Attorney General Ken Paxton, Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, waves to attendees before speaking during the Republican convention at American Airlines Center on Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026, in Dallas.
Elías Valverde II/The Dallas Morning News
The dark money cavalry finally arrived to rescue Ken Paxton.
At the end of last week, national super PACs started pouring tens of millions of dollars into the race to help the scandal-plagued attorney general catch up with his Democratic opponent James Talarico. That’s because, in addition to his long history of indictments and unethical behavior, Paxton’s campaign has also suffered from his lack of fundraising prowess.
Through the misleadingly named Texas PAC, national Republicans purchased more than $50 million worth of broadcast TV ads across the state. President Donald Trump’s MAGA Inc. has bought $10 million in ads. Elon Musk’s PAC has also put more than $2.6 million behind Paxton. This outside spending makes up for Talarico’s head-to-head advantage — he has $21.5 million in the bank while Paxton only has $1.8 million. Overall, Team Paxton now has a 5-to-1 spending edge over Team Talarico.
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Consider this a political test for Texas: Will outside funds make up for Paxton’s own failure to run a robust campaign?
Here’s the answer: Maybe!
Blanketing the airwaves with bizarre ads about how Talarico wants to sell Texas to Chinese communists and turn your kids transgender — combined with the R next to his name on the ballot — could be enough to help drag Paxton across the finish line.
But here’s the question Texans need to ask themselves: What happens next?
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Paxton clearly struggles to do his job without outside help, and those PACs won’t be there to drag him to his desk in the Senate to work for Texans.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune won’t be there to make Paxton fight with Trump’s White House to deliver the recovery dollars Houston needs after a hurricane.
No big-money donor can write a check that makes Paxton improve trade infrastructure at the border.
Elon Musk isn’t going to ensure Paxton helps prevent domestic violence by closing loopholes in gun laws.
Those are the sorts of tasks that Sen. John Cornyn took on his own accord.
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To be blunt: If Paxton is too lazy to win an election without billionaires and super PACs paving the way, it’s hard to imagine that he’ll suddenly develop the work ethic to be a productive senator for Texas.
As Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison once put it, being a senator from Texas is like raising a teenager. There’s always something you have to deal with. But as he showed when he jetted off to London with his paramour for Independence Day, Paxton is more comfortable playing the role of philandering dad than attentive father figure — metaphorically speaking, of course.
Paxton fans may be tempted to write all of this off as partisan attacks, but honest Republicans are calling out Paxton’s indolence, too — not to insult him, but specifically because they want him to beat Talarico.
“Where’s Paxton?” Fox News host Jesse Watters demanded in an on-air rant last month attacking Paxton’s do-little campaign. “I can’t win this race for you.”
Longtime Republican strategist Karl Rove similarly warned earlier this month on the Brian Kilmeade Show that Paxton wasn’t putting in the work.
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“He was in Washington the week before the Fourth of July, on that weekend. No fundraiser that I can find. And then on Tuesday, he was seen leaving for Iceland with his latest girlfriend, and then the two of them spent the Fourth of July celebrating in London, England […] If he wanted to go to London, he should have gone to London, Texas.”
Even Cornyn called him straight-up “lazy.”
In comparison, Talarico has been everywhere, from Fox News to Jimmy Kimmel Live! — which so far has tripled the views of President Trump’s prime-time speech on Fox last week. Just this past weekend alone, Talarico showed up at Houston’s Emanu El synagogue for Rosh Hashanah on Saturday morning, a University of Texas football watch party at the Kirby Ice House that evening, then Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church on Sunday. Paxton’s campaign, in comparison, is more reminiscent of Joe Biden. He’s just delivering the same seven-minute somnolent speech and otherwise largely hiding from the public eye.
Of course, none of that means that Paxton will be totally useless in Washington. As Texans saw when he was attorney general, Paxton does sometimes put in the work. Who can forget when he spent taxpayer resources to protect Nate Paul, a campaign donor who happened to be employing his clandestine lover, from a federal investigation? In fact, Paxton worked so hard at the task that he ended up getting impeached by his fellow Texas Republicans over it.
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So if he makes it to the Senate, maybe Paxton will find a way to summon similar industriousness for the AI multi-billionaire who helped him when he needed it the most.
As for the rest of Texas, well, we’ll have to hope Sen. Ted Cruz is up to the task.