Elon Musk Joins Republican Attacks on James Talarico as Texas Senate Race Tightens

Elon Musk, who has donated large sums of money to Republican candidates ahead of Tuesday’s midterm elections, made a disparaging comment at the expense of James Talarico, the Democrat candidate in the Texas Senate race.

“Something seriously wrong with Talarico,” the SpaceX and Tesla CEO said on Saturday, responding to a clip of Republican Senator for Texas Ted Cruz and pro-Trump musician Kid Rock criticizing Talarico from Bill Maher’s show on Friday.

“Talarico I think is a very weird dude … because he is like the ultimate woke social justice warrior … he says God is non-binary,” Cruz is heard saying.

Cruz’s comments refer to an instance in 2021, when Talarico said on the Texas house floor that God was “non-binary.” Talarico has clarified that the comment was meant to be provocative and fundamentally represented his belief that God cannot be defined according to human categories.

Talarico also distanced himself from the comment, calling it “cringey” but saying that Republicans were using it as a political smear to distract from his Republican opponent and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s “career of corruption.”

Paxton’s alleged corruption has become a key issue on the campaign trail; in 2015 the Republican was indicted on three felony securities fraud charges, and in 2023 the Texas House of Representatives voted to impeach Paxton on articles of bribery, abuse of public trust, whistleblower retaliation, and obstruction of justice.

More than 60 Republicans crossed party lines to join Democrats in the vote to impeach Paxton.

Paxton avoided criminal prosecution by reaching a pre-trial diversion deal which saw him agree to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in restitution and complete community service in the securities fraud case.

In the impeachment case, the Republican-dominated Texas Senate voted to acquit Paxton of the 16 impeachment articles put to a vote.

The race between Talarico and Paxton is competitive. As of Saturday, Talarico is leading Paxton in the polls by an average of over three percentage points, according to MSNOW’s Texas poll tracker.

A Talarico win in the race would represent a very significant political victory for the Democrats, who have not won a Senate election in the Lone Star State since November 1988. President Donald Trump defeated Democrat candidate Kamala Harris by a margin of nearly 14 percentage points in 2024.

Turning Texas blue would help Democrats’ chances of gaining overall control in the Senate, which are reportedly increasing.

Most polls show that Democrats are very likely to control the House after Tuesday.

Talarico’s momentum has drawn the attention, and ire, of prominent Republicans. President Trump has repeatedly mocked the former English teacher, calling him “Talafreako,” whereas JD Vance implied that the Texan was gay during a Texas rally.

Responding to a complimenting crowd member, Vance said: “I love you too sir, in a totally platonic way, to be clear. I’m the vice president, not James Talarico.”

The comment was widely criticized as homophobic.