On Saturday, September 5, 2026, a filing with the Federal Election Commission showed that President Donald Trump's super PAC, MAGA Inc., had bought $10 million of advertising in the Texas Senate race.

Half of it is positive ads for Ken Paxton. The other half is negative ads about his Democratic opponent, state Representative James Talarico. Reuters reported the split the same day: $5 million to praise Paxton, $5 million to attack the other guy.

It is the first money MAGA Inc. has spent on the fall campaign anywhere in the country. Trump's operation looked at every competitive Senate race in America and decided the first check should go to Texas.

That is not a compliment to Paxton. It is a rescue.

His own campaign has barely spent anything on ads

Here is the number that explains why the cavalry showed up.

Talarico's campaign has spent $40.1 million on general-election advertising, according to the tracking firm AdImpact. Paxton's campaign has spent about $264,000, most of it on digital platforms, the Texas Tribune reported.

The fundraising gap is just as wide. In the second quarter of 2026, Talarico raised more than $30 million. Paxton raised more than $9 million.

So when Texas Republicans say the state is at risk, this is what they mean. Their nominee cannot pay for his own campaign, and outside money has to do it for him.

We already knew why the money wasn't coming

Back in July we wrote about Ken Paxton cold-calling wealthy Republicans and getting turned down. The Wall Street Journal reported that the day after Paxton beat Senator John Cornyn in the May 26 runoff, his campaign called billionaire Bob Rowling — a man who had given more than $750,000 to groups backing Cornyn — and Rowling initially said no. He had been turned off by the reporting on Paxton's personal conduct.

That was the story of the summer. Some of the party's biggest donors knew the record and did not want their names on it. And the record is long: three felony securities fraud counts he dragged out for nearly nine years before settling, a bribery complaint to the FBI from eight of his own senior deputies, and an impeachment by the Texas House, 121 to 23.

Nothing about that record changed between July and September. What changed is who is paying.

Musk is in too

Elon Musk's America PAC has now spent $1.4 million against Talarico on digital media and printing, the Tribune reported. Musk lives in Texas. He reportedly authorized his PAC last November to spend more than $100 million this cycle, and gave more than a quarter-billion dollars in 2024 to elect Trump and other Republicans.

Paxton was already being carried by outside groups before either man arrived. Lone Star Liberty PAC, the main pro-Paxton super PAC, has spent $18.9 million. A dark-money group called Preserve Texas Inc. is in. So is an outside group funded by West Texas billionaire Tim Dunn.

As of the day of the buy, before any MAGA Inc. ad had run, Republicans had spent $24.3 million on advertising in this race — and almost none of it was Paxton's.

What that money buys

The MAGA Inc. ads are about taxes. "Talarico? Higher taxes," one says. "Paxton? Lower taxes. A clear choice."

Trump told reporters on Friday, September 4, that he has close to $1 billion under his control across various PACs and nonprofits, and expects to spend $400 million to $500 million on the midterms. MAGA Inc. alone had more than $400 million on hand at last count.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, whose own aligned super PAC has put nothing into Texas in the general election, went on Fox in the days before the buy and asked the president to step in.

"All of our allies out there, including the president and his team and 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. We flat have to win there."

Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana was blunter on Fox the weekend before that. Senate Republicans, he said, "don't have the money budgeted for Texas" — and he was hoping Trump would spend "$100 or $200 million" there.

That is the party talking about a nominee its own leaders will not fund out of their own committee.

The part Texans should hold onto

A senator who owes his seat to two men owes those two men. Paxton's campaign is not paying for the ads that will elect him. Trump's super PAC is, and Musk's is, and a handful of billionaires' groups are.

Texans are already finding out what a Paxton attorney general's office does when the White House costs them money. Trump is holding back $10 billion from Texas hospitals, the same fight Paxton once sued Joe Biden over and won, in a case his own office announced as a "major nationwide legal victory," and Paxton has not filed anything. Texas hospitals say they are losing $27 million a day.

He was silent then, before he owed Trump $10 million.

What the filings show

Trump's MAGA Inc. put $10 million into Ken Paxton's Senate race in an FEC filing dated September 5, 2026, and Elon Musk's America PAC has spent $1.4 million more against Paxton's opponent. Paxton's own campaign has spent about $264,000 on advertising, against his opponent's $40.1 million. Two months ago Republican mega-donors were refusing his phone calls over his scandals; those scandals have not changed, only the people willing to pay for him.

Source

Trump's MAGA Inc gives $10 million to Paxton's Senate campaign ahead of midterms, Reuters, September 5, 2026, and Trump's PAC spending $10 million for Paxton in Texas, The Texas Tribune. Photo: Johnathan Johnson for The Texas Tribune.