MAGA Inc., the super PAC aligned with President Donald Trump, plans to spend millions of dollars in the Texas Senate race, according to a report filed with the Federal Election Commission on Saturday.The group is spending $10 million on TV and digital ads in the race, with the filing suggesting that MAGA Inc.
will launch ads targeting state Rep.James Talarico, the Democratic nominee for Senate in the Lone Star State.
The new spending comes as Republicans have been calling on Trump’s deep-pocketed political operation to engage in the midterms, particularly in this Texas race, where state Attorney General Ken Paxton won the GOP primary against GOP Sen.John Cornyn earlier this year after Trump endorsed Paxton over the sitting senator.Following that endorsement, some of Cornyn’s Senate GOP colleagues have publicly worried that Paxton could have a harder time winning the general election than Cornyn because of several past controversies.Paxton was impeached by the Republican-led state House in 2023 on allegations of bribery and abuse of public trust, though he was later acquitted by the state Senate after a trial.
Last year, Paxton’s wife, state Sen.Angela Paxton, announced that she’d filed for divorce against the attorney general “on biblical grounds ...
in light of recent discoveries,” but declined to share more about her reasoning.Both events, the impeachment and the divorce proceedings, have left a sour taste in some Texas Republicans’ mouths about Paxton and his ability to win a statewide general election, particularly this year, as Republicans hope to hold on to their majorities in the House and Senate.Earlier this week, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., implored Trump’s team to spend in Texas, where Thune estimated advertising costs $8 million a week.
“Their resources need to be brought to bear on Texas because it’s not one that we can lose if we’re going to hang on to a Republican majority,” Thune said this week on Fox News....