From the jump, the battle for the Republican U.S. Senate nomination has featured a massive cash imbalance, with incumbent U.S. Sen. John Cornyn and his allies in Senate GOP leadership unleashing millions in ads to pull him to a first-place finish in the March primary over Attorney General Ken Paxton.
That financial disparity has persisted in the runoff after neither Cornyn nor Paxton broke 50% of the vote in round one. Through Wednesday, pro-Cornyn forces had outspent the Paxton side more than four to one, according to media tracking firm AdImpact, allowing the incumbent senator’s allies to dominate the airwaves with ads attacking Paxton, a warrior of the far right, as incompetent, corrupt and adulterous.
Lackluster fundraising on Paxton’s side, meanwhile, has handicapped his ability to counter that messaging on TV, though he has ramped up his airtime in the week ahead of early voting, which begins Monday. Paxton’s spots in the runoff have tagged Cornyn as a generational relic, weak on red-meat issues and an ally to Democrats.
