BRIDGEWATER, N.J. – MAGA, Inc., the political group aligned with President Donald Trump, is putting $10 million behind television and digital advertising in Texas’ Senate race, according to a filing submitted Saturday to the Federal Election Commission.
The investment marks the group’s first major spending push in a top-tier general election contest and underscores a shift in the political stakes in Texas, where a seat long viewed as reliably Republican is drawing new Democratic attention with the candidacy of James Talarico, a 37-year-old state representative.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is the Republican nominee. Backed by Trump’s endorsement, Paxton defeated incumbent Sen. John Cornyn in a May primary runoff election.
Republican candidates are facing a difficult national environment as public disapproval of Trump’s handling of the economy and the Iran war weighs on the party. Midterm voters often punish the party controlling the White House, and Democrats are aiming to capture both the House and Senate. In that landscape, Texas has become a symbolically important test of whether the electoral map could be widening this year.
A spokesperson for MAGA, Inc. did not immediately comment on the advertising buy.
MAGA, Inc., has at least $400 million in campaign funds that GOP candidates have been waiting for the president to deploy.
“I’m going to spend whatever amount of money necessary to try and help us,” Trump told reporters on Friday.
The president stressed that these were his funds to spend as he sees fit.
“This is my money,” Trump said, adding that it was “separate” from funds controlled by the Republican National Committee.
MORE STORY: Will Patrick Clancy Face Lindsay Clancy in Court? Legal Expert Explains
The president also said he could hold some of the funds until the 2028 elections “if that’s what I want.”
Trump backed Paxton despite the Texas politician’s public scandals, but he has acknowledged this past week that Paxton is not the most telegenic candidate.
“It’s so insulting to him, but I might as well say it: You might not like the way he looks, you might not love his look, you might not love his television interviews, but he was the best attorney general in the country, perhaps,” Trump said Wednesday at a White House event on the midterm elections.
Republicans in battleground states have been clamoring for the president to open his wallet and spend some of the enormous war chest he has amassed.
James Blair, who runs the president’s midterm political operation, had tried to tamp down growing concern and impatience earlier this week.
“When it’s all said and done, all Republicans, at least, will be quite pleased and relieved at the support they find,” he said at an Ohio energy summit.
___
AP national political reporter Jill Colvin contributed to this report.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.