Scandal-plagued Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is turning into the child nobody wants with two major campaign funders waiting for the other to step into the breach.
The Republican Party's top spending committees are locked in a "high-stakes game of chicken" over Paxton's floundering Senate campaign—each hoping the other will kick in tens of millions needed to save his sinking candidacy.
"Somebody is going to have to spend big money," said Dan Eberhart, an oil executive fundraising for Paxton, told the Times. "We'll see who blinks."
The calculus is brutal. Texas demands approximately $15 million weekly in super PAC advertising for a credible campaign—making it a resource drain compared to cheaper battlegrounds with equal strategic value. Republican strategists are increasingly questioning whether Paxton is worth the investment.
According to the report, "Mr. Paxton finds himself in a unique situation among Senate candidates, according to interviews with a dozen Republicans with ties to his campaign. Republican donors still hold grudges from a bruising primary. The state, with its 18-plus television markets, is an epically expensive setting. And his Democratic opponent, James Talarico, has proved to be a particularly strong fund-raiser."
Paxton is also being shunned by Washington campaign cash rainmakers.
"National Republican groups are slated to spend tens of millions of dollars this summer and fall in every other top-tier Senate race, including in some states that prominent handicappers think are not as competitive as Texas," the Times is reporting. "They even plan to spend more in noncompetitive Kansas. In most states, Republicans are expected to outspend Democrats — for instance in Ohio, where the G.O.P. commitment totals over $100 million."
The Times notes that "the amount of Republican spending planned in Texas from now through Election Day, according to AdImpact, a media tracking firm: $0."