James Taralico's ( James Talar token issuance) campaign team counterattacked Elon Musk on Thursday, claiming that the person who spent the most money during the 2026 electoral cycle has invested a substantial amount of funds in the Texas Senate race, while the dispute between Taralico and the world's richest man continues.
Tarlico's campaign team released a video on X on Thursday, showcasing a new advertisement that targets Musk's record-breaking spending in supporting the Republican candidate Ken Paxton ( Ken Paxton ), and says to him, "Texas is not for waiting to be bought at a low price."
The video narration says, "Have you been seeing these attack ads targeting James Tarrellico? Take a closer look. Almost all the money for these ads is being provided by the same super political action committees."
The narrator then said, "But who is funding these dark gold organizations? Elon Musk."
"He is almost single-handedly providing the funding for the efforts to get Ken Paxton into the U.S. Senate," the narrator continued.
"Elon wants to buy our land, he wants to buy our water, and now he also wants to buy a U.S. senator who belongs to him. He knows that if his millions of dollars help one of Texas's most corrupt politicians cross the finish line, Ken Paxton will owe him everything."
At the time this new advertisement was released, there were less than two weeks left until the mid-term elections, and the dispute between Tarrikko and Musk continued.
On Wednesday, Musk posted on X, saying, "There is something very wrong with James Taralico." On Thursday, he wrote again on X, "Tarlico hates Texas and the United States," while also sharing a video regarding voter ID requirements.
On Wednesday, Tararico responded to that previous post, saying, "It's indeed quite odd that a political system would allow a billionaire to buy a U.S. senator who belongs to him."
According to the calculations of CNBC, Tesla and SpaceX's CEO have spent approximately $366 million in 40 midterm election campaigns so far, making Musk the largest individual donor in this electoral cycle. A significant portion of these expenditures occurred in Texas, where Musk has relocated both the headquarters of his company and his primary residence.
According to the calculations from CNBC, Musk has made at least $189.6 million in political expenditures, which have been used in various ways to support Paxton. Paxton is a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate from Texas and also a rival of Tarlico. FiftyPlusOne summarizes that as of October 23rd, Tarlico led Paxton by 3 percentage points according to average polls.
