Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico raised a record $64 million in three months, more than any Senate candidate in the third quarter, his campaign announced Thursday. The campaign said that brings Talarico’s total fundraising to $134 million since he announced his candidacy last year. His Republican opponent, Attorney General Ken Paxton, said earlier this month that he had raised $18 million in the same period. Talarico broke Jamie Harrison’s record of $57 million, raised during the third quarter of his unsuccessful 2020 Senate campaign in South Carolina. Although a Democrat has not won a Senate election in Texas since 1988, Democrats there have been powerful fundraisers. In 2018, candidate Beto O’Rourke raised a record $38 million in the same three-month period. Recent polls have shown Talarico with a slight lead over Paxton. Incumbent Republican Sen. John Cornyn, a prolific fundraiser, lost the primary earlier this year to Paxton, who has long struggled as a fundraiser. Republicans have poured hundreds of millions into the race to support Paxton, even as audio clips of Paxton have been leaked that appear to belittle national turnout in the race. President Trump, who endorsed Paxton in the primary against Cornyn and is a longtime ally, has traveled to Texas three times in a month to campaign for Paxton. CNN hosted a public meeting with Talarico on Wednesday night and said Paxton had been invited but declined to respond. CNN and CBS are owned by Skydance. At town hall, Talarico highlighted the economic theme of his campaign, telling voters, “We have an affordability crisis because we have a corruption crisis.” He also addressed topics ranging from abortion to his recent absence from the election campaign, confirming that he had the flu and criticizing online conspiracy theories about it. “That decision to stay home for a week sent my opponent and his conspiracy theorists into a frenzy. I opened up on social media and learned that he had apparently dropped out of the race, flown to a mental health facility in Ohio and died,” Talarico said. “This is crazy. I mean, these false claims got millions of views online.” Paxton announced Wednesday that his campaign will begin a two-week bus tour this weekend near Fort Worth that will conclude the night before Election Day at the Alamo. Early voting begins Monday in Texas. 2026 Midterm Elections Go deeper with The Free Press at:
