The 2026 Texas Senate primary set a record for being the most expensive Senate primary in American history, according to a report from the media tracking firm Ad Impact.
The majority of that money was spent on the Republican race, particularly from incumbent Senator John Cornyn. Now he's in a runoff against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, meaning the contest is about to get even more expensive.
Brendan Fischer, an expert on campaign finance with the Campaign Legal Center, spoke to KERA's Miranda Suarez about why this year's primaries cost so much.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity. You can listen to the full interview by clicking the play button above.
Brendan Fisher on...
… whether he was surprised that the Texas Senate primary broke the spending record:
The rising cost of campaigns like the record-breaking Texas Senate primary is really not surprising anymore. That's because our campaign finance system has become increasingly unregulated and spending records are routinely broken every cycle, thanks to unlimited outside spending by groups like super PACs and dark money organizations, as well as billionaires and corporate interests that seek to influence politics and influence voters' decisions at the ballot box.
… where all that money comes from:
The core players in political campaigns are the candidates' own campaigns and the political parties — those entities are regulated. They can only accept up to a certain amount from an individual donor.
But super PACs and dark money groups are far less regulated. Super PACs in particular are a byproduct of the Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United, which opened the door to super PACs to raise and spend unlimited amounts of money. Dark money groups can also raise and spend nearly unlimited amounts of money, but in contrast with super PACs, they don't disclose their donors.
The rise of super PACs and dark money groups makes it easy for wealthy donors and corporate interests to pour millions, or tens-, or even hundreds-of-millions of dollars into races —especially competitive primary races.
… the consequences of races being this expensive and absorbing this much money:
When campaigns cost tens- or hundreds-of-millions of dollars, a candidate that wants to be competitive is going to have to rely on a relatively small number of very wealthy donors. That is going to tip the scales of our politics towards the interests of wealthy donors who can finance million-dollar contributions to super PACs. And then certainly from the perspective of voters, the rising costs of political campaigns, the incredible amount of money being poured into competitive races means that voters are subjected to a barrage of advertisements and mailers and phone calls and text messages trying to sway their vote.
… what made this particular Texas Senate primary so expensive?
Money tends to flow towards races that are considered competitive and Texas has been considered competitive. Democrats are seeking to win a Senate seat in Texas and the outcome of the primary was important in terms of their potential for success. And then on the other side, Republicans are hoping to hold the Texas Senate seat.
I think there were varied interests that were either seeking to help the more competitive candidate make it through the primary … or to support the more MAGA aligned candidates.
Miranda Suarez is the host of KERA's forthcoming talk show, NTX Now. Got a tip? Email Miranda at msuarez@kera.org.
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