Senate GOP smashing political spending records in Texas with ad-buying binge for Ken Paxton
Republican-aligned groups directed most of their Texas Senate race ad spending toward supporting Paxton.

SOURCE CHECK
TAP FOR WHYCredibility rates KPRC, which republished this story. The other scores rate the article itself.
The reporting is attributed to the Texas Tribune, an established Texas news organization, and the page is published by a local news outlet. The article identifies data sources for its spending and polling figures.
- Source type — KPRC is a local news outlet, while the reporting is credited to the Texas Tribune.
- Transparency — The article names AdImpact, federal filings, the FEC and the Texas Tribune poll tracker as sources for key figures.
- Author attribution — The article identifies Texas Tribune reporter Gabby Birenbaum.
- Editorial standards — The established newsroom attribution supports confidence in the reporting, though no corrections information is presented on this page.
The article provides detailed spending and polling figures and identifies sources for them. It gives context about both candidates and outside groups, but includes few direct responses from the candidates or outside groups and offers limited countervailing perspectives.
HOW WE SCORE ↗The article includes spending, campaign messaging and polling information about both candidates, and reports data from named sources. It does not include direct responses from the candidates or groups involved, leaving some perspectives absent.
- Source diversity — The article draws on ad tracking, federal filings and polling, but does not quote a range of participants.
- Counterarguments presented — It includes a Paxton campaign internal poll that puts him ahead, alongside the broader poll tracker.
- Loaded language — The wording is occasionally vivid but does not substantially substitute judgment for reporting.
- Omitted context — The candidates and groups do not directly respond to the spending figures or the reported ad messaging.
The article uses a largely factual, data-driven frame to describe spending and polling in the race. Its language emphasizes the size of the spending surge but does not clearly favor either party or candidate.
- Language tone — Some vivid phrases describe the scale of the spending, but the overall tone remains reportorial.
- Source selection — The article relies primarily on ad-tracking data, filings and polling figures.
- Framing — It focuses on the spending surge and its apparent effect on a competitive race, without an overt partisan argument.
Republished with credit
Republished from Texas Tribune, with credit to the original publisher.
49 stories · 78–81 · updated Oct 6, 2026
This is Texas Tribune's own score, and this article is credited to Texas Tribune. The host score in the Source Check is KPRC's.
Republican-aligned groups spent $122 million on Texas Senate race ads in September and reserved another $66 million through Election Day, most of it backing Ken Paxton. Despite the spending surge, public polls showed James Talarico narrowly ahead.
The article reports that outside groups spent more than $205 million on the Texas Senate general election, with over 98% supporting Paxton. AdImpact data showed Texas PAC, which the article connects to Senate Majority Leader John Thune, had spent $131 million; President Donald Trump’s super PAC had contributed nearly $24 million.
The article says Talarico spent $61 million on ads, while Paxton accounted for $1.2 million of Republican spending in September before launching a $20 million ad buy. It describes ads attacking Talarico over his support for transgender Texans and says polling shifted only slightly: the Texas Tribune tracker showed Talarico leading by two points at the end of September.
Community verdict
VOTING CLOSEDNo good or bad look here
This story reports what happened without casting Paxton in a good or bad light, so readers don’t rate it and it doesn’t count toward Paxton’s record.
People in this story
SWIPE →Democratic candidate in the Texas U.S. Senate race
Talarico's version of this story ↗President; his super PAC spent money in the race
Senate Majority Leader connected to Texas PAC
Texas senator mentioned in comparison with the 2024 Senate race
Texas senator who lost the Republican primary to Paxton
Part of a bigger story
5 OUTLETSA Republican super PAC spent $131 million over 17 days supporting Ken Paxton’s Texas Senate campaign, about $7.7 million per day. Left-leaning outlets focus on a television host’s rebuke of Paxton after a report that he criticized Trump. Center outlets and right-leaning outlets both foreground pro-Paxton campaign spending; center outlets also examine ad allocation, while right-leaning outlets add Paxton’s announced $20 million ad buy amid a close race.
- ARTICLES
- 6
- OUTLETS
- 5
- AVG CRED
- 60
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