Dark money fuels attack ads in final stretch of Texa U . S . Senate primaries – The Gilmer Mirror

gilmermirror.com · Feb 20, 2026 · Collected from GDELT

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By Patrick Svitek, The Texas Tribune February 20, 2026 WASHINGTON — If Texans want to know who’s funding the deluge of ads in the final stretch of the U.S. Senate primaries, they’ll need to keep guessing. The race is awash with dark money, or contributions from political nonprofits that are not legally obligated to disclose donors, according to campaign finance reports that were due Thursday. A super PAC supporting one of the Democratic candidates, James Talarico, reported $6.1 million in contributions from Jan. 1 through Feb. 11. But more than half that came from a political action committee that was entirely funded by a dark money group on its last monthly report. And as Rep. Wesley Hunt of Houston tries to squeeze into a primary runoff on the Republican side, a group supporting him — and another opposing him — are also being mostly funded by anonymous sources, according to the filings with the Federal Election Commission. Taken together, the reports show that big-money interests are heavily invested in the Texas primaries — but unwilling to reveal their identities at a critical juncture of the race. The Republican incumbent, Sen. John Cornyn, is fighting for his political life and facing the prospect of being forced into a runoff against one of his main challengers, either Attorney General Ken Paxton or Hunt. Meanwhile in the Democratic primary, Talarico’s allies are pushing hard to overcome Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Dallas, who entered the race with higher name ID. Fighting For Texas — a new group supporting Hunt — reported that it raised $690,000 from Jan. 1 through Feb. 11. All of that haul came from Standing for Texas, another nonprofit that does not have to disclose its donors. Before Hunt entered the race in July, the group spent months airing ads statewide to increase Hunt’s name recognition. The group attacking Hunt, Conservative Texans PAC, reported raising $4.1 million over the period, all of it from another super PAC, Conservative Americans PAC, that gets its funding from a nonprofit that does not have to share its donors. The pro-Talarico super PAC, Lone Star Rising PAC, disclosed that it got $3.75 million of its money for the period from another super PAC called Government That Works PAC. That group’s report for January showed that it received $4 million from the Sixteen Thirty Fund, a leading dark-money hub for Democrats that has previously been associated with Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss and Democratic megadonor George Soros. Some of the notable individual donors to Lone Star Rising PAC were LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman, who gave $500,000, and Austin philanthropist Simone Coxe, who contributed $400,000. The anonymous funding is more politically sensitive for the Democratic candidates, who are running on platforms that include getting big money out of politics. Talarico has been critical of “corporate PAC money” and dark money, hough he’s responded that he is not going to “universally disarm,” when confronted about questions of super PACs supporting his campaign. When the pro-Talarico group started running negative ads against Crockett earlier this month, she released a statement suggesting he was a hypocrite. A Talarico campaign spokesman responded by emphasizing that campaigns and super PACs cannot coordinate under federal law and that the Talarico campaign had “no involvement” with the advertising. “And when James has the power to change federal law in the U.S. Senate, he will fight to ban super PACs like this one,” the spokesman, JT Ennis, said. Crockett also has a super PAC supporting her — Texas Forward — but it did not start spending in the race until after the deadline that would force it to disclose its most recent donors before the March 3 primary. That makes the money boosting her also effectively anonymous for now. The reports for the super PACs backing Cornyn and Paxton were more revealing of individual donors. The pro-Cornyn super PAC, for example, reported $2.9 million in funding from Houston businessman John Nau. The top individual donor to the pro-Paxton super PAC was Midland oilman Douglas Scharbauer, who gave $250,000. Both have given large amounts to the respective super PACs before. The second biggest donor to the pro-Paxton group during the latest period was a dark-money group, Preserve Texas Inc., a Virginia-based corporation that formed in the days after Paxton launched his campaign last year. Disclosure: Texas Forward, John Nau and Simone Coxe have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here. This article first appeared on The Texas Tribune.