James Talarico
November 1, 2026 · Newsletter
No, it’s not too late.
We’re getting a lot of questions about whether or not a donation today can really make any difference.
And the answer is, in no uncertain terms, absolutely. Here’s why:
When we made our budget, we had to look at historical data and fundraising trends. It gave us an idea of what we could raise and how we needed to manage our cash flow.
And what you see in every election cycle is that there is a significant amount of money raised in the final few days before Election Day. So you need to take that into account as you make spending decisions.
Smart campaigns will spend a bit into the red — knowing that money will come through. That’s what we did. Not egregiously — a responsible amount based on what our data suggests we’re likely to raise.
But it’s not an insignificant amount either. It makes me a bit uncomfortable how much, but to be as transparent with you as I can — historical data and our own metrics showed we should raise more in the final three days of this campaign than we raised in the entire month of October 2025. Wild, right?
So right now, we’re in the red. There are bills due tomorrow and Tuesday that we have to pay, and if we don’t see the money that we projected rolling in, then we’ll have to quickly cancel a bunch of ads and organizing work to get refunds. It could mean our campaign goes dark in the final hours of the race — when the undecided voters who plan to vote on Election Day will make up their minds.
I know there are still some folks who will have questions. I hear it every day: “But James, haven’t you raised a record-breaking amount of money? Isn’t that already enough?”
And I hear you. I too wish that elections did not cost this much. It’s gross, and I would love to watch the Longhorns play without being inundated with political attack ads.
But history says this kind of spending is what it takes for Democrats to flip a Senate seat like this. In 2020, Jon Ossoff needed more than $150 million to flip Georgia — which has a population a third of the size of Texas.
On top of that, Elon Musk swooped in and almost single-handedly made this the most expensive non-presidential race in American history. He personally bankrolled the operation to rescue Ken Paxton.
And the spending is entirely lopsided. The next most expensive races have had far more parity between Democrats and Republicans — while we’re being basically obliterated. Ken Paxton has a massive spending advantage behind him. His allies are spending $200 million more than ours.
It is likely once all of the data shakes out that I will have more money spent against me than any non-presidential candidate in American history.
Sorry to inundate you with data and explanations, but I thought you deserved candor.
The truth is every dollar we have raised has been spent already. It was the only way to avoid an unspent surplus. That would be a disservice to everyone who invested their hopes and resources in this movement.
There’s nothing that would make me feel worse than someone giving their hard-earned money to our cause just to have it go unspent because we weren’t smart enough to plan ahead.
But it does mean that every dollar we raise right now is making an impact. It’s winning votes and turning out Democrats.