{"id":1188654,"date":"2026-09-05T23:12:38","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T23:12:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1188654\/"},"modified":"2026-09-05T23:12:38","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T23:12:38","slug":"trump-backed-group-announces-10m-ad-spend-for-midterm-senate-race-in-texas-elections-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1188654\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump-backed group announces $10m ad spend for midterm Senate race in Texas | Elections News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A political group associated with United States President Donald Trump has announced it will spend $10m on television and digital advertisements in the state of Texas ahead of the upcoming <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/8\/31\/top-us-general-says-no-plans-to-send-troops-to-polls-for-november-elections\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">midterm elections<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The Saturday filing with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) represents the first major spend in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/longform\/2026\/5\/19\/how-the-shape-of-a-map-can-determine-the-us-midterm-elections\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">general election<\/a> by MAGA, Inc, a super PAC named for Trump\u2019s \u201cMake America Great Again\u201d movement.<\/p>\n<p>Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list<\/p>\n<p>The advertisements are expected to heavily target Democratic candidate <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/8\/7\/democrats-gain-momentum-in-pivotal-us-senate-and-governors-races-in-texas\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">James Talarico<\/a>, a 37-year-old state representative running for the US Senate against Trump-backed Texas Attorney General <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/5\/27\/trump-backed-paxton-topples-senator-cornyn-in-texas-primary-run-off\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ken Paxton<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Speculation abounds that Democrats may have a chance of flipping one of Texas\u2019s Senate seats for the first time since 1993.<\/p>\n<p>Paxton has weathered a series of scandals, even facing a state impeachment trial. Still, Democrats have repeatedly faced withering defeats in Texas, having failed to win a statewide office there in more than three decades.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement on Saturday, MAGA, Inc sought to portray Talarico as out of touch with everyday Texans.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHigh Tax Talarico wants to take money out of Texans\u2019 pockets,\u201d spokesperson Alex Pfeiffer said. \u201cMAGA Inc is going to ensure Texas knows about Talarico\u2019s radical policies and elects Ken Paxton to the US Senate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While Texas is often seen as a Republican stronghold, Trump\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/economy\/2026\/8\/17\/trumps-approval-rating-sinks-to-new-low\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">deepening unpopularity<\/a> and cost-of-living concerns have bolstered Democrats like Talarico ahead of November\u2019s midterm elections.<\/p>\n<p>Republicans currently hold slim majorities in both chambers of Congress. But Democrats are hoping to flip a few key seats to break the Republicans\u2019 hold on the legislature.<\/p>\n<p>Whoever wins control of Congress will likely be able to shape the legislative agenda of Trump\u2019s final two years as president.<\/p>\n<p>The advertisements announced on Saturday will focus on tax policy, accusing Democrats of seeking tax hikes that would burden voters.<\/p>\n<p>Democrats, meanwhile, have traditionally accused Republicans of awarding tax breaks to the most affluent.<\/p>\n<p>That criticism re-emerged last year, when the Republican-led Congress passed Trump\u2019s signature piece of legislation, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, along party lines.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to increasing spending on Trump priorities like defence and immigration, the bill also made permanent the tax breaks Trump had debuted during his first term and increased exemptions for federal estate taxes.<\/p>\n<p>Critics pointed out that those tax cuts would largely benefit wealthier earners.<\/p>\n<p>In response to criticism of his economic policy, Talarico\u2019s campaign accused the candidate\u2019s right-wing opponents of pouring outside money into the race and misrepresenting his record.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBillionaire-backed dark money groups are lying about James Talarico because they\u2019re scared of the people-powered movement we\u2019re building to fix this broken, corrupt political system,\u201d campaign spokesperson JT Ennis said in response to Saturday\u2019s announcement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJames was proud to vote for the largest property tax cut in Texas history and has consistently voted to cut taxes for working Texans.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Texas has been a focal point of Republican strategy throughout the midterm campaign season.<\/p>\n<p>Last year, Trump officials petitioned Texas lawmakers to redraw the state\u2019s congressional map in a way that gives Republicans an advantage in winning five extra seats in the House of Representatives.<\/p>\n<p>After Texas followed through, other Republican-led states followed suit, with Democrats mounting similar efforts in states like California.<\/p>\n<p>This week, Trump will also travel to Dallas, Texas, to headline a first-ever Republican midterm convention. He will speak at both nights of the gathering.<\/p>\n<p>Trump has made himself a centrepiece of Republican strategy in the lead-up to the midterms, travelling around the country to hold rallies and support party members. \u201cWhat I really want you to do is pretend, please, that I\u2019m on the ballot,\u201d he told a rally in South Carolina last month.<\/p>\n<p>But questions have emerged about the large sum of money gathered by MAGA Inc \u2014 and whether it would be distributed to down-ballot Republican candidates.<\/p>\n<p>Faced with such questions, Trump told reporters on Friday that he planned to allocate between $400m and $500m from MAGA, Inc to help Republicans in the midterms.<\/p>\n<p>Trump has also used his influence to shape Republican primaries across the country, boosting his preferred candidates.<\/p>\n<p>The president\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/5\/19\/trump-backs-ken-paxton-in-crucial-texas-republican-senate-run-off\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">endorsement<\/a>, for instance, helped Paxton defeat incumbent Senator John Cornyn in the party\u2019s May primary, despite concerns that the attorney general\u2019s scandals could damage his chances in the general election.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A political group associated with United States President Donald Trump has announced it will spend $10m on television&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1188655,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5311],"tags":[32,33,1234,12,285,49,978,286,271023,659],"class_list":["post-1188654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-donald-trump","tag-elections","tag-government","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-united-states","tag-us","tag-us-canada","tag-us-midterm-elections-2026","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117220969206609290","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1188654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1188654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1188654\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1188655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1188654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1188654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1188654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}