James Talarico pulled in $64 million over the summer for a Texas Senate race. That's record money for a Democrat in a state that hasn't elected one statewide since 1994. Before that sentence fills you with hope, remember: records exist to document failure at scale.
Democrats haven't won a U.S. Senate race in Texas since 1988. That's thirty-eight years of losing. Talarico looked at that streak and thought, "You know what this needs? More money." Sixty-four million dollars more, to be precise. He raised it in three months. Donors saw decades of electoral collapse and opened their wallets anyway. These are the same people who think technical analysis works.
The headline says he's "making the state competitive." Competitive means you're still losing, but with better production value. It's the participation trophy of political coverage. Texas went for Trump twice. It elected Ted Cruz. Twice. But sure, this time will be different because a guy named Talarico raised enough money to buy every voter a Whataburger and still have change left over.
Here's what $64 million buys you in Texas: consultants who'll explain why you lost by only eight points instead of twelve. Focus groups that confirm voters don't trust you. Ads during Wheel of Fortune that nobody watches. And a concession speech where you thank everyone for believing in the movement.
The smart money isn't on Talarico. The smart money left Texas politics in 1994 and never looked back. What's left is $64 million in dumb money, chasing a Senate seat like retail traders chasing meme stocks after the squeeze already happened. Same energy. Same result. But this time the bagholder gets to give a speech about fighting the good fight while his donors wonder if they should've just bought Bitcoin.
Photo by Jessica Wu on Unsplash
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