Texas votes in the most expensive US Senate election — Al Jazeera
Voting in Texas began on November 3 in the US Senate election between Republican Ken Paxton and Democrat James Talarico. Total spending to support both candidates ahead of the vote amounted to at least $573.2 million, making this campaign the most expensive Senate race in United States history, Al Jazeera reports.
Campaign and outside group spending
This amount included funds raised by the campaigns themselves, as well as spending by independent political groups. Talarico's campaign raised $155 million, while Paxton's raised $40 million. At the same time, the Republican candidate received the largest volume of outside funding.
According to an analysis by The New York Times, billionaire Elon Musk directed at least $168 million to the Senate Leadership Fund, whose money was spent almost entirely in support of Paxton. Overall, the newspaper estimated Musk's spending to support the Republican at at least $212 million, noting that this estimate may be incomplete because of so-called dark money spending. Trump's MAGA Inc political committee spent at least $10 million supporting Paxton.
Lone Star Rising PAC spent at least $21 million in support of Talarico. Super PACs can spend unlimited sums supporting candidates but are not allowed to coordinate directly with their election campaigns.
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Closing remarks by the candidates
In his closing remarks, Talarico drew attention to previous allegations of corruption against Paxton while he served as Texas attorney general and criticized the scale of Musk's spending. A Talarico victory would be the first victory by a Democrat in a statewide election in Texas since 1994.
Paxton, for his part, portrayed Talarico as a candidate whose views run counter to the state's traditions. At an event in Collin County, he said that Texas was allegedly close to losing jobs, livelihoods and its customary way of life.
Some voters interviewed by Al Jazeera expressed concern about the scale of election spending. At the same time, for some of them, the cost of living, the state of the economy, immigration policy and conservative values remained key issues.
