Trump's first major midterm money move: A $10 million Texas Senate ad blitz

President Trump's super PAC, MAGA Inc., is spending $10 million on television and digital advertisements in the Texas Senate race. The donation will be split between $5 million to run negative ads against Democrat James Talarico and $5 million to run positive ads for Republican Ken Paxton, according to a Federal Election Commission filing. This is the first significant spending in a premier general election contest by MAGA Inc.

The Texas Senate race has become unexpectedly tight, with Paxton, the current Texas attorney general, facing off against Talarico, a 37-year-old state representative. Trump's endorsement helped Paxton to defeat the incumbent, Sen. John Cornyn, in a May primary runoff election. MAGA Inc. has at least $400 million in campaign funds.

The spending reflects how a once-safe Republican seat in Texas may be viable for Democrats. Voters generally go against the party in control of the White House in midterm elections, and Democrats are hoping to gain control of the House and Senate, with Texas being a symbolically powerful indication of how the political map might be expanding this year.

Brief written by urgent.news from PBS NewsHour, CBS News, Gulf News, Winnipeg Free Press — 4 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.