Talarico Casts Himself as David Against Goliath as GOP and Musk Pour $158M Into Texas Senate Race

Under bright lights at a packed rally in San Marcos, a small city south of Austin, James Talarico told his supporters a story about David and Goliath. David, the Texas Democratic Senate candidate said Thursday night, may not have had Goliath's strength, but he had a slingshot. "You are my slingshot," he told the crowd. "We are going up against our own Goliaths." He did not name Elon Musk or mention the spending directed against him.

That spending is large. Federal filings made public Thursday showed Musk, the world's richest man, contributed $158 million to the Senate Leadership Fund. The fund in turn gave $158 million to Texas PAC, the largest contributor to the campaign of Republican nominee Ken Paxton. Musk also gave $10 million to Lone Star Liberty PAC, another group backing Paxton. Outside money supporting Paxton has flooded Texas airwaves with ads. Musk headed President Donald Trump's Department of Government Efficiency last year.

The Goliath framing is consistent with how Talarico has talked for some time. He describes politics less as left against right than as the ultrawealthy against everyone else. His argument is aimed at the issue voters say worries them most: costs that have climbed for years. Billionaires and corrupt politicians, he told the mostly young crowd, have rigged the system.

Kaitlyn Johnson, a 29-year-old bartender at the rally, said it put words to something she had felt for a while. "They think that they can buy us, and that they can essentially be the kings of the country," she said. Housing is her own example. "I make decent money," she said, "but there's no way in hell that I'm going to be able to buy a house anytime soon."

Talarico, a seminarian and state representative, is trying to become the first Democrat to win statewide in Texas in more than 30 years. Over the past months the way the race is discussed has shifted. He was first seen as the latest in a line of Democrats who raised hopes of flipping Texas, only to see them deflate on Election Day. Now he is viewed as a real contender. Part of that is voter wariness of Paxton, who has faced corruption questions in the past and was impeached by his own party in the Texas legislature before being acquitted. Talarico's campaign has also outraised Paxton's, with record sums in one of the nation's more expensive and competitive Senate races.

His route has been deliberately as nonpartisan as he can make it, running from the big metros that already lean Democratic, through border towns that flipped from blue to red last election, to the Republican-leaning high plains and desert. He has distanced himself from former President Joe Biden's administration and from his own party. Progressive Sen. Bernie Sanders is coming to Texas this month, but will not share a stage with him.

Republicans see the threat. Trump has made several trips to Texas to rally for Paxton, who has struggled to gain traction in what would otherwise be a relatively easy race for a Republican. The stakes extend past Texas: whoever wins will help decide which party controls the Senate during Trump's final two years in office, a split between smooth sailing for the president and a bog of investigations and opposition.

Thursday's rally followed nine days earlier this month when Talarico was out of public view with the flu. His absence set off online conspiracy talk, including a false claim, shared by conservative social media influencers, that he was at a mental health treatment center in Ohio. It fell apart under scrutiny.

With the final weeks ahead, the things to watch are the spending totals and whether Talarico's slingshot holds up against the money.