{"id":139635,"date":"2026-01-27T10:19:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T10:19:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/139635\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T10:19:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T10:19:08","slug":"why-ken-paxton-ads-arent-spamming-the-tv-airwaves-in-texas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/139635\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Ken Paxton ads aren’t spamming the TV airwaves in Texas"},"content":{"rendered":"

With just weeks until early voting begins, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s<\/a>\u00a0campaign and the outside groups supporting him have spent virtually nothing advertising his candidacy for U.S. Senate.<\/p>\n

That’s compared to\u00a0more than $44 million that’s gone into<\/a>\u00a0promoting U.S. Sen. John Cornyn’s reelection campaign and another $8 million on U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt’s, according to the research firm AdImpact. Meanwhile Paxton, who is leading in most polls, is seemingly content to wait out a primary where no one candidate is likely to get a majority, triggering a runoff between the two highest vote-getters.<\/p>\n

“We feel good about where we’re at and will spend our resources when it’s necessary, and not before,” said Greg Keller, a spokesman for the pro-Paxton group Texas Lone Star Liberty PAC.<\/p>\n

An Emerson College Polling\/Nexstar Media poll<\/a> released Jan. 15 showed Paxton narrowly leading the\u00a0trio, with 27% of likely Republican voters saying they planned to vote for him. Cornyn had 26% and Hunt 16%, with 29% undecided.<\/p>\n

Paxton has also shown\u00a0signs he is struggling to keep pace on fundraising with\u00a0Cornyn, who over more than two decades in the U.S. Senate\u00a0has a long list of corporate donors.<\/p>\n

On a fundraising call last week, the attorney general\u00a0complained that the current federal campaign finance rules favor\u00a0incumbents.<\/p>\n

“They can have these committees \u2014 there are many of them \u2014 the leadership fund, the (National Republican Senatorial Committee), and other special committees that people can donate to,” he said. “If you want to give to John\u00a0Cornyn, you can give well over $100,000. Whereas if you\u2019re a challenger, I can only take $7,000 per person.”<\/p>\n

Paxton’s supportors still have ways to solicit large checks \u2014\u00a0Lone Star Liberty PAC,\u00a0for instance, doesn’t have restrictions on donations.<\/p>\n

But with the expectation that the race will go to a runoff after the March 3 primary, donors could be waiting to invest until then or the general election, said Brandon Rottinghaus, a politics professor at the University of Houston.<\/p>\n

“My impression is when he needs that money it will be there,” he said. “It’s probably a pretty smart strategy. There’s no need to spend money now when you\u2019re going to make the runoff anyway.”<\/p>\n

Paxton has been in this position before. <\/a>In his 2022 reelection race for attorney general, he failed to win a majority in a four-candidate primary, before ultimately winning a runoff over then-Texas Land Commissioner George\u00a0P. Bush.<\/p>\n

With his name recognition and conservative reputation, Paxton could be at an advantage\u00a0in a runoff,\u00a0since runoffs typically draw only the most partisan of voters.<\/p>\n

In the general election in November, Paxton’s odds would be less certain. The Emerson poll found that Paxton would be in a theoretical dead heat with\u00a0both Democratic candidates, state Rep. James\u00a0Talarico and U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett. The same survey showed Cornyn leading both Democrats.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With just weeks until early voting begins, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s\u00a0campaign and the outside groups supporting him…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":139636,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[933,27,29,28],"class_list":["post-139635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-austinlatest","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139635"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139635\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}