James Talarico, Democratic candidate for Texas Senate, speaks at the Houston Hilton University on October 21, 2026 in Houston, Texas.
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James Talarico, the Texas Democratic candidate seeking a Senate seat, fired back at Elon Musk on Wednesday night for an X-rated post in which the world’s richest man had said hours earlier: “There is something deeply wrong with Talarico.”
“There is something seriously wrong with a political system that allows a billionaire to buy his own US senator,” Talarico wrote in response to Musk’s tweet.
Talarico earlier Wednesday, during a campaign speech at the UH Hilton on the University of Houston’s main campus, denounced Musk.
“Chances are, if you saw an attack ad on your screen, it was Elon. If you got lies in your mailbox, it was Elon,” Talarico said, according to a report from Houston Public Media.
“If you got a text message saying scary things about me, it was Elon too,” Talarico said. “Elon Musk wants our land. He wants our water. He wants our taxpayers’ money. He wants his own U.S. senator. He’s trying to buy Texas. But on November 3, we’re going to send a clear message to the world’s first billionaire: Texas is not for sale.”
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk attends a news conference hosted by President Donald Trump with AI executives following a meeting on artificial intelligence, outside the West Wing of the White House in Washington, September 29, 2026.
Finn Gomez | Getty Images
The sniping between Musk and Talarico came five days after it was announced that Musk had donated $158 million to a Republican super PAC, the Senate Leadership Fund, in September.
That money ended up in the hands of Texas PAC, a group that supports Talarico’s opponent, Republican candidate Ken Paxton, Texas attorney general.
Musk also sent $10 million to Lone Star Liberty PAC, another group that supports Paxton.
Musk, who is CEO of both EspaceX And Teslaexecuted a big money dump as polls showed Paxton trailing Talarico in the contest.
Talarico’s campaign last week reported that he had raised $64 million in the third quarter of this year. That was the highest number ever for a Senate candidate in a third quarter, his campaign said.
By comparison, Paxton’s campaign raised just $18 million for the same quarter.
Paxton defeated incumbent Sen. John Cornyn in the Republican primary earlier this year.
His campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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