Texas Senate Ad Spending Tops $240 Million, With Paxton Side Ahead 2-to-1
Republican Ken Paxton and Democrat James Talarico have passed $240 million in ad spending in the Texas Senate race, breaking the state record. NPR reported the total on Oct. 5, 2026.
Paxton and groups supporting him account for about $175 million. Talarico and groups supporting him account for $71 million. That is a margin of more than 2 to 1 for Paxton.
Those are the latest figures. Earlier counts were higher on a total-spending basis. KERA reported nearly $259 million in ad spending through the end of September, citing data from AdImpact, a firm that tracks political ads. A Sept. 29 projection put total ad spending in the race at $440 million.
Spending rose in September. Ad reservations backing Paxton for the month totaled more than $94 million. The Texas Tribune later reported that Republicans spent $122 million in September to support Paxton.
Almost all of the Paxton-side spending came from outside groups, not his campaign. A super PAC is an outside group that can raise and spend large sums in elections. As of mid-September, Paxton's campaign had spent $465,000 on ads. Conservative super PACs had spent $98.5 million by that point.
Talarico's campaign has paid a larger share of his side's total. He had spent $61 million on ads since the general election began, according to AdImpact figures reported Oct. 2. The Oct. 5 tally of $71 million includes additional buying after that date.
On Spanish-language media, the timeline was different. Talarico ran alone there for most of the general election. He spent $2 million on Spanish-language ads, according to an Oct. 2 Tribune analysis of ad data.
The primary had already set a national mark. AdImpact described it as the most expensive Senate primary on record. Talarico's campaign spent $14.8 million in the primary, or 53% of Democratic ad spending, according to a Feb. 27 AdImpact analysis.
By late September, the general election was discussed as a possible national record. NPR's Hello Houston program on Sept. 28 discussed whether the Paxton-Talarico race could break the spending record for a U.S. Senate election.
Talarico stood at 47.4% and led by 3 percentage points on Sept. 1. A month later, he stood at 47.3%, according to figures cited Oct. 2.
The broader context here is what strategists will watch in the final weeks. It is like booking hotel rooms compared with actually checking in: the difference between reserved ads and ads that have aired, plus the lower rates candidates pay compared with outside groups, and whether late Republican spending moves a race that held steady through heavy September buying.
Looking at what this means for resource allocation, the two sides are using different plans. One side is using late spending from consolidated outside groups, with little spending from the candidate's own campaign. The other built earlier, including time on Spanish-language outlets when it was alone there, but is now being outspent in major Texas media markets. The poll stability through early October is the point both parties will need to explain.
