Tracking the money raised and spent in the U.S. Senate race between James Talarico and Ken Paxton
The race for Texas’s senate seat is shaping up to be one the most expensive competitions in the nation. Democratic nominee James Talarico is setting records, raising more at this stage of the race than any Texas general-election candidate in the past decade and posting the largest quarterly haul of any active Senate race.
GOP nominee Ken Paxton is lagging behind, having raised less than a quarter of what his rival has since the start of the race. Despite his fundraising disadvantage, Paxton benefits from new rules on how national party committees can spend in coordination with candidates and, like many cash-strapped Republicans, is leaning heavily on fundraising in coordination with other candidates and party groups.
Here’s what you need to know
How much have the candidates raised?
The campaigns of Talarico and Ken Paxton reported raking in $31.6 million and $9.3 million, respectively, in their last quarterly filing with the Federal Election Commission. Since the beginning of 2025, Talarico’s campaign has lapped Paxton’s several times over, raising a cumulative $72.0 million compared to $16.8 million by Paxton’s.
The Democratic Senate nominee ended June with $23.3 million on hand, more than triple his GOP rival. Despite Paxton’s weaker fundraising performance, his campaign may have less to worry about after the Supreme Court struck down federal limits on how much political parties could spend in coordination with their candidates.
While the ruling lets both parties spend without limit, Republicans are expected to benefit more, due to their stronger large-donor support at the national level. National party committees can accept up to $44,300 per year from an individual donor, compared with just $3,500 per election for candidate committees.
Through his principal campaign committee, Paxton raised $9.2 million since the start of his campaign. Additionally, $7.5 million was raised through his joint fundraising committees, which allow candidates to raise money alongside other candidates or organizations and split the dollars according to a predetermined formula. Talarico’s joint fundraising committees raised about $6 million, only about 8% of his total haul compared to about 45% of Paxton’s.
The use of joint fundraising committees has grown in recent years. In 2024, an FEC deadlock meant the fundraising vehicles could be used for buying ads without allocating their costs to candidates, effectively allowing some candidates or organizations to subsidize the campaigns of others. Republican candidates, who are often more strapped for cash, have taken advantage of this loophole more frequently.
How do they compare to past cycles?
Compared to the same point in past cycles, Talarico has raised more than any other general election nominee in the previous decade. On the other hand, Paxton is falling behind his Republican predecessors.
While Democratic candidates significantly outperformed their Republican counterparts in 2018 and 2024 as well, that has yet to translate into a win for the challengers. In 2024, Colin Allred ended his campaign having raised nearly $21 million more than Ted Cruz and lost by 8.5 percentage points. Beto O’Rourke raised nearly $45 million more than Cruz in 2018 but still lost by 2.6 percentage points.
What kind of donations are they getting?
The Senate candidates are running in one of the country’s most anticipated elections, driving large hauls from individual donors. Neither candidate has received strong support from PACs. Talarico and Paxton have received just about $359,000 and $241,000 from PACs, respectively. The Senate hopefuls have relied on contributions from individual donors to fuel their war chests.
Talarico’s campaign has shown strong small-donor fundraising. Of his total fundraising, 51% came from individuals who have contributed less than $200 over the course of the campaign. In contrast, 88% of Paxton’s contributions came from larger donors.
Where are the contributions coming from?
Contributions to the candidates were concentrated near the state’s largest cities. Talarico received the most from Travis County, where donors who contributed over $200 sent a combined $2.6 million to his campaign as of March 31, 2026. Paxton’s largest pull came from Dallas County where he raised about $1 million as of May 6, 2026, though Talarico still managed to outraise him there too.
Of the itemized contributions that went to Talarico and Paxton, about 59% and 83% came from within Texas, respectively. Of their out-of-state contributions, Talarico saw the most come from California and New York while Paxton received the most from Florida and Utah.
What about ad buys and outside spending?
Since the GOP runoff election on May 26, pro-Paxton advertisers have been relatively quiet. Meanwhile, Talarico’s campaign launched its largest ad push so far in the general election: a $4.4 million ad buy, according to AdImpact. The 30-second ad features the Democrat speaking about affordability while leaving a Red & White food store.
So far, the bulk of independent expenditures have been spent opposing Paxton leading up to the primary and GOP runoff. The largest spender was a pro-Cornyn super PAC named Texans for a Conservative Majority, which spent about $25 million opposing Paxton. The group has close ties to Trump’s inner circle and has purchased some of the race’s most expensive ads to attack Paxton.
The GOP candidate’s largest outside support came from Lone Star Liberty PAC, which spent about $770,000 supporting Paxton and $200,000 opposing Talarico. The second largest spender supporting Paxton was Fellowship PAC, a crypto super PAC which spent $500,000.
Talarico has only been the target of about $763,000 in opposition spending. Leading up to the primary, about $4.1 million was spent supporting his candidacy, nearly $4 million of which came from Lone Star Rising PAC. The super PAC is Talarico’s largest outside spender and is backed by several billionaire donors.
This article first appeared on The Texas Tribune.
