NFL fans from Philadelphia to Virginia got an unexpected crash course in Texas politics on Sunday, as ads backing Republican Senate nominee Ken Paxton aired during games far outside the Lone Star State, leaving many viewers puzzled.
Viewers tuning in for afternoon games were hit with a string of pro-Paxton spots, reported the Houston Chronicle. In one, Angela Paxton, the Texas attorney general's soon-to-be ex-wife, urged viewers to back "the Republican ticket" without mentioning her husband.
Another highlighted Paxton's work with his office's Human Trafficking Unit. A third recycled the GOP's 2024 anti-transgender "Kamala is for they/them" attack, this time aimed at Democrat James Talarico, who is now considered a slight favorite in the race.
Texas PAC and the Senate Leadership Fund, two groups tied to Senate Republicans, paid for the ads, which ran on Fox. The network carried two regional NFL games, Eagles-Rams and Cowboys-Texans, so anyone watching either one saw the spots.
Inside Elections reporter Jacob Rubashkin noted they also aired during the Packers-Buccaneers and Jets-Bears games.
The reason is money – Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston rank among the country's 10 largest media markets, which makes Texas airtime extremely expensive during football season.
"The cost to air a single 30-second spot in the big four Texas markets (Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and Austin) during Cowboys-Texans was more than $2M," the political ad tracking account Medium Buying posted on X.
Even a smaller station, El Paso's KFOX, wanted $200,000 for a single spot, and CBS News correspondent Ed O'Keefe noted that many local stations, including those in Dallas, were fully booked, while national networks still had 30-second slots available.
That made a coast-to-coast buy the cheaper way to reach Texas voters, and it also put Paxton in front of potential out-of-state donors.
It's unclear how much the national buy cost. But Texas PAC, formed just last month, has already spent more than $131 million to prop up Paxton, according to Axios.
Ads supporting Talarico also ran during the Cowboys-Texans game, so both sides found a way to reach every major Texas market and save money.