{"id":482867,"date":"2026-11-01T02:54:56","date_gmt":"2026-11-01T02:54:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/482867\/"},"modified":"2026-11-01T02:54:56","modified_gmt":"2026-11-01T02:54:56","slug":"talarico-casts-himself-as-an-underdog-attacks-elon-musk-in-final-houston-rally","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/482867\/","title":{"rendered":"Talarico casts himself as an underdog, attacks Elon Musk in final Houston rally"},"content":{"rendered":"

The headline act ran a few minutes late to his show at the Bayou Music Center<\/a> on Saturday.<\/p>\n

But James Talarico’s supporters, self-described “Talafreakos,” <\/a>packed into the venue didn’t seem to care.<\/p>\n

For more election coverage from the Houston Chronicle<\/a><\/p>\n

And when the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate took the stage for his final Houston rally before election day, they cheered him on. He played the hits for the crowd<\/a>, bashing Republican nominee Ken Paxton as a corrupt puppet of Elon Musk<\/a> and pitching himself as an underdog in the mold of the Dillon Panthers from the hit television series “Friday Night Lights.”<\/p>\n

“We are the underdogs. It’s David versus Goliath. It’s the powers that be versus the powers that ought to be,” a hoarse Talarico told the fired-up crowd in the half-full music hall.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/p>\n

Halloween blitz: Paxton, Talarico make final push in tight Texas Senate showdown<\/a><\/p>\n

Gubernatorial candidate Gina Hinojosa, U.S. Rep. Christian Menefee and Harris County Judge candidate Letitia Plummer were among the Democratic officials on hand to urge the crowd of 1,900 to vote and volunteer amid the tightest election cycle in Texas<\/a> in more than a generation. Saturday’s rally came the same day Harris County reported that more than a million residents voted early, <\/a>a new record.<\/p>\n

Talarico has visited Houston repeatedly over the past several months, in an attempt to court skeptical Black voters<\/a> and juice turnout in a left-leaning<\/a>, vote-rich part of the state.<\/p>\n

TEXAS ELECTIONS 2026: Get weekly updates<\/a> on the news shaping Texas’ midterms.<\/p>\n

\"People<\/p>\n

People wait in line to hear Senate candidate James Talarico during a political rally ahead of Election Day in Houston, Saturday, Oct. 31, 2026. (Jason Fochtman\/Houston Chronicle)<\/p>\n

Among the hundreds of sign-waving supporters on Halloween afternoon were Donavon Williams and Ashley Whitfield of Cypress, who came in costume: matching trash bags with the names of Republican nominees for senator and governor, Ken Paxton and Greg Abbott, scrawled on the front.<\/p>\n

Whitfield said they were “cautiously optimistic” about Talarico’s chances.<\/p>\n

“I know people who are first-time voters who are just really tired, just fed up,” Williams said. “They’re tired of Republicans continuously blaming Democrats for the problems that they’re creating.”<\/p>\n

TEXAS VOTER GUIDE: Explore key races<\/a>, candidates and endorsements<\/a> from our Editorial Board.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Paxton, the state’s current attorney general, spent Saturday at a rally in Fort Worth<\/a>, where he described Talarico as an extremist looking to reverse the state’s economic growth and strip Texas of conservative values. “(Talarico) is a radical who has never met a tax increase he didn’t love,” Paxton said.<\/p>\n

\"Elon<\/p>\n

Elon Musk speaks during an event to mark the launch of the America.gov website, Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo\/Mark Schiefelbein) (Mark Schiefelbein\/Associated Press)<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Elon Musk is bankrolling Ken Paxton’s Senate bid, new filings show<\/a><\/p>\n

“If you just go based off the commercials, you wouldn’t vote for anybody,” Ashley Robinson of Humble, who was bartending inside the concert hall on Saturday, said. “According to the commercials, everybody’s a bad person.”<\/p>\n

But Robinson had made up her mind to support Talarico on Tuesday, in part horrified by the video released this week<\/a> of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Mario Alberto Morales running down Miguel Parra Hern\u00e1ndez in his car in Houston earlier this month, shattering his leg.<\/p>\n

“If you can support somebody like that, something’s wrong with you,” Robinson said. “Every time I see that video, I just see red.”<\/p>\n

Democrats target Musk in closing message<\/p>\n

If there was a consistent villain across the Democrats’ speeches, it was Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX.<\/p>\n

In an election where hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent in an unprecedented advertising battle across the state, Musk alone has spent more than $150 million backing Paxton, according to federal election filings.<\/p>\n

Hinojosa took aim at the world’s richest man over a rumored effort by SpaceX<\/a> to buy a state park, and for the millions in state tax breaks his companies<\/a> have received. Talarico at one point likened Musk to a puppet master, controlling Paxton on a string. Musk’s name was met with loud boo’s whenever it was mentioned.<\/p>\n

\"Gina<\/p>\n

Gina Hinojosa, Democratic nominee for Texas Governor, speaks during a political rally ahead of Election Day in Houston, Saturday, Oct. 31, 2026. (Jason Fochtman\/Houston Chronicle)<\/p>\n

“Elon Musk wants our land. He wants our water. He wants our tax dollars. He wants his very own personal United States senator,” Talarico said. “He is trying to buy Texas.”<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/p>\n

Elon Musk pumps $5 million into Abbott’s campaign as polls show Hinojosa gaining ground<\/a><\/p>\n

Several attendees groused about Musk’s heavy spending.<\/p>\n

“The fact that we can have one person pour a quarter of a billion dollars into one Senate race and it not even affect a guy, you know, I’m not for it,” Jeff Tims of Cypress said. “Let’s get money out of politics, give it back to the people.”<\/p>\n

Subscribe<\/p>\n

There’s more to Houston with the Chronicle. Subscribe today for just 25\u00a2.<\/a><\/p>\n

This article originally published at Talarico casts himself as an underdog, attacks Elon Musk in final Houston rally<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The headline act ran a few minutes late to his show at the Bayou Music Center on Saturday.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":482868,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,58,57],"class_list":["post-482867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=482867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482867\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/482868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=482867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=482867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=482867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}