President Donald Trump has officially opened his campaign wallet for the midterms.
Trump's MAGA Inc. has donated $10 million to the campaign of Texas Attorney General and U.S. Senate candidate Ken Paxton, according to an Federal Election Commission filing made public on Saturday, Sept. 5.
Republicans concerned about the upcoming midterm elections have been anxiously awaiting outlays of funding from the super PAC, which had $403 million in the bank at the end of July, according to the latest disclosures filed with the Federal Election Commission.
According to the filing, MAGA Inc. dispersed $5 million for TV and digital advertising in support of Paxton and $5 million for ads opposing James Talarico, who's running against Paxton to replace Sen. John Cornyn. The Cook Political Report and Fox News recently deemed the seat – long held by Republicans – a toss-up.
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Trump said he planned to spend as much as $500 million to help Republican candidates for the U.S. House and Senate ahead of the Nov. 3 election. "We're going to spend a lot of money because we don't want to lose our country," Trump said in the Oval Office on Friday, Sept. 4.
Trump said he has about $1 billion on hand to spend but plans to disburse between $400 million and $500 million. It's unclear whether he is expecting to spend more or if he misspoke about how much MAGA Inc. has.
Earlier in the week, Trump said he planned to campaign for Republicans locked in close races. "I'll be with you 100 percent. We're going to do something like I did for myself in the last presidential election. Four months out, I said, 'OK, no days off,'" Trump said at a Sept. 2 Rose Garden dinner attended by about three dozen House Republicans.
Contributing: Joey Garrison, Bart Jansen, Jeanine Santucci and Erin Mansfield
Mike Snider is a national trending news reporter for USA TODAY. You can follow him on Threads, Bluesky, X and email him at mikegsnider & @mikegsnider.bsky.social & @mikesnider & [email protected].
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump's MAGA Inc. sends $10 million to help Ken Paxton's Senate bid