Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico speaks at Hilton University Houston on October 21, 2026 in Houston, Texas.
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James Talarico, the Democratic candidate running for the U.S. Senate seat from Texas, on Wednesday night hit back at Elon Musk’s X post in which the world’s richest man said hours earlier that “there’s something seriously wrong with Talarico.”
Talarico responded to Musk’s tweet, writing, “There is something deeply flawed in our political system that allows a trillionaire to buy a private US Senate seat.”
Talarico criticized Musk during a campaign speech at the Hilton on the University of Houston’s main campus early Wednesday.
“If you’ve ever seen an attack ad on your screen, it’s probably Elon. If you’ve seen a lie in your mailbox, it’s Elon,” Talarico said, as reported by Houston Public Media.
“If anyone ever received a text message saying scary things about me, it was Elon,” Talarico said. “Elon Musk wants our land. He wants our water. He wants our taxpayers. He wants his own personal U.S. Senate seat. He’s trying to buy Texas. But on November 3, we’re going to send a clear message to the world’s first millionaire: Texas is not for sale.”
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk attends a press conference held by President Donald Trump with AI executives after a conference on artificial intelligence outside the West Wing of the White House in Washington, September 29, 2026.
Finn Gomez | Getty Images
The sniping of Mr. Musk and Mr. Talarico came five days after news broke that Mr. Musk donated $158 million to the Senate Leadership Fund, a Republican super PAC, in September.
That money ended up going to Texas PAC, a group supporting Talarico’s opponent, Republican candidate for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
Mr. Musk also transferred $10 million to Lone Star Liberty PAC, another group supporting Mr. Paxton.
Mr. Musk, CEO of both companies, said: space x and teslamade the big money dump after polls showed Paxton trailing Talarico in the contest.
Talarico’s campaign announced last week that he raised $64 million in the third quarter of this year. His campaign says this is the highest number ever reported for a Senate candidate in the third quarter.
By comparison, Paxton’s campaign raised just $18 million in the quarter.
Paxton defeated incumbent Sen. John Cornyn in the Republican primary earlier this year.
His campaign did not respond to requests for comment.
