Talarico reports record $64M Senate haul for third quarter

Texas Democrat James Talarico said Oct. 15 that his U.S. Senate campaign raised $64 million in the third quarter, a record for a Senate candidate, according to The Texas Tribune, in a race against Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton.

The total is more than triple the $18 million Paxton’s campaign reported for the same period, and it comes as the Texas contest has become one of the most expensive Senate races in U.S. history. AdImpact, an ad-tracking firm, said combined ad spending and reservations have passed $500 million across the primary, runoff and general election, according to The Dallas Morning News.

The figures were announced by the campaigns and had not been confirmed in federal filings when they were reported. Talarico’s cash on hand was not disclosed. His report to the Federal Election Commission was due by midnight Oct. 15, the Tribune reported.

Talarico’s campaign said it has raised more than $134 million since he launched his bid in September 2025, from more than 1.3 million individual contributors. It said 97 per cent of third-quarter donations were under $100, according to the Tribune.

“Grassroots contributors from across Texas are coming together to end billionaire control over our politics,” Talarico said in a news release.

The Tribune compared the haul with earlier benchmarks. Democrat Colin Allred raised $30 million in the same quarter of the 2024 cycle, and Beto O’Rourke raised $38 million in the same period in 2018. Talarico raised $27 million in the first quarter of this year and $30 million in the second.

Paxton’s campaign said last week that its $18 million was a personal best and more than his previous two quarters combined, with more than 160,000 unique donors, the Tribune reported Oct. 5. His second-quarter total was $9 million. The campaign’s figure includes his main committee and two joint fundraising committees. Paxton representatives said Republicans across the state gave because they understand the stakes in November.

Paxton, who defeated longtime Sen. John Cornyn in a bitterly contested Republican runoff, has leaned on outside groups. The Dallas Morning News reported that super PACs affiliated with President Donald Trump, Senate Republican leadership and Sen. Ted Cruz have been running ads that focus on Talarico’s past statements and positions and portray him as too liberal for Texas.

The Tribune reported Oct. 5 that Talarico’s campaign had spent nearly $67 million on general election ads, compared with $20 million from Paxton’s campaign, while Republican super PACs had spent more than $175 million supporting Paxton. The Morning News noted that under ad-rate rules late in a campaign, a dollar spent by a candidate’s own campaign often buys more airtime than a dollar spent by an outside group.

The announcement came a day after Talarico took part in a CNN town hall in Fort Worth. Neither report included public polling on the race.

Money has been a theme of the midterms. Canada News Media has reported on Elon Musk’s $276 million in giving to Republicans and on the U.S. ambassador’s warning to Canada to stay out of the midterms. Control of the Senate will shape how Washington handles trade and tariff legislation affecting Canada.

Voters pick the next senator in the Nov. 3, 2026, general election. Campaign finance reports covering the quarter will show donors and cash on hand once the filings are posted.

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Via The Texas Tribune and The Dallas Morning News (republished by The Spokesman-Review).