Election Day sits just over five weeks away, meaning Texans still face more than a month of political ads before they pick a successor to Republican U.S. Sen. John Cornyn. AdImpact, the advertising intelligence firm tracking the numbers, projects the Paxton-Talarico contest will blow past the old mark by hundreds of millions of dollars.
That old record came from the 2024 race between Republican Sen. Ted Cruz and Democratic U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, which saw just over $210 million in total spending across all media. The current contest is rapidly closing in on that figure and is projected to smash it well before votes are counted.
For Texas voters, that means a flood of TV, streaming and digital ads is only going to get heavier between now and Election Day. Campaigns and outside groups pouring that kind of money into a single Senate race signal how competitive, and how nationally watched, this contest has become.
Texans haven't even hit peak ad season yet, and the state has already blown past every previous Senate spending record on the books.