Elon Musk Heavily Criticized Talarico During the Texas Campaign. He’s Replying After His Resounding Victory.

Democrat James Talarico said that his win in the Texas Senate race was a rebuke of big donor money in politics.

Talarico, who became the first Democrat to win a statewide election in Texas Tuesday, survived more than $150 million spent in support of his opponent, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Much of the funding came from SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

"The people of Texas delivered a crystal-clear message to the world's first trillionaire: Texas is not for sale," Talarico told CBS Mornings. "The power in this state, in this country, belongs to the people and we've got to make sure it stays that way."

Musk donated $158 million in September to a PAC that was supporting Senate Republican candidates. Some of the money was then disbursed to Texas PAC, an organization that supported Paxton. The network reported that Musk also donated $10 million to Lone Star Liberty PAC.

"He wanted a senator who was going to do his bidding, who was going to sell off Texas land to his data centers, who was going to give our Texas water, who was going to give our taxpayer dollars," Talarico told the outlet.

"And I think he knows that I have a history of standing up to billionaires in state government. I have a history of tackling corruption and cleaning up government, and that's exactly what we're going to do in the U.S. Senate, and I think that's what the people of Texas expect me to do on their behalf," Talarico added.

Musk had urged voters to support Republicans on X on Election Day, before scrubbing the posts.

On Wednesday, Musk joked "Guess my election-interfering space lasers didn't work this time." He also appeared to anticipate potential action by Congress regarding AI data centers, writing, "Data centers in space looking pretty appealing right now."