Texas GOP Senate candidate Ken Paxton works to overcome fundraising woes, with President Trumps help

Texas Republican Senate nominee Ken Paxton needs all the help he can get to support his campaign heading into the fall — and President Donald Trump is set to deliver.

The president will headline an Aug. 27 fundraiser for Paxton in Houston, a source confirmed to ABC News — an event that could generate millions of dollars for the cash-strapped Republican nominee, who has trailed Democratic State Rep. James Talarico, his opponent, in fundraising for months.

With less than three months until the general election, Paxton is trailing where Republican Sen. John Cornyn’s fundraising totals were during an equivalent time period by more than $13 million, according to an ABC News analysis of Federal Election Commission reports. Paxton defeated Cornyn in Texas’ May runoff.

Paxton is also trailing Talarico in fundraising by more than $59 million, according to the latest FEC filings.

A large state with multiple expensive media markets, Texas is a costly battleground for control of the Senate. Republicans are aiming to protect — or expand — their 53-47 Senate majority.

Democrats’ fundraising success in Texas haven’t translated to election wins: A Democrat hasn’t won statewide in Texas for more than three decades. But more Democrats voted in the Senate primary last March than Republicans, according to data from the Texas secretary of state, an indication that Democratic enthusiasm could make the race competitive in the fall, operatives with both parties told ABC News. 

Paxton’s campaign has worked to up their fundraising by sending out emails with subject lines like “This is bad. Very bad!” and “Outraised by over 300%.” In a recent Fox News appearance, Paxton appealed to donors to contribute to his campaign. 

“We're trying to get help from all over the country,” Paxton said. “We need help.” 

But Paxton might not be able to count on all of Cornyn’s supporters. Multiple donors who gave thousands of dollars to Cornyn’s campaign told ABC News that they were put off by Paxton’s history of controversies and scandals. 

Paxton had less than 4,200 unique individual donors from the start of the year to the end of June, according to FEC reports. During the equivalent time period when Cornyn was running for reelection in 2020, he had more than 6,200 unique individual donors.

Cornyn's fundraising total at the end of June 2020 was about $22.4 million, compared to $9.2 million for Paxton at the end of June 2026. 

“[Paxton] needs to be calling and getting to know Cornyn donors,” a Texas-based GOP consultant told ABC News.

The consultant said Paxton will get a lot of “uncomfortable questions” from donors, adding that “the vast majority of major GOP donors and business leaders in Texas don’t like Paxton.”

Paxton surged to victory over incumbent Cornyn in the primary after being endorsed by Trump.

Erle Nye, a Cornyn donor and former CEO of utilities company TXU, told ABC News he will not vote for Paxton, much less donate to his campaign, and has friends who are considering voting for Talarico.

“I don't think he really adequately represents the state of Texas in that very valuable and important position,” Nye told ABC News of Paxton. “I think he is what he is.”

An August Texas Pulse poll found Paxton underwater among likely Texas voters: 40% favorable and 52% unfavorable. In addition, 55% said Paxton was corrupt. The poll also found that in the choice for Senate, the candidates are within the poll’s margin of error: 47% of likely voters supported Talarico and 43% supported Paxton.

In the 2024 election, Trump won Texas by nearly 14 percentage points; Cornyn won reelection in 2020 by nearly 10 points and more than a million votes. 

In 2018, Beto O’Rourke, the Democratic candidate for Senate against Ted Cruz, finished less than 3 percentage points behind Cruz — one of the tightest statewide margins in decades.

In 2015, the year after he was elected Texas attorney general, Paxton was charged with securities fraud. That case was ultimately resolved in 2024 with a pre-trial agreement. Paxton did not have to admit guilt, but was required to pay $300,000 in restitution and complete community service.

In 2023, the Texas House of Representatives voted to impeach Paxton, making him the first state-level elected Texas official to be impeached since 1917. Paxton was acquitted by the state Senate. He has consistently denied the allegations against him and has never been convicted.

The news of Trump’s fundraiser with Paxton comes as other Republicans have worked to bolster Paxton and his campaign after the hard-fought primary. At least 20 Senate Republicans co-hosted a Washington, D.C., fundraiser for Paxton in late July — one of several such events the candidate has had in Washington since defeating Cornyn.

“Every week more traditional donors are starting to come around,” Ozzie Palomo, a founding partner of Chartwell Strategy Group, a political advisory firm and one of the event's hosts, told ABC News. “Folks understand the importance of this race.”

A spokesperson for Paxton defended the campaign's fundraising and supporter engagement.

“In an attempt to suppress enthusiasm, the fake news media is desperately trying to push the narrative that donors are not fully engaged to keep Texas red. That claim is completely false, and they know it,” Madison Cercy, a spokesperson for Paxton's campaign, told ABC News in a statement. 

Cercy said that the “overwhelming majority” of the fundraising haul occurred in the one month following Paxton’s runoff win.

At the end of June, FEC reports show Talarico had raised around $68.6 million, allowing him to hit airwaves with attack ads that Paxton could struggle to answer without help.

But big fundraising hauls have not translated to statewide success in recent cycles: Democrats have not won a statewide race in Texas since 1994. 

In addition to any new infusion of money for the campaign, outside spending could go a long way boosting Paxton.

The Senate Leadership Fund (SLF), a flagship Republican super PAC, reported in its most recent FEC filing that it had almost $239 million cash on hand. MAGA Inc., the president’s super PAC, said it had more than $400 million in a recent report. Neither group has stepped up to support Paxton so far but could still help his campaign in the final stretch this fall. 

“While MAGA Inc. is committed to retaining and building the GOP majorities in the House and Senate, we are not in the habit of sharing our battle plans with the opposition through their co-conspirators in the legacy media,” spokesperson Alex Pfeiffer told ABC News.

Alex Latcham, the Senate Leadership Fund’s director, said on a Punchbowl News podcast that “we are absolutely confident that we're going to keep Texas … Ken Paxton will be a Senator.” A spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment on the group’s plans this fall, and whether it plans to spend in Texas.