Moment of – A newly formed federal super PAC backing Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico says it plans a rapid, high-dollar ad push to pull Republicans—especially moderates—away from Attorney General Ken Paxton, framing the general election as a fight over affordabil
For weeks, Texas Republicans have treated Ken Paxton’s legal trouble as something they could ride out. Now, a newly formed super PAC backing James Talarico is betting they can’t—at least not in the general election.
Moment of Truth PAC is launching a major ad and messaging effort aimed at Paxton’s vulnerabilities. with a central message straight from the donor pitch: it intends to “gives Republicans permission to defect” to the Austin Democrat and to make him “safe for moderates.” The strategy is built around an ad blitz designed for speed and scale—“rapid. large-scale advertising”—and around a promise to reshape the Senate race around affordability. corruption and character.
Dane Waters, Moment of Truth’s treasurer and senior adviser, put the stakes in blunt terms. “Every major Republican PAC in the world is going to be out there trying to protect and save Paxton. ” he said in an interview. “We’re going to be involved in making sure voters remember who Ken Paxton is — the fact that he is the most scandal-ridden politician in recent history.”.
Moment of Truth is projecting a level of spending that would be hard to ignore in a state that’s already bracing for a costly fall. Its donor pitch sets a maximum target of up to $62 million for advertising, polling, research and more through November. It also lays out a “minimum viable” plan—$41 million—that would establish an “initial presence” in major Texas media markets but be “limited in sustained reach.”.
Waters declined to say how much cash Moment of Truth has raised since registering with the Federal Election Commission on April 21. He said the committee expects to begin running ads over the next several weeks. The super PAC’s first FEC filing deadline is July 15. when it must disclose fundraising and spending activity through the end of June.
The group’s leadership is a mix of familiar Republican and Democratic campaign talent. Waters is a veteran GOP operative who worked on the presidential campaigns of George H.W. Bush, Phil Gramm, John McCain and John Kasich. Ron Jacobs. a Washington attorney and Federalist Society member. previously worked on a super PAC supporting Jon Huntsman in the 2012 GOP presidential primary. Mark Putnam, a major Democratic ad-maker, has worked on Barack Obama and Joe Biden’s White House bids. Geoff Garin is a national Democratic pollster whose clients include Senate Majority PAC, a group aligned with Senate Democratic leadership.
The fundraisers listed for Moment of Truth are Rachel Hirschberg and Stephanie Berger. In FEC reports they filed, they’re described as having helped fundraise for U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett and former astronaut Terry Virts in unsuccessful Senate runs. The reports also list clients that included former U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell. who dropped out of the California governor’s race and resigned from Congress in April after multiple women accused him of sexual assault and harassment.
Talarico’s campaign is trying to draw a line between its own effort and the super PAC’s. In a statement, Talarico spokesperson JT Ennis said the campaign has “no affiliation” with Moment of Truth PAC. Ennis called it a symptom of the system Talarico is running against. saying. “Shady PACs like Moment of Truth PAC are why we need to get big money out of politics. They are the embodiment of the broken. corrupt political system our campaign is running against. where DC insiders look to make a profit off this movement to take power back for working people.”.
That distancing comes as Talarico’s Senate bid also already benefits from a different outside super PAC, Lone Star Rising. Lone Star Rising is largely fueled by a combination of megadonors and “dark money” nonprofits that do not need to disclose their donors. and it has supported Talarico since his September campaign launch. Capitol Hill Access. a campaign finance tracking website. says Lone Star Rising has spent more than all but 13 other super PACs in the country since then.
Lone Star Rising’s leadership includes Michelle Castillo. the board chair. who served as Talarico’s first chief of staff in the Texas House. Its secretary is former state Sen. Beverly Powell. D-Burleson. who overlapped with Talarico in the Legislature from 2019 to 2023. and the group’s role in the race includes previously unreported details about that leadership. The super PAC’s treasurer is Alex Clark. who met Talarico when they taught in San Antonio through Teach for America.
Castillo, in a statement, described the effort as ideological and personal to the campaign. “After raising nearly $9 million through March and millions since. Lone Star Rising PAC is the preeminent super PAC supporting James Talarico and bringing his principled. faith-driven vision that leads with humility. listens with purpose and puts people first to Washington. ” she said.
Federal law prohibits campaign coordination with outside groups like super PACs. Talarico has put banning super PACs. along with other practices—including corporate PACs. congressional stock trading and partisan gerrymandering—at the top of his priorities if elected. He has also sworn off corporate PAC donations and outlined a plan to tax billionaires.
Moment of Truth’s planned spending is another sign of how expensive Texas’ U.S. Senate race is poised to be. The primary for the seat ended with Paxton’s May 26 drubbing of Sen. John Cornyn, a contest that set an all-time record for the most expensive U.S. Senate primary. Several super PACs and nonprofits are already active in the race. After the outcome. Washington Republicans quickly consolidated behind Paxton. signaling that Senate GOP money is gearing up to help the attorney general compete with Talarico.
The Democratic nominee has set fundraising records and is running essentially neck-and-neck with Paxton in early polling. If Moment of Truth follows through on its eight-figure forecast. it would intensify competition for right-leaning moderates—an audience Talarico’s supporters see as more movable than usual given Paxton’s long list of controversies.
Paxton has denied wrongdoing. and Moment of Truth’s pitch aims to place the legal and ethical record at the center of the fall argument. The attorney general has been accused of corruption by top deputies who reported him to the FBI. Those allegations were the driving force behind his 2023 impeachment. which ended with acquittal by the GOP-controlled Texas Senate. and a federal investigation in which the Department of Justice declined to prosecute him. The deputies later won a $6.6 million payout from the state of Texas after a judge found Paxton had fired them in violation of state whistleblower law. following Paxton’s decision to drop his appeal.
Paxton also spent nearly nine years under indictment for felony securities fraud charges. Prosecutors dropped the case weeks before it was set to go to trial in exchange for Paxton taking legal ethics courses and paying restitution to the people he was accused of defrauding. His wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton, is divorcing him on “biblical grounds,” accusing him of infidelity.
Moment of Truth is trying to persuade voters who might be tempted to stay with conservative politics while still looking for an alternative to Paxton. The super PAC cites a statewide survey by Texas Public Opinion Research. fielded immediately after the Republican runoff election. finding nearly a third of Cornyn’s primary supporters planned to back Talarico in the general election. Texas Public Opinion Research is run by Democratic strategist Luke Warford. who previously drew criticism from Cornyn himself after Cornyn took a shot at the polling group’s Democratic links.
In its pitch, Moment of Truth argues these voters aren’t abandoning core beliefs. “These voters are not abandoning conservative principles,” the group says. “Their concerns are not primarily ideological. They are concerns about judgment, character, accountability and whether public trust still matters in American politics.”.
Republicans have tried to undercut any crossover appeal Talarico may be building by arguing he is too liberal for Texas. They’ve resurfaced statements from the Austin Democrat about gender, climate change, race and more. Paxton and Republican groups have circulated clips of Talarico saying there are six biological sexes while referring to people with chromosomal abnormalities and describing his 2022 Texas House reelection campaign as a “non-meat” campaign—saying it was “existential that we try to reduce our meat consumption.”.
Talarico has responded recently by saying some of his past comments “missed the mark” and accusing Paxton of “intentionally clipping my cringey comments to distract from his career of corruption.”
Moment of Truth’s memo planning the approach lays out five voter groups it intends to focus on as the ads roll. A May 27 memo authored by Geoff Garin describes targets including “non-MAGA Republicans” who oppose Paxton and have soured on President Donald Trump over the economy and rising everyday costs; “faith voters” who connect with Talarico’s Christian faith-forward campaign or are turned off by Paxton’s alleged misdeeds; Latino voters. including those who abandoned Democrats in recent cycles; Black voters who “have not yet fully embraced” Talarico after his primary victory over Crockett; and low-propensity voters. including young people and Texans of color. who do not typically cast ballots in Texas’ perennially low-turnout midterm elections.
In his remarks. Waters described the goal in messaging terms that track the pitch: the effort is not designed to force Republicans to become something else overnight. “What we’re going to be very critical in helping people understand is that. hey. this isn’t about agreeing with everything that Talarico stands for — if you’re Republican. you’re not becoming a Democrat. or if you’re an independent or a moderate. you’re not just suddenly becoming a Democrat. ” he said. “It’s a matter of understanding the national consequences of this race.”.
For Talarico’s campaign. the super PAC’s arrival adds a new layer to an already crowded and high-stakes general election contest. For Paxton. it signals a shift: the race is no longer just about defending a record—soon. it will be about whether defectors can be turned into voters. and whether voters can be made to remember the scandals they’ve been asked to move past.
Moment of Truth PAC James Talarico Ken Paxton Texas Senate race super PAC federal election commission Dane Waters Lone Star Rising affordability corruption character political advertising