Talarico Casts Himself as David Against Goliath as GOP Spending Tops $158M in Texas Senate Race

Under bright lights in San Marcos, a small city south of Austin, James Talarico told a packed crowd Thursday night that David did not have Goliath's strength, but he did have a slingshot. "You are my slingshot," the Democratic Senate candidate said, adding that his campaign was going up against its own Goliaths. He did not name Elon Musk or any of the money being spent against him.

The money is considerable. Federal campaign filings made public Thursday showed Musk, the world's richest man, gave $158 million to the Senate Leadership Fund. That group in turn gave $158 million to Texas PAC, the largest contributor to the campaign of Talarico's Republican opponent, Ken Paxton. Musk also put $10 million into Lone Star Liberty PAC, another group backing Paxton. Musk headed President Donald Trump's Department of Government Efficiency last year. In all, outside spending by Republican leadership and Musk against Talarico tops $158 million.

The David image fits how Talarico has long framed politics: not as right against left, but as the ultrawealthy against everyone else. He is a state representative and a seminarian, and he is trying to become the first Democrat to win statewide in Texas in more than 30 years. His own campaign has raised record sums in what is one of the country's more expensive and competitive Senate races, and it has outraised Paxton's.

The national view of him has shifted over the past months. He was first seen as the latest in a line of Texas Democrats who raised the party's hopes of flipping the state, only to see them fade on Election Day. Now he is considered a real contender. Part of that comes from voter wariness of Paxton, who has faced corruption questions in the past, including impeachment by his own party in the Texas legislature. He was later acquitted. Trump has made several trips to Texas to rally for Paxton, and Republicans have struggled to put away what would normally be an easy race for them.

Talarico has tried to stay as nonpartisan as he can, working a route that runs from big metro areas that already lean Democratic, through border towns that flipped from blue to red last election, to the Republican high plains and desert. He has kept distance from Joe Biden's administration and from his own party. Sen. Bernie Sanders is coming to Texas this month, but he will not share a stage with Talarico.

At the rally, which was filled with younger voters, Talarico went straight at what voters say worries them most: costs that have climbed for years. He argued that billionaires and corrupt politicians rigged the system to make it so. Kaitlyn Johnson, a 29-year-old bartender in the crowd, said it landed. "They think that they can buy us, and that they can essentially be the kings of the country," she said. She felt he had given words to something she had felt for a while. "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."

The rally came after nine days earlier this month when Talarico was out of public view with the flu. His absence set off online conspiracy theories, including a false claim, spread by conservative social media influencers, that he was in a mental health treatment center in Ohio. The claim fell apart on closer inspection.

The stakes reach beyond Texas. Whoever wins will help decide which party controls the Senate during the last two years of Trump's term, which could mean either smooth sailing for him or a bog of investigations and opposition. With the final weeks ahead, the spending totals and Talarico's pitch to voters on affordability are what to watch.