President Donald Trump may be celebrating that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton won Tuesday’s Senate primary, but some Republicans now worry that they have a Texas-sized problem on their hands.

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Paxton, with Trump’s endorsement, handily defeated four-term Sen. John Cornyn in the runoff. Democrats largely viewed Paxton as the weaker candidate because of his many controversies. But his fundraising struggles are also raising alarm bells among Republicans.

“Economically, it’s a disaster. Texas is extremely expensive,” said a GOP consultant working on Senate races, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly about party resources.

So far, Paxton’s fundraising has paled in comparison with that of the Democratic nominee, state Rep. James Talarico, who has raised more than $40 million — though he spent most of it in a hotly contested primary. But Talarico is expected to raise millions more; he pulled in $600,000 in just two hours following Paxton’s win, according to Talarico’s campaign. The haul was first reported by Politico.

Paxton has raised $7.6 million, and his campaign had $2.3 million left to spend as of May 6. The Paxton campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

The consultant noted that the GOP groups will most likely have to quadruple their original spending for the race. Their contributions could reach $100 million, potentially pulling resources from other key battlegrounds as Republicans defend their Senate majority.

And Texas is an expensive state; with its roughly 20 media markets, statewide ads can cost several million dollars to air per week.

The consultant said Cornyn had many deep-pocketed donors, but they might not be as willing to support Paxton, who was impeached in 2023 on bribery and corruption charges and ultimately acquitted.

George Seay, one of Cornyn’s longtime friends and donors, declined to comment when NBC News asked him whether he would also donate to boost Paxton. But he said that Paxton as the nominee meant the state was now “definitely in play” and a tougher climb for Republicans to win.

“Is Paxton going to raise a lot of money? Probably not,” Seay said, though he said that wasn’t necessarily a death knell.

“I’m very unconvinced, whether you got $20 million to spend or $200 million to spend, whether money is that impactful in politics these days. I think most people aren’t paying attention,” Seay said.

Energizing Republicans to give to Paxton

The effort to boost Paxton is still taking shape, with all eyes on MAGA Inc., the super PAC aligned with Trump. The group, which declined to comment on its plans for Texas, has plenty of money to spend, with more than $350 million in its account as of April 30. The conservative Club for Growth also endorsed Paxton on Tuesday night.

Paxton does have an aligned outside group, Lone Star Liberty PAC, which spent more than $17 million on ads to boost him in the primary and the runoff, according to the ad-tracking firm AdImpact.

Gregg Keller, who runs the super PAC, said in a phone interview Wednesday that its fundraising was off to “an extremely fast start,” though he did not detail the numbers.

Keller said that the group had spent the “last several days” focused on fundraising for the general election, with Paxton expected to win the runoff, and that it has reached out to grassroots and major donors, including some who had backed Cornyn in the primary.

“This is going to be a well-funded campaign. The response we’re getting is really good. We’ve been extremely organized about it. We’ve been on the front foot,” Keller said, though he suggested Talarico’s fundraising might be difficult to match.

“Are we going to be able to match New York City money? Are we going to be able to match San Francisco money? I don’t know; that’s a tall order,” he said. “But the response we’re getting from our donors has been extremely good.”

The Senate Leadership Fund, the main GOP super PAC involved in Senate races, which is aligned with Senate Minority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., backed Cornyn in the primary and has not yet reserved airtime in Texas for the fall.

Thune told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt on Wednesday that he spoke with Paxton and that Republicans now need to “go all-in to make sure that we keep Texas red, that he wins and that we keep a far-left liberal out of the United States Senate.”

“Clearly I’m hoping that donors around the country and donors in Texas will step up big to make sure that we have the resources to run the race we need to run in the state of Texas,” Thune said later, noting that the party is also defending seats in a slew of states and looking to grow the majority.

Another veteran GOP consultant working in Senate races said Paxton would be likely to need help from all of those groups, saying, “The resource disparity will be significant.”

“It’s going to take the entire ecosystem: MAGA Inc., the Club, SLF and Paxton’s super PAC,” the consultant said.

Some Texas Republicans downplayed concerns that Paxton’s candidacy could drain party resources or that he would struggle to win over big donors.

Texas GOP strategist Brendan Steinhauser, who ran Cornyn’s 2014 campaign but was not involved in this primary, noted that Cornyn said Tuesday that he would support the GOP ticket in November.

“That’s a signal to Cornyn donors and to Cornyn friends and allies that they should support the ticket, which includes Paxton,” Steinhauser said.

“Some might be on the sidelines for a while. But let’s check back in September and see, especially as the threat of the Democrats’ taking the Senate becomes more serious and the likelihood and probability of the Democrats’ taking the House becomes almost expected in a foregone conclusion,” he added.

Former Texas GOP Chairman James Dickey, who was neutral in the Senate primary, said he was not aware of any major donors who would be likely to sit out the race in the fall. And he said Democrats’ strong fundraising has been a persistent problem for the party, suggesting it was not unique to Paxton.

”I think it has been obvious for a while that we — and for ‘a while,’ I mean since the 2018 election at least — that Republicans have to devote funds to retaining Texas every cycle that we would much rather be able to devote elsewhere,” Dickey said.

‘Don’t take this election for granted’

In 2018, a banner year for Democrats in Trump’s first midterm, Democratic then-Rep. Beto O’Rourke ran against GOP Sen. Ted Cruz. O’Rourke raised a staggering $80 million to Cruz’s $35 million. Cruz still prevailed by less than 3 points.

Cruz, though, had a warning for his party Wednesday.

“Do not take this general election for granted,” Cruz said on his podcast. “It is easy to say it’s Texas, it’s red, we’re going to win — and I believe we are going to win. But I also think the Democrat nominee, James Talarico, is a dangerous candidate.”

Dickey said the most urgent task facing Republicans following the runoff is to define Talarico.

Republicans quickly began hitting the state legislator over his past comments about cultural issues, highlighting previous remarks about race, that there are six genders and that his state House campaign would buy only vegan products.

Keller said his pro-Paxton Lone Star Liberty PAC launched a TV ad against Talarico last week highlighting those comments, which helped generate donor interest and enthusiasm.

The GOP attacks on Talarico also took a personal turn Wednesday, with White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller posting on X that Talarico is Texas’ “first transgender Senate candidate.” The Democratic National Committee responded by telling Miller to “shut up,” calling him “ugly” with an expletive.

Talarico told NBC News on Wednesday that some of his past comments “missed the mark.”

“But what Ken Paxton is doing is clipping my cringey comments to distract from his career of corruption. Ken Paxton has a criminal record; I have a legislative record,” Talarico said. Paxton does not have a criminal record. He was indicted in 2015 on charges related to securities fraud and reached an agreement in 2024 to avoid a trial.

“Texans are drowning right now,” Talarico added. “We can’t afford the basics: gas, groceries, insurance, housing, and Ken Paxton clearly has no solutions to help us, so while he tries to divide us with the same old tired culture-war fights, I’m going to keep bringing Texans together to tackle corruption and lower our costs.”