{"id":428415,"date":"2026-09-07T01:08:35","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T01:08:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/428415\/"},"modified":"2026-09-07T01:08:35","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T01:08:35","slug":"maga-inc-drops-10m-into-texas-senate-race-for-paxton-against-talarico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/428415\/","title":{"rendered":"MAGA Inc. Drops $10M Into Texas Senate Race For Paxton, Against Talarico"},"content":{"rendered":"

Trump-aligned MAGA Inc. reported $10 million<\/a> in independent expenditures in Texas’ U.S. Senate race, splitting the money evenly between ads supporting Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) and opposing state Rep. James Talarico (D-District 50).<\/p>\n

The buy comes days before President Donald Trump (R), Vice President JD Vance (R) and Republicans gather at American Airlines Center in Dallas for the party’s first Midterm Convention<\/a> on Wednesday and Thursday, September 9-10.<\/p>\n

The Federal Election Commission’s 48-hour report<\/a>, filed Saturday, lists two $5 million independent expenditures through Del Ray Media LLC. Both cover connected television and digital advertising disseminated September 5. One supports Paxton. The other opposes Talarico.<\/p>\n

The filing certifies that the expenditures were not coordinated with either campaign or a political party. The spending is outside advocacy, not a contribution transferred to Paxton’s campaign.<\/p>\n

The buy follows an August report<\/a> from The Dallas Express on Talarico’s advertising advantage and Paxton’s fundraising push. It also lands before a convention that could fill more<\/a> than 5,000 Dallas hotel rooms.<\/p>\n

Trump deploys a large war chest<\/p>\n

FEC records<\/a> show MAGA Inc. held $403.45 million in cash after reporting $400.68 million in receipts during the 2025-26 cycle through July 31. The Texas buy equals about 2.5% of that cash balance and is the committee’s largest single 2026 independent-expenditure disclosure to date.<\/p>\n

President Trump signaled the move one day earlier. “I’m going to spend whatever amount of money necessary to try to help us,” he said during a Friday event<\/a> on September 4. He said he controls the committee’s funds.<\/p>\n

Trump endorsed Paxton<\/a> in the Republican primary against U.S. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas). Paxton won the nomination, and the expenditure now gives Trump’s endorsement financial force through an independent committee.<\/p>\n

Texas contest draws national money<\/p>\n

The race rating<\/a> from the Cook Political Report moved from Lean Republican to Toss Up on August 20. That rating remained in place September 6.<\/p>\n

A Emerson poll found Paxton at 47% and Talarico at 46%, within its 3% credibility interval.<\/p>\n

Prediction markets also showed a close race. The Kalshi market<\/a> priced Paxton at 51% and Talarico at 49% on Sunday, September 6. Market prices reflect trading activity, not voter surveys, and can change continuously.<\/p>\n

Through June 30, Talarico’s authorized campaign<\/a> reported $68.56 million in receipts and $21.55 million in cash. Paxton’s authorized committees<\/a> reported $9.25 million in receipts and $1.76 million in cash. Those figures exclude joint fundraising groups and outside expenditures such as MAGA Inc.’s buy.<\/p>\n

What the ads argue<\/p>\n

The two MAGA Inc. ads<\/a> center on taxes and affordability. They promote Paxton’s proposed $50,000 first-time-homebuyer deduction<\/a> and claim Talarico supported a $4 trillion tax increase, higher property and Social Security taxes and a health plan that could close 30 Texas hospitals.<\/p>\n

The records require distinctions. Talarico did not cast the congressional vote behind the $4 trillion estimate<\/a>. He voted against 2019 Senate Bill 2, a bill<\/a> that lowered the local property-tax revenue-growth threshold triggering an election to 3.5%, but he also voted for House Bill 3, a measure<\/a> that included school property-tax compression.<\/p>\n

Talarico’s platform<\/a> would apply Social Security payroll taxes to earnings above $400,000, not tax benefits. The hospital study<\/a> placed 30 Texas rural hospitals at high risk under one modeled public-option scenario. It did not predict certain closures.<\/p>\n

Talarico campaign spokesman JT Ennis said the ads misrepresented Talarico’s tax record and cited his House Bill 3 vote, The Texas Tribune reported<\/a>. MAGA Inc. spokesman Alex Pfeiffer said<\/a> the group would publicize Talarico’s tax positions and support Paxton. Paxton thanked Trump<\/a> and wrote that “together we will win for Texas and America.”<\/p>\n

The $10 million expenditure makes Texas one of MAGA Inc.’s first major general-election Senate investments. It also puts the state at the center of Trump’s midterm strategy as Republicans prepare to converge on Dallas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Trump-aligned MAGA Inc. reported $10 million in independent expenditures in Texas’ U.S. Senate race, splitting the money evenly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":428416,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2135,1967,148615,148847,30910,148848,13338,27,29,28,14782,148846,36798,2558,2134],"class_list":["post-428415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-james-talarico","tag-ken-paxton","tag-maga-inc","tag-maga-inc-s","tag-paxton","tag-september-6","tag-talarico","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-the-dallas-express","tag-the-federal-election-commission","tag-the-texas-tribune","tag-trump","tag-u-s-senate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428415","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=428415"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428415\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/428416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=428415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=428415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=428415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}