James Talarico is hitting back at Elon Musk's massive spending for Ken Paxton, and his message to the world's first trillionaire could not be plainer: Texas is not for sale. The Democratic Senate candidate says Paxton is funded by one man — and that the richest person on earth wants far more out of Texas than a single Senate seat.
"Ken Paxton is funded by one dude… Elon wants our land, our water, he wants his own personal senator. We are going to send a message to the world's first trillionaire — Texas is not for sale."
The spending behind Talarico's charge is now a matter of public record. Federal filings released last week showed that Musk gave $158 million to the Senate Leadership Fund in September — $75 million on September 9 and another $83 million two weeks later — and that the fund passed both sums on to Texas PAC, a group created to back Paxton. Musk added a separate $10 million for Lone Star Liberty PAC, another pro-Paxton group. The result has been an advertising takeover: Paxton's side has flooded the Texas airwaves and outspent Talarico's campaign on ads by roughly two to one.
Talarico, a state representative and seminarian from Austin, won the Democratic nomination earlier this year and is trying to become the first Democrat to win a statewide office in Texas since 1994. The seat is open because Paxton, the state attorney general, defeated incumbent Sen. John Cornyn in the Republican primary. And Talarico is no pauper in this fight: his campaign raised $64 million in the third quarter — the largest quarterly haul ever reported by a Senate candidate — most of it from small donors, more than $134 million in total since he launched his campaign.
At a packed nighttime rally in San Marcos on Thursday, Talarico framed the contest in biblical terms — David against Goliath — telling supporters, "You are my slingshot. We are going up against our own Goliaths." It was his return to the trail after nine days sidelined by the flu earlier this month. The line runs through his whole campaign: politics, he argues, is not right versus left but the ultrawealthy versus everyone else — and in Texas, he says, the ultrawealthy have picked their senator.
The stakes reach far beyond one state. The Texas race could decide which party controls the U.S. Senate for the final two years of President Donald Trump's term, and Trump has made several trips to Texas to campaign for Paxton personally. Total advertising spending on the contest has already passed half a billion dollars, making it the most expensive Senate race in the country — a price tag driven overwhelmingly by one donor writing checks from Austin.
Early voting in Texas began on Monday, and the election is November 3. Talarico's closing argument is now set: one man's money against an entire state. "Texas is not for sale" is the message he intends to send — and in two weeks, Texas voters will decide whether it lands.
Follow ProfiloPolitics on Telegram for updates.