After Texas GOP loss, Elon Musk breaks silence as historic billionaire blitz fails to save Paxton

Talarico celebrates Texas victory

Senator-elect James Talarico addressed supporters in Austin after winning the Texas Senate contest. He said his campaign faced more than $300 million, along with attack ads, smear campaigns, foreign bots and AI-generated deepfakes.

Talarico argued that the country’s deeper conflict was between those at the top and everyone else. He accused wealthy people who control social media algorithms, cable networks and politicians of encouraging divisions among the public.

A record-breaking spending contest

Combined advertising spending in the Senate race had passed $500 million, according to ad-tracking data. Outside groups supporting Paxton spent about $239 million, compared with roughly $45 million from the largest Democratic-aligned groups.

Texas PAC, a Republican super PAC, accounted for nearly $149 million. Musk contributed $158 million to the Senate Leadership Fund, which later transferred matching sums to Texas PAC, according to federal filings.

Republican donor and oil businessman Dan Eberhart said he thought Paxton’s campaign received help at a crucial moment. Talarico, meanwhile, raised money from grassroots supporters to counter the outside spending gap.

Ads focus on cultural issues

Talarico spent $61 million on advertising through September, according to AdImpact. Lone Star Rising PAC, the largest Democratic outside group, spent $19.3 million. Texas PAC ads accused Talarico of favoring “they/them” over voters and supporting taxpayer-funded sex-change surgeries for minors. Nationally, Republican groups had spent more than $100 million since August 1 on over 200 ads accusing Democrats of backing such procedures for children, an AdImpact data analysis by FactCheck.org found.