left Texas off the list.
“Texas is always the man who got away from Democrats,” Reinish told the Washington Examiner. “On one hand, I think party leadership in D.C. has always said it’s too big, it’s too expensive, too much of the white whale.”
SMP’s spending this cycle came in as Talarico had broken fundraising records since launching his campaign last year. The super PAC will aim to paint the attorney general as a “corrupt, dangerous individual,” claiming he will “abandon Texas in order to line his own pockets and protect the Epstein class,” according to the PAC’s spokeswoman Lauren French.
Paxton has won statewide three times as Texas’s attorney general, but Democrats see an opportunity to dent him as he makes an attempt at federal office given his 2023 impeachment trial over corruption allegations and a messy public divorce.
With the high-profile Senate race, Texas has increasingly become the focal point of the 2026 election after the redistricting wars took off in the Lone Star State, and now with a competitive gubernatorial race.
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Although Texas is widely considered a “red state,” many Democrats have long believed if the state received the attention and funding that swing states received, the margins would be narrower.
“Texas isn’t a red state or a blue state,” Rep. Greg Casar told the Washington Examiner last year. “It’s an unorganized state. It’s a state where we’re regularly ranked at the very bottom for voter turnout. And there are just so many Texans that have just given up on collective action, given up on government, have given up on voting, and I think that what we need in Texas is a lot more folks to feel inspired about what’s possible.”