Maga Inc. Sits On Campaign Cash As Donors Indicate Only Trump Can Save Paxton

President Donald Trump’s super PAC continued to sit on its $400 million war chest in July, according to new spending figures, refusing to open the coffers to boost Republican candidates.

The MAGA Inc. super PAC didn’t even spend in Texas, where GOP Senate nominee Ken Paxton is essentially in a dead heat with Democrat James Talarico and where Republican donors say Trump bears the responsibility to finance the campaign needed to keep the state from flipping.

MAGA Inc. isn’t directly controlled by the president or the White House and super PACs are supposed to operate independently, but candidates, including Trump, often have significant sway over the organizations.

The MAGA Inc. super PAC added over $3 million in cash on hand since the beginning of July, increasing the war chest to over $403 million, according to FEC figures released late Thursday. The PAC didn’t spend on behalf of any candidates last month, continuing a trend from June.

Nor has the super PAC spent any money on independent expenditures, the primary way it can support candidates, in the weeks since. Outside spending is reported to the FEC in close to real time, and MAGA Inc. has not made any this year except for $18,000 on text messages in March for a Georgia special election.

The lack of direct spending on candidates comes as some Republicans told POLITICO last month they are worried that the president and his PAC are waiting too long to get involved with competitive races.

For months, Trump allies including those affiliated with the PAC have insisted that the money would flow in time to help Republican candidates stave off a Democratic wave in 2026. But even as polls tighten in states like Iowa and Texas – once ruby red – the vault, for now, remains closed.

“While MAGA Inc is committed to retaining and building the GOP majorities in the House and Senate, we are not in the habit of sharing our battle plans,” said MAGA Inc. spokesperson Alex Pfeiffer.

James Blair, Trump’s chief political director, said in June that money would be spent but wouldn’t telegraph a timeline, amount, or plan for targeting specific states. And, Trump said in an interview withPunchbowl News earlier this month that MAGA Inc. will spend in the midterms, adding, “I’m going to help Republicans.”

Among the dozen or so MAGA Inc. expenses in July was an event at the Trump National Golf Club in Virginia. Others were for consulting fees, bank fees and other expenses. The fundraiser, benefiting MAGA Inc., was held before the Ultimate Fighting Championship matches at the White House,NBC reported at the time.

Republicans still have a massivecash advantage over Democrats this cycle, but there is increasing unease about the Texas Senate race, which would be a bruising loss for the GOP and a political humiliation for Trump.

Trump issued a last-minute endorsement in May for Paxton, a major blow to incumbent Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), who the GOP establishment deemed more likely to win in what has been a safe red state. Paxton is polling justone point ahead of Talarico, a recent Emerson College poll found.

Now, many feel it’s on Trump and his apparatus to ride to the rescue, according to half a dozen Republican donors and operatives, granted anonymity to speak about intraparty dynamics.

“The message to Trump world is, ‘you broke it, now you own it. You gotta spend some of your money to defend him because we’ve got bigger fish to fry,’” said one GOP donor.

The Texas Senate seat was moved to “toss-up” from “lean Republican” on Thursday on the nonpartisan Cook Political Report. Cornyn, known as a prolific fundraiser as former chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, has held the seat since 2002.

It’s been difficult for Paxton’s backers to “sell” the candidate to the donor crowd in Washington, given that Cornyn has a decades-long network and Paxton is widely viewed as a flawed candidate who puts a safe Senate seat at risk, the donor said.

“The general view is that’s Trump’s responsibility to bankroll, especially since Paxton took out one the GOP Senate’s best fundraisers and is currently running a lackadaisical campaign,” a second GOP donor said.

A person close to the Trump team said that the message from donors who don’t want to spend on Paxton has “been just accepted” and said donors haven’t felt like they need to directly “draw that line in the sand” with Trump’s team. If anything, the person said, “it’s just been an ‘oh, I’m not going to be in Texas this time around.’”

Donors would prefer to focus on Mike Rogers who is running for Michigan’s open Senate seat., Sen. Dan Sullivan’s contest in Alaska, Sen. Susan Collins’ re-election in Maine and Sen. Jon Husted’s seat in Ohio, they say. Additionally, they’re eager to fund efforts to flip Georgia by unseating Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff and keep the open North Carolina Senate seat red.

“There’s a lot of people that, one, don’t really like Paxton at all, they think he’d be a terrible senator or they were loyal to Cornyn – or both,” a third GOP donor said. “This is a situation that we didn’t need to spend this money at all. We need it in North Carolina, in Georgia.”

“To make Texas a toss-up is just a foolish, foolish decision,” the person added.

The NRSC is making a similar calculation. The group is spending in eight races for the general election and Texas is, for now, not one of those, according to a committee official. That had been the plan prior to Paxton’s primary win, the official said. The NRSC does plan to help set up a joint fundraising committee with Paxton to help him raise money and any money raised above a certain amount would go to the NRSC and other entities.

Even Cornyn isn’t expected to campaign for Paxton though he will help his other Senate colleagues up for reelection this cycle, a person familiar with the senator’s plans said.

He’s unique in the sense that he has a national donor network as former NRSC chair for two cycles, the person added, but “the odds are extremely low that he would help Paxton especially because Paxton’s team has made no effort to go after Cornyn’s voters.”

Sophia Cai and Jessica Piper contributed to this report.