Eight days before the Nov. 3 election, Democratic U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico declared that “Texas is not for sale” to an electric crowd of about 1,100 attendees at an El Paso rally.
“This election is about whether or not you want a senator who serves you or who serves his billionaire mega donors. And Ken Paxton has the ultimate mega donor. Elon Musk is trying to buy this Senate seat in Texas,” Talarico said Monday at the University of Texas at El Paso’s Magoffin Auditorium. The rally was part of his 21-stop “Clear Eyes, Full Hearts” campaign tour across Texas in the closing days of the campaign.
Talarico, a 37-year-old state representative from Austin, faces Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, 63, in the Nov. 3 general election for one of two seats representing Texas in the U.S. Senate.
In recent campaign ads and throughout his tour, Talarico has lambasted Paxton for the financial support he’s received from Musk, the world’s first trillionaire who lives near the SpaceX Starbase Facility in South Texas as well as Austin. Musk has given nearly $190 million to the Senate Leadership Fund, the Senate GOP’s main super PAC and the largest spender in the Texas Senate race.
Since Talarico defeated U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett in the Democratic March primary, his campaign has held a strong focus on affordability and fighting government corruption. Talarico is a former public school teacher and a Presbyterian seminarian.
Paxton became the Republican nominee after receiving an endorsement from President Donald Trump and defeating longtime incumbent John Cornyn, 74, in the May GOP primary runoff.
The race is among the most heated and watched in Texas and has implications beyond the state, as the outcome could affect control of the U.S. Senate. A Talarico victory would give Democrats a big win in a state where they have struggled to win statewide elections for decades.
On Monday, Talarico took aim at issues that affect Texans he’s spoken to throughout his campaign, including rising grocery costs, healthcare and gas prices.
“In the last election, Texans voted to lower costs. Texans voted to lower grocery prices, but corrupt tariffs are raising prices at the checkout line,” he said.
“Texans voted to end the wars, but now we have a new corrupt war in the Middle East that’s driving up gas and diesel prices. Texans voted to lower healthcare costs, but corrupt political deals have gutted our healthcare and sent premiums skyrocketing, all to give tax cuts to billionaires. We have an affordability crisis because we have a corruption crisis, but we can end that in this election,” Talarico said.
If elected, Talarico promised to vote to “get big money out of our politics” by overturning Citizens United — the 2010 Supreme Court case that enabled corporations to spend unlimited funds on elections — and ban corporate PACs and super PACs. He said he would also work to prohibit members of Congress from trading stocks, ban gerrymandering and set term limits.
Overturning the Citizens United decision likely would require an amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which would require approval from both Houses of Congress and 38 state legislatures.
U.S. Rep.Veronica Escobar, D-El Paso, who introduced Talarico during the event, urged supporters to vote for Democrats down the ballot, including gubernatorial candidate Gina Hinojosa, and to encourage others to vote in November.
“I want each and every one of you to find one or two El Pasoans who maybe were not planning on voting. Maybe they feel like their vote doesn’t count. Maybe they feel like nothing will change. They need to hear from you. They need you to motivate them and get them to the polls,” Escobar said.
Before the rally, Talarico was scheduled to meet with dozens of local canvassers at the El Paso Democratic Party Headquarters on Montana Avenue, but was unable to make it to the event.
Attendees and canvassers cited the need for AI data center regulations, countering corruption and funding education.
Andrea Rodriguez, 20, a teacher’s aide at Lujan-Chavez Elementary School in the Socorro Independent School District, said he appreciated his experience as a teacher.
“He wants to fund education and I think he understands what it’s like being in the classroom,” Rodriguez said after the rally.
Others like Julio Saucedo, 42 and Melissa Cardoza, 24, said rising healthcare costs were among their top concerns.
“I had a medical emergency that ended my career, and right now have no insurance because it’s so expensive,” Saucedo told El Paso Matters as he prepared to canvass. “I’m hoping somebody like Talarico will come in and change things and get us back to where we should be instead of the type of Texas that we have right now.”
“He believes that healthcare is a human right, and that I really support that,” Cardoza, a nurse who works for Las Palmas Medical Center, said as she waited for the rally to begin.
The Senate race has drawn significant campaign donations as the candidates make a final push to mobilize voters, with Talarico raising more than $146 million since entering the race, according to his Federal Election Commission campaign finance filings. He had nearly $10 million cash on hand as of Oct. 14. Paxton has raised just under $20 million, with about $5 million cash on hand, FEC filings show.
Those figures, however, don’t include independent spending by super political action committees.
Talarico is the first among a slew of statewide candidates stopping in El Paso this week, with Hinojosa here on Wednesday, Abbott on Thursday and Paxton on Sunday.
Monday marked Talarico’s fourth stop in El Paso since announcing his candidacy in September 2025, previously campaigning here in October 2025 then in February before the primary election and in July.
During his July visit, Talarico took aim at Paxton’s legal history and vowed to introduce anti-corruption legislation that would ban corporate and secret political action committees, implement term limits and reform the U.S. Supreme Court.
Paxton was indicted on felony securities fraud charges in 2015 and impeached by the Texas House on allegations of abuse of office in 2023. He was acquitted of the impeachment articles. The fraud charges were dropped in 2025 after he completed a pretrial diversion program.
U.S. senators serve six-year terms and are paid an annual salary of $174,000. The race is one of 35 Senate seats up for election in November. Early voting runs through Oct. 30.
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