Talarico Makes Final Election Pitch to Texans: ‘You Are My Slingshot’

James Talarico, the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Texas, invoked the mythological grandness of his native state when he told a crowd in El Paso this week, “Our musicians are so iconic, they only need one name: Willie. Beyoncé. Selena.”

Improbable as it might seem, the once-obscure 37-year-old state representative and former middle-school teacher with the choirboy face has entered an elite pantheon himself.

A little more than a year after Mr. Talarico began his candidacy, he has become a marquee political persona, and not just in Texas. His race, which could become the most expensive in the history of nonpresidential campaigns, may well decide which party controls the Senate.

The Democratic candidate’s celebrity has thrown Republicans into a panic, prompting the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, to donate an unheard-of $158 million to groups that support Mr. Talarico’s G.O.P. opponent and the state attorney general, Ken Paxton.

A smooth orator and prolific fund-raiser, Mr. Talarico has cast his upstart campaign in biblical terms. He is David, the corrupt political system exemplified by Mr. Paxton is Goliath and in whatever city he happens to be in, he declares, “You are my slingshot.” He has run a largely mistake-free campaign, although the flu took him off the trail for nine days.

He has consistently drawn overflow crowds, many of whom wear T-shirts declaring themselves to be “Talafreakos,” first deployed by Mr. Paxton as a term of derision. Last Tuesday, an estimated 4,000 people turned out in Lubbock — an extraordinary number for a Democrat in the ruby-red city — while Mr. Paxton was campaigning with President Trump less than three miles down the road.