Paxton Won, but GOP Is Going to Have to Pay the Bill

Texas Republicans woke up to a win and a headache after Attorney General Ken Paxton's blowout primary victory over Sen. John Cornyn—namely, how to pay for what comes next. Paxton, backed by President Trump and dogged by past impeachment and fraud scandals, as opposed to the much safer incumbent Cornyn, heads into the general election far behind Democrat James Talarico in cash, reports NBC News. Talarico has raised more than $40 million and pulled in $600,000 in the two hours after Paxton's win; Paxton has brought in $7.6 million and had $2.3 million on hand in early May, per campaign filings. One GOP Senate consultant called the financial picture "a disaster," warning Republicans may have to pour serious cash into pricey Texas media markets, potentially siphoning money from other Senate battlegrounds.

Whether the party's big donors will follow is unclear. Some Cornyn allies are noncommittal, after having dropped $90 million in the primary to defend his seat, even as GOP leaders urge them to rally behind Paxton to keep Texas red. Paxton's win, writes Philip Elliott at Time, blew "a $250 million hole in Trump's Senate map." That number, he says, is "the internal price tag being circulated among Republicans for the task of helping Paxton to hold the seat." Outside groups like MAGA Inc., Club for Growth, and the Paxton-aligned Lone Star Liberty PAC are expected to shoulder much of the load. Paxton and Talarico wasted no time in shelling out for attack ads, reports CBS News, in a race that promises to be hard-fought and wallet-emptying.