Thune’s Texas PAC Drops a Whopping $54 Million for Paxton’s Senate Race

Senate Majority Leader John Thune’s political action committee dropped a massive $53.9 million investment into the Texas Senate race, according to a Federal Election Commission filing submitted Monday.

The investment from Texas PAC, a committee associated with Thune’s Senate Leadership Fund, divided the media spending push: Nearly $27 million will be used to support Republican nominee Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general, while $27 million is set to oppose Democratic candidate James Talarico, a state lawmaker.

The Texas Tribune reported Friday that Texas PAC purchased $51.3 million in broadcast TV ads in the Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, San Antonio and Austin media markets, citing the media tracking firm AdImpact.

This cash from Thune’s group is the largest single independent expenditure for any candidate so far this cycle. Talarico has been outraising Paxton for months, but Thune’s spending campaign could help Paxton ahead of November’s election.

On Sunday, Texas PAC — which registered through the FEC in late August — made its first $6.6 million investment in the state’s Senate race, with a combination of media and texting buys.

Thune originally endorsed Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) over Paxton in the Senate primary, and groups linked to Thune spent heavily to fend off Cornyn’s primary challengers. Once Paxton won the nomination, however, Thune backed him and has urged President Donald Trump, who made a late primary endorsement for Paxton, to use his funds in the general election campaign.

“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,” Thune said Sept. 1 on Fox News.

“We are certainly hopeful that the president and his team at MAGA Inc. will be engaged in some of these races,” Thune said.

Asked Monday about the influx of money from Thune’s PAC into this one Senate race, Cornyn said: “Well, I mean, obviously, that’s their prerogative.”

“At some point, I think you know, given scarce resources, they’re going to have to figure out where the money is going to do the most good, and it may or may not be a place like as big and as expensive as Texas,” Cornyn said.

MAGA Inc., the president’s influential super PAC, spent more than $10 million on an ad buy for the Texas Senate race earlier this month in the committee’s first expenditure of the general election.

Thune’s political committee has now spent in every major battleground Senate race, while Trump’s has spent in all but one: It has yet to report dropping significant money in Maine.