Billionaire Cash Floods Texas as Voters Get Two Bosses

Elon Musk has spent more than $150 million of his own money to help Ken Paxton keep pace with James Talarico's fundraising in a Texas Senate race the two candidates started wrapping up Saturday, October 31, 2026. One man. One checkbook. One Senate seat in play. That's the machinery of consent, running at full speed three days before Election Day on Tuesday, November 3.

Who Has the Power

Paxton is the longtime state attorney general who has weathered indictment and impeachment. He still collected Donald Trump's endorsement, and he beat Republican Sen. John Cornyn in this year's GOP primary with Trump's help. Nobody in Texas voted for Trump's thumb on that scale. It was just there.

Trump himself didn't bother with a crowd on Saturday. He spent the morning and early afternoon at the golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida, then scheduled six tele-rallies. MAGA Inc., his super PAC, lined up calls for races in Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York, Michigan and two separate calls for Florida. "Answer your phones, and ENJOY!" Trump posted. His Sunday rallies in Iowa and Kansas were scheduled, pulled down and then rescheduled. The leader phones it in; the voters are expected to pick up.

What They're Calling "Democracy"

Talarico, a state lawmaker, seminarian and former teacher, cast Musk as his shadow opponent. "It's David vs. Goliath," he said. "The people of Texas are my slingshot." It's a good line. It's also a campaign that runs on fundraising totals, measured against a billionaire's, with the audience invited to cheer.

Talarico's pitch in Houston was a question of whose pockets get filled: "This election is about whether you want a senator who puts money in your pocket or who puts money in his own." Paxton answered in Fort Worth by calling Talarico a lackey for Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer. "The left in this country keeps getting more and more radical," he said. "I'm not exaggerating when I say, if we lose Texas, we lose America." Then he asked for prayer: "Pray for our Texas. Pray for me."

Early balloting totals were approaching 50 million heading into the weekend. About 112 million voted in total in the 2022 midterm elections, four years ago. Tens of millions of people are queuing up to choose between the managers on offer, and the managers are spending the final weekend trading insults about each other's bosses.

The Reform Pitch, Up Close

On the Democratic side, the promises come in the language of the possible. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries campaigned in Virginia's 2nd Congressional District with former Rep. Elaine Luria, who is in a rematch with Republican Rep. Jen Kiggans. Jeffries pledged votes on reversing Republicans' healthcare cuts, voting rights laws and limits on Trump's military actions on Iran. "In the majority, one of the first things we are going to do is run Pete Hegseth out of town," he said. Democrats are targeting at least 60 House seats.

The other side kept its rhetoric hot. House Speaker Mike Johnson, in a Michigan tossup district, said: "It's a spiritual battle," and called Democrats "Marxists, socialists, communists." Trump posted an Islamophobic cartoon targeting Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed, who faces Republican Mike Rogers.

Inside the Democratic tent, the knives are out too. El-Sayed's campaign is no longer welcoming former primary rival Haley Stevens to events. A plan for both to campaign Sunday with Rep. James Clyburn is in doubt. Clyburn adviser Antjuan Seawright said the congressman was still inviting both to church Sunday morning.

The Math of the Apparatus

Republicans hold a 53-47 Senate advantage. Democrats need to pick up at least four seats for a majority, and at least five if they lose Michigan. Whole constituencies are reduced to that arithmetic. The stakes, as sold, are control of the chamber, with a billionaire financing one candidate, a president dialing in from a golf club, and the rest of us told to turn out and pray.