Texas has drawn $449.8 million in outside spending on its federal races this cycle — about one in every six outside dollars spent nationally. Most of it, $358.3 million, went to a single contest: the U.S. Senate race, the most expensive outside-money race in the country by a wide margin (Ohio's Senate race is next at $293.0 million, then Michigan's at $238.7 million).
The race had already cost $63 million in outside money before the general election began. In the Republican primary and runoff, the Cornyn-aligned super PAC Texans for a Conservative Majority spent $35.4 million — most of it attacking Attorney General Ken Paxton — and lost: Paxton beat Senator John Cornyn in the May runoff.
The general election has been far more lopsided. Through mid-October, outside groups had spent $240.8 million to elect Paxton or defeat Democrat James Talarico, against $54.5 million for the reverse — more than four to one. A single super PAC, Texas PAC, accounts for $148.3 million of the pro-Paxton money, nearly three times everything spent on Talarico's side. The imbalance runs the other way in the candidates' own campaigns: Talarico reported a record $64 million in fundraising for the July–September quarter, against $18 million for Paxton's campaign and affiliated committees. Outside money is how the Republican side has closed that gap.
Below the Senate race, the most expensive Texas House contests are in South Texas — the 34th, 15th, 35th and 28th districts, several of them redrawn in the state's 2025 mid-decade redistricting — where outside groups have spent between $8 million and $18 million each on the general election.