Democratic nominee James Talarico announced Wednesday that his campaign raised more than $30 million between April and June, a staggering sum that more than triples the over $9 million reported by Republican nominee and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton during the same period.
According to Talarico's campaign, the $30 million haul is the largest amount ever raised by a U.S. Senate candidate during the second quarter of an election year. Since launching his campaign last September, Talarico says he has brought in more than $70 million from over 1.5 million donations, including 780,000 individual contributors.
"I'm honored to stand alongside more than 780,000 neighbors who are tired of being divided into teams — red versus blue, left versus right, rural versus urban," Talarico said in a statement. "We are uniting Texans onto one team to change this broken, corrupt political system and bring down costs for working families."
His campaign said nearly all of those contributions — 97% — were for $100 or less. Talarico has also pledged not to accept corporate PAC donations, and his campaign said teachers make up the largest group of contributors.
Campaign manager Seth Krasne said raising money at this level is necessary to compete in a state as large as Texas.
"Running a truly competitive campaign in a state with nearly three times the population of any other battleground state will take unprecedented resources," Krasne said. "While the Supreme Court creates new loopholes for billionaires and special interests to prop up their puppets, we're going to continue building a movement to take back power for working people. Because Big Money is nothing compared to People Power."
Paxton's campaign, meanwhile, touted a milestone of its own earlier in the day, announcing it had raised more than $9 million during the second quarter — the strongest fundraising quarter of his political career. The campaign said most of that money came after Paxton secured the Republican nomination in late May.
"These numbers reflect what we see on the campaign trail every day: Texans are energized to send a proven conservative fighter to the United States Senate," a Paxton campaign spokesperson said in a statement. "Ken Paxton is building a movement to defend the Lone Star State by uniting every Republican across the country to defeat James Talarico, the most radical and well-funded Democrat running in Texas history."
Even with Paxton's record quarter, Talarico's fundraising advantage remains significant. The Democrat also raised $27 million during the first quarter of 2026, giving him more than $57 million over the first six months of the year alone.
The fundraising numbers have added to Democratic optimism that Talarico could mount a serious challenge in a state that hasn't elected a Democratic U.S. senator since 1988. At the same time, Republicans could receive a boost from a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling allowing party committees to coordinate campaign spending with candidates, potentially opening the door for additional national GOP support.
Neither campaign has yet filed its official second-quarter finance report with the Federal Election Commission. Those reports, due July 15, will provide a clearer picture of where the money came from and how much each campaign has available as the general election campaign ramps up.
