Instead of being Santa Anna at the Alamo, however, Talarico may find himself on the wrong side of the Battle of San Jacinto. Yesterday, Senate Republicans sent a $32 million cavalry to attack Talarico's weak left flank, in a move foreshadowed at the GOP's Midterm Convention:
Top Senate Republicans are unleashing millions of dollars into Texas to ensure that the GOP holds on to the seat as the midterm elections close in.
The Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC tied to Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., on Friday announced the launch of the Texas PAC, unlocking a war chest of campaign funds to ensure Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton wins out in November.
Paxton is in a tight race against Texas State Rep. James Talarico, who has become a prime target for Republicans who argue that the state lawmaker is too progressive for deep red Texas.
How much money has Thune committed to the effort? According to Politico, more than Talarico's campaign had on hand in the last FEC report that stoked panic among Republicans – fifty percent more, and that may be just the start:
Texas Republican Ken Paxton is getting a major infusion of financial help in his Senate battle with Democrat James Talarico.
A new super PAC linked to Senate Republican leadership has purchased at least $32 million in airtime to boost the controversial Republican attorney general, according to the tracking service AdImpact. And President Donald Trump’s super PAC threw $10 million into the race last week. ...
The sudden cash shows that Republicans — who were once hesitant about Paxton’s bid and opposed him in the primary — have rallied behind him amidst signs that he could become the first Republican to lose a Senate race in the state in nearly four decades. They plan to do whatever they can to hold onto the Senate majority this fall.
“The Republican Party is united to elect Ken Paxton and keep Texas red in November,” Senate Leadership Fund Executive Director Alex Latcham said in a statement. “Senate Leadership Fund’s investment through Texas PAC affirms our commitment to maintaining the Republican majority and defeating Far-Left liberals like James Talarico.”
The timing on this is interesting, too. Back to Fox:
"As the Democrat Party gets pulled further to the left, extreme candidates like James Talarico are becoming the norm," Thune told Fox News Digital in a statement. "Republicans are united in keeping him out of the U.S. Senate, which is why I’m proud of the work the Senate Leadership Fund is doing to ensure Texas stays red."
A source familiar told Fox News Digital that during the convention’s final day on Thursday, Thune attended a fundraiser for Paxton to help boost his campaign.
Hmmmm. Thune and John Cornyn have let Paxton twist in the wind all summer. The Senate Leadership Fund showed little interest in assisting the man who successfully challenged a sitting incumbent in the Texas primaries. Donald Trump and Elon Musk both pledged to help close the gap on Democrat spending in Texas, but the SLF and Thune didn't say much at all. What happened to get Thune involved in the Thursday fundraiser?
We'll never prove it, but it's almost certain that this moment on Wednesday night had a lot to do with it (transcript from the Washington Examiner):
And John Thune is here from the Senate. Where’s John? Where’s John? No, no, John is working hard. He’s got great opposition from the Democrat Schumer and these guys-they’re terrible — got great opposition. He’s working very hard. He’s going to have great success. You watch. Gonna have-we are going to have great, great success with our Republican senators. And by the way, we have great Republican senators.
For context, Trump had dragged Thune for months over the SAVE America Act and the filibuster. He had angrily denounced Thune as a weak leader who lacks the guts to do what's right. That is why the crowd at the convention started booing as soon as Trump mentioned Thune, likely believing that Trump was about to compare him to Mike Johnson unfavorably. Instead, Trump endorsed Thune's leadership seemingly out of the blue, which mirrored his earlier praise for Cornyn, which also surprised the crowd:
Ted Cruz worked very hard on the wall, and so did John Cornyn, so did John Cornyn. They both did [work], both senators. We had a lot of support, but without the wall — you know, we built this massive, beautiful, great wall, beautiful because it works. We could never have the numbers that we have, which is right now, think of it, and these are made up by Democrats — the people that do these statistics. Zero illegal aliens have entered our country from the southern border in the last 15 months. Zero.
During our live blog of Trump's speech on the first night, I commented that the deliberate embrace of both senators after months of contentious rhetoric meant something. And I suspected that the "something" was money:
He’s busting Paxton’s balls, as DallasJ says in the comments, but he’s also pushing hard for him in this speech. And the olive branch to Cornyn is worth noting, too. ...
I did not have “Trump praises both John Cornyn and John Thune” on my bingo card tonight, but here we are. I wonder if Cornyn and Thune are discussing support for Paxton with the White House, and they want a show of respect first.
Thune and Cornyn probably wanted a show of respect from Trump before jumping into the Texas fray. Either that, or Trump had already offered olive branches to both before the speech and wanted to signal his base that the GOP was ready to close ranks in the midterms. Regardless of timing, the sudden effusion of praise for both – particularly Thune, who controls the SLF – had to be linked to the massive investment in Texas PAC and Paxton's campaign.
The timing of the ad buy matters too, and not just because we're seeing it immediately after the traditional Labor Day start of the general-election campaign. Talarico's ad campaigns had been fairly broad through mid-summer, but he seems to have disappeared from view in central Texas over the last few weeks. Paxton's ads have intensified in my area of Texas over the same period of time, and that was before MAGA Inc and Texas PAC money entered the race.
Reportedly, much of Talarico's ad buys are taking place in Houston, which should already be a Democrat stronghold, but it's also where the black vote is especially concentrated. If Talarico has to spend heavily to turn out Houston, he's likely in trouble. Forget the polls, as Jasmine Crockett says, and follow the money, and the picture looks much different than pollsters have painted. And now that the GOP has parity in money – or perhaps better than parity – Talarico will have to play defense across a state that had barely heard of him until now, and which elected Paxton to statewide office three times already.
https://hotair.com/ed-morrissey/2026/09/12/the-cavalry-arrives-senate-gop-drops-32m-into-texas-for-paxton-n3818929
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