Last week, Texas Democrat James Talarico, a Round Rock native, took to social media with a plea for his supporters. If his team could bring in $100,000 by Saturday, they’d spend it on a major play: purchasing an ad to run during the Super Bowl. After a successful fundraising push, the campaign squad dropped the ad on Instagram Thursday ahead of the big event with the caption “This is the time for big plays.”
“Billionaires don’t just influence politicians—they own them,” the TV spot begins, before continuing to focus on campaign promises to combat PAC spending, rein in contribution limits, and curb politician stock trading. The commercial won’t run nationally and is slated to air specifically in the Houston market. Compared to the six figures the Talarico campaign spent, a 30-second national spot is running a record $10 million, according to USA Today.
Heading into a closely watched primary against Jasmine Crockett, Talarico hopes to win the nomination to eventually take on Republican John Cornyn or his challenger Ken Paxton in a deeply conservative state. Texas has been in the national spotlight lately after Democrat Taylor Rehmet pulled off a surprise upset by winning a special election in a district that Trump won by 17 points in the last election.
Talarico has made headlines on several occasions over the past few months—for both his strong Christian faith (the politician graduated from seminary) and for an appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast, during which he seemed to find common ground with the controversial host over class divides in the nation. The aspiring politician even got a shoutout from former president Barack Obama in October on Marc Maron’s podcast.
View Talarico’s ad below.
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