Since President Donald Trump announced three weeks ago that he was traveling
to Texas to help Ken Paxton win his Senate race, an avalanche of more than $100 million of mostly negative ads targeting Democrat James Talarico has poured in
from just five GOP-aligned political committees.
And another $5 million is on its way from America PAC, the entity that Texas trillionaire Elon Musk used to help Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign.
It’s all in an effort to shift the momentum in a contest that most polls show is dead even or that
slightly favors Talarico with just 30 days left until in-person early voting gets underway. Through Aug. 24, Talarico had spent $25 million on TV and digital ads, compared to
less than $1 million for Paxton. But after Trump said
he was coming to the rescue, Paxton and his allies completely flipped the script, outspending Talarico and his allies four-to-one.
“They are throwing everything at us,” Talarico said at a campaign rally at Baylor University in Waco
on Wednesday. “These dark money super PACs are flooding the airwaves with lies about me and my record.”
As daunting as that may be for him, Talarico said
it is also
evidence that big donors know he legitimately has a shot to make history in becoming the first Democrat to win a U.S. Senate seat in Texas since Lloyd Bentsen in 1988.
“You should believe that we can make history, because they sure do,” the 37-year-old state legislator from Round Rock said.
Paxton acknowledged that the race is “razor thin” during a campaign speech in Longview earlier this week, but said momentum is beginning to swing in their favor.
“The energy on our side is getting stronger every day,” Paxton said. “Republicans are getting united, and we’re getting focused.”
He credited Trump and national Republicans for holding a two-day convention in Dallas, which he said showed everyone how important the race in Texas is.
“If we lose Texas, we lose America,” the 63-year-old Texas attorney general said.
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This article originally published at Trump’s Texas visit spurs a $100M avalanche of negative ads against James Talarico.