{"id":182875,"date":"2026-02-27T12:23:06","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T12:23:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/182875\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T12:23:06","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T12:23:06","slug":"cornyn-talarico-and-their-allies-swamp-party-rivals-in-texas-senate-ad-spending-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/182875\/","title":{"rendered":"Cornyn, Talarico and their allies swamp party rivals in Texas Senate ad spending race"},"content":{"rendered":"

AUSTIN \u2013 No one is flooding the airwaves like Sen. John Cornyn<\/a> and his allies.<\/p>\n

The Republican tops the Texas Senate primary field in ad spending by a wide margin, with Dallas-Fort Worth soaking up the biggest share of campaign dollars ahead of Tuesday\u2019s primary.<\/p>\n

Why so much? Cornyn is locked in the biggest fight of his political career against Attorney General Ken Paxton<\/a> and U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt<\/a> for the GOP nomination.<\/p>\n

The Cornyn campaign has spent $14.9 million on TV and other advertisements since Jan. 1, 2025. Outside groups have piled on, with super PACs pouring in more than $53 million to support his reelection.<\/p>\n

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All told, the political spending, including third-party attack spots, has topped $121 million, making it the most expensive Senate primary<\/a> in U.S. history.<\/p>\n

Candidate and outside groups have dropped nearly $9 million in TV, digital and mail messaging from Monday to Thursday alone. <\/p>\n

As with Cornyn, the majority of ad spending for Paxton and Hunt has come from super PACs, independent political groups that can raise unlimited funds. They account for about 60% of Hunt\u2019s ads and 55% of Paxton\u2019s.<\/p>\n

In campaign ads and messages, Cornyn stresses experience and a record of results, Paxton vows MAGA loyalty, and Hunt sells generational change.<\/p>\n

The high stakes also have intensified the Democratic money race.<\/p>\n

State Rep. James Talarico<\/a> of Austin and allied groups have bankrolled the bulk of Democratic ad buys, outpacing U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett<\/a> of Dallas, who has received less outside financial backing so far. <\/p>\n

Talarico has spent more than $14 million, and outside groups have put $7 million into ad buys promoting his campaign. That\u2019s nearly five times what\u2019s been spent \u2013 about $4.5 million \u2013 on ads supporting Crockett. A super PAC that only recently began advertising has put about $350,000 behind her bid.<\/p>\n

The gap between Talarico\u2019s and Crockett\u2019s ad spending tracks closely with their fundraising totals. <\/p>\n

Federal reports show Talarico\u2019s campaign raked in more than $20 million in contributions as of Feb. 11, and Crockett\u2019s raised about $8.6 million.<\/p>\n

For the Democrats, Crockett casts herself as a counterweight to President Donald Trump while Talarico urges unity across party lines.<\/p>\n

Targeting the Texas Triangle<\/p>\n

In a statewide race this large, geography is strategy.<\/p>\n

Where campaigns spend their money signals how they aim to maximize their reach in voter-rich markets. <\/p>\n

Texas\u2019 size, spread-out population centers and sheer number of voters make it one of the most expensive states in the country for a statewide campaign.<\/p>\n

In the primary, the candidates have concentrated their ad buys in Texas\u2019 largest population centers, with Dallas-Fort Worth leading the state\u2019s 20 media markets.<\/p>\n

Houston ranks a close second, with Talarico supporters devoting more resources there than in North Texas.<\/p>\n

The totals drop off sharply outside the \u201cTexas Triangle,\u201d the emerging mega-region that includes Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston and San Antonio.<\/p>\n

The spending scorecard as of Thursday: <\/p>\n

Dallas-Fort Worth: $32.1 millionHouston: $31.2 millionSan Antonio: $10.6 millionAustin – $7.5 millionTyler-Longview-Nacogdoches-Lufkin – $4 million<\/p>\n

The Dallas media market is the fourth-largest in the nation, behind only New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. Houston ranks seventh.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUSTIN \u2013 No one is flooding the airwaves like Sen. John Cornyn and his allies. The Republican tops…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":182876,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,409,287,27,2134],"class_list":{"0":"post-182875","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-austin","8":"tag-austin","9":"tag-austin-headlines","10":"tag-austin-news","11":"tag-election","12":"tag-politics","13":"tag-texas","14":"tag-u-s-senate"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182875","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=182875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182875\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/182876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}