James Talarico, the Democratic nominee seeking a Senate seat from Texas, fired back Wednesday night at Elon Musk for an X post in which the world's richest man hours earlier had said, "There is something deeply wrong with Talarico."
"There is something deeply wrong with a political system that allows one trillionaire to buy his own personal U.S. Senator," Talarico wrote in reply to Musk's tweet.
Talarico earlier Wednesday, during a campaign speech at the UH Hilton on the main campus of the University of Houston, called out Musk.
"In all likelihood, if you've seen an attack ad on your screen, that was Elon. If you've gotten lies in your mailbox, that was Elon," Talarico said, according to a report by Houston Public Media.
"If you've received a text message saying scary things about me, that was Elon too," Talarico said. "Elon Musk wants our land. He wants our water. He wants our taxpayer dollars. He wants his very own personal United States Senator. He is trying to buy Texas. But on Nov. 3, we are going to send a clear message to the world's first trillionaire: Texas is not for sale."
The sniping between Musk and Talarico came five days after news broke that Musk donated $158 million to a Republican super PAC, the Senate Leadership Fund, in September.
That money ended up with Texas PAC, a group that is backing Talarico's opponent, GOP nominee Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general.
Musk also sent $10 million to Lone Star Liberty PAC, another group that is backing Paxton.
Musk, who is CEO of both SpaceX and Tesla, executed the big money dump as polls showed Paxton trailing Talarico in the contest.
Talarico's campaign last week said he had raised $64 million in the third quarter of this year. That was the largest tally ever reported for a Senate candidate in a third quarter, his campaign said.
In comparison, Paxton's campaign raised just $18 million for the same quarter.
Paxton beat incumbent Sen. John Cornyn in the Republican primary earlier this year.
His campaign didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.