Political ads · 2026 · TX

Texas House District 20 2026: the ads, and who's paying for them

Joaquin Castro won · 77.6% to 22.4% · Called by AP on Nov 3

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Joaquin Castro (Democrat) and Edgardo Rafael Baez (Republican) are the nominees for Texas's 20th congressional district in the November 3, 2026 general election. Joaquin Castro is the incumbent. By their latest FEC reports, Joaquin Castro's campaign had raised $592,000 (through October 14, 2026) and Edgardo Rafael Baez's campaign $69,000 (through October 14, 2026).

Joaquin Castro (DEM, incumbent), Edgardo Rafael Baez (REP). 0 ads analyzed, 0 with at least one technique in the copy. Newest first. The paid-for-by line is the advertiser's own filing.

Voting in Austin? 10 local ballot measures → The ballot wording read for rhetorical techniques, and who is paying for and against each.

How to vote in Texas

From Texas's official election office. Each line links to the official page it came from.

Registration	Register by Mon, Oct 5 (30th day before Election Day, moved to the next business day. Mailed applications must be postmarked by the deadline. New registrations are on paper; online is only for updating an existing record.) (passed)Source: votetexas.gov ↗
Early voting in person	Mon, Oct 19 to Fri, Oct 30 (passed)Source: sos.state.tx.us ↗
By mail	Mail voting needs a reason the state accepts (Only these voters qualify: away from the county, sick or disabled, expecting to give birth within 3 weeks of Election Day, 65 or older, or confined in jail or involuntary civil commitment); request a ballot by Fri, Oct 23 (Must be received by this date; a postmark does not count); return it by Tue, Nov 3 (Received by 7 pm on Election Day, or postmarked by 7 pm on Election Day and received by 5 pm on Nov 4) (passed)Source: sos.state.tx.us ↗Source: votetexas.gov ↗
Election Day	Tue, Nov 3. Polls: 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. (passed)Source: votetexas.gov ↗
ID at the polls	One of 7 acceptable photo IDs. A voter who cannot reasonably get one may sign a Reasonable Impediment Declaration and show supporting ID instead.Source: votetexas.gov ↗

Check your registration and polling place ↗ Texas's official election site ↗

Checked October 6, 2026. Rules can change; confirm with the official site before you go.

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Money in this race

From FEC filings for 2025–26. Outside spending is money a group spends on its own about a candidate — TV and online ads, mail, canvassing. It is not a donation to the campaign, and the candidate does not control it. Supporting means it was spent to help that candidate win; Opposing means it was spent to defeat them, usually on attack ads. Groups report it within 24 or 48 hours as the election nears. Raised is the campaign's own fundraising, as of its latest quarterly report. Largest donors come from each outside spender's own FEC receipts, with each donor's share of its itemized receipts; donors under $100,000 are not named. People are shown with the employer and occupation they reported. A donor that is itself a political committee is shown with its own largest donors. Companies and nonprofits don't report their funders to the FEC, so the trail ends there, and the page says so.

Joaquin Castro (DEM, incumbent)

Raised: $592K through 2026-10-14 individuals $424K · PACs $168K · cash on hand $129K
Outside spending: none reported

Bundled through PACs: $16K through 2 PACs · FEC bulk data of 2026-11-01 BORDER HEALTH FEDERAL PAC — $15K from 9 gifts JSTREETPAC — $500 from 1 gift Lobbyist/registrant PAC

47 PACs gave directly — alphabetical; the legal limit is $5,000 per election

AAR CORP. PAC $2,500
AMERICA'S CREDIT UNION PAC $1,000
AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR JUSTICE POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE (AAJ PAC) $7,500
AMERICAN CRYSTAL SUGAR COMPANY POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE $5,000
AMERICAN FAMILY MUTUAL INSURANCE COMPANY, S.I. FEDERAL PAC (AMFAM PAC) $5,000
AMERICAN FEDERATION OF STATE COUNTY & MUNICIPAL EMPLOYEES P E O P L E $7,500
AMERICAN OPTOMETRIC ASSOCIATION POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE $2,000
AMERICAN POSTAL WORKERS UNION COMMITTEE ON POLITICAL ACTION $1,500
ASSOCIATION OF FUNDRAISING PROFESSIONALS POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE $2,500
AT&T INC. FEDERAL POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE (AT&T FEDERAL PAC) $2,000
BEEF PAC $1,000
BORDER HEALTH FEDERAL PAC $5,000
BROTHERHOOD OF LOCOMOTIVE ENGINEERS & TRAINMEN PAC FUND $2,500
BUILD POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE OF THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF HOME BUILDERS (BUILDPAC) $1,000
CALVERT FOR COMMISSIONER CAMPAIGN $1,000
CARPENTERS LEGISLATIVE IMPROVEMENT COMMITTEE UNITED BROTHERHOOD OF CARPENTERS AND JOINERS $5,000
DELIA GARZA CAMPAIGN $500
DEMOCRATIC CONSERVATION ALLIANCE PAC $3,500
ENGINEERS POLITICAL EDUCATION COMMITTEE (EPEC)/INTERNATIONAL UNION OF OPERATING ENGINEERS $5,000
FIRST FIVE ACTION FUND POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE (FIRST FIVE ACTION PAC) $500
FLUOR CORPORATION POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE (FLUOR PAC) $1,000
HUMANE WORLD ACTION FUND POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE $1,000
INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF SHEET METAL, AIR, RAIL, AND TRANSPORTATION WORKERS POLITICAL ACTION LEAGUE $2,500
INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF BOILERMAKERS CAMPAIGN ASSISTANCE FUND $3,500
JUSTIN RODRIGUEZ CAMPAIGN $1,000
KING & SPALDING NONPARTISAN COMMITTEE FOR GOOD GOVERNMENT $2,500
LOCKHEED MARTIN EMPLOYEES' POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE $1,000
MACHINISTS NON-PARTISAN POLITICAL LEAGUE OF THE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MACHINISTS & AEROSPACE WORKERS $5,000
MICRON TECHNOLOGY INC PAC $2,500
MICROSOFT CORPERATION STAKEHOLDERS VOLUNTARY PAC $1,000
MIDWEST REGION LABORERS' POLITICAL LEAGUE $5,000
NATIONAL ACTIVE AND RETIRED FEDERAL EMPLOYEES ASSOCIATION PAC $1,000
NATIONAL AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS ASSOCIATION PAC $4,000
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE $5,000
NATIONAL BEER WHOLESALERS ASSOCIATION POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE $10K
NEA FUND FOR CHILDREN AND PUBLIC EDUCATION $2,000
PAKISTANI AMERICAN PUBLIC AFFAIRS COMMITTEE PAK-PAC $7,500
PROFESSIONAL AVIATION SAFETY SPECIALISTS PAC $1,000
SOLVENTUM CORPORATION POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE $1,000
TEXAS ASSOCIATION FOR HOME CARE & HOSPICE, INC. TEXAS HOME CARE & HOSPICE PAC- FEDERAL $500
TEXAS INSTRUMENTS INCORPORATED POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE (TI PAC) $1,000
THE GUIDEHOUSE INC. POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE (GUIDEHOUSE PAC) $5,000
TOYOTA MOTOR NORTH AMERICA, INC. PAC (TOYOTA/LEXUS PAC) $5,000
UNITED SERVICE AUTOMOBILE ASSOCIATION EMPLOYEE PAC - USAA EMPLOYEE PAC $2,500
US ONCOLOGY INC. NETWORK POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE $2,500
VERIZON COMMUNICATIONS, INC. PAC $2,000
WALMART INC. PAC FOR RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT $3,500

All filings at the FEC ↗

Edgardo Rafael Baez (REP)

Raised: $69K through 2026-10-14 individuals $27K · PACs $500 · candidate's own money, incl. loans $42K · cash on hand $8,531
Outside spending: none reported

Bundled through PACs: none reported · FEC bulk data of 2026-11-01

1 PAC gave directly — alphabetical; the legal limit is $5,000 per election

HONOR COURAGE COMMITMENT PAC $500

All filings at the FEC ↗

No campaign ads analyzed for this race yet.

What this page is

An ad is on this page because its own "Paid for by" line is a campaign in this race; or it comes from a national Senate group and ran mostly in TX; or it ran mostly in TX and names a candidate — unless its sponsor is a campaign for some other office. Ads from outside groups appear alongside the campaigns' own.
Campaigns run one text as many separate ads. Identical text from the same sponsor is one card here, marked with its number of variants.
A technique is a specific rhetorical move in the wording, found by our model and explained in one line. It is not a claim that the ad is false.
Claims are checked when a reader asks: press "Check this ad's claims" on a card. Running a check and seeing its verdicts are part of Semblen Pro, because each check costs money to run; anyone can see which claims an ad makes. The ten ads with the most money behind them in each race are checked ahead of time.
Claim verdicts say what the cited sources say. A verdict that an ad is wrong or misleading is shown only when it cites an established fact-checker or an institutional record — Congress, a federal agency, a court — and its confidence is not low; a weaker one is not shown at all. Each verdict shows what it rests on and how confident it is. If we got one wrong, press Disagree: a verdict that readers dispute and no one defends comes down.
Video ads come from the campaigns' own YouTube channels; the transcript is analyzed. Meta ads are analyzed on their text; their video and images are not, yet.