James Talarico’s campaign hit back at Elon Musk Thursday, calling the 2026 election cycle’s top spender out for his cash infusion in the Texas Senate race amid an ongoing feud between the Democratic nominee and the world’s richest man.
A video posted by the Talarico campaign’s account on X Thursday of a new ad targets Musk for his record spending in favor of Republican nominee Ken Paxton, telling him “Texas is not for sale.”
“Do you keep seeing these attack ads against James Talarico? Look a little closer. The same super PACs are paying for nearly all of them,” the video’s narrator intones. “But who’s funding these dark money groups? Elon Musk.”
“He’s almost single-handedly bankrolling the effort to install Ken Paxton in the U.S. Senate,” the narrator continues.
“Elon wants to buy up our land, he wants to buy up our water, and now, he wants to buy his own personal U.S. senator. He knows that if his millions drag the most corrupt politician in Texas across the finish line, Ken Paxton will owe him everything.”
The new ad dropped with less than two weeks until the midterm election and amid an ongoing feud between Talarico and Musk.
In a post Wednesday on X, Musk said, “There is something deeply wrong with James Talarico.” And on Thursday, he wrote on X that “Talarico hates Texas and America” while reposting a video about voter-ID requirements.
Talarico fired back Wednesday, replying to the earlier post, “There is something deeply wrong with a political system that allows one trillionaire to buy his own personal U.S. Senator.”
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO has spent around $366 million across 40 races so far in the midterms, based on CNBC’s calculations, making Musk the largest individual donor of the cycle. Much of that spending is based in Texas, where he moved his corporate headquarters and personal primary residence.
At least $189.6 million of Musk’s political spend has been, through various methods, in support of Paxton, the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in Texas and Talarico’s opponent. An average of polls aggregated by FiftyPlusOne show Talarico with a 3-percentage-point advantage over Paxton as of Oct. 23.
