James Talarico's new Senate campaign ad is called "Waking Up." It features the Texas Democrat behind the wheel of a Dodge Ram 1500, rolling through pre-dawn Texas while talking about single mothers, faith, and working people. The truck is not his.
It's an Enterprise rental.
Semafor reporter David Weigel broke the story on July 29, noting the license plate visible on screen traced back to Enterprise. Talarico's actual vehicle is a Chevy Colorado — a midsize truck. Apparently that wasn't truck enough for the "Real Texan" narrative his campaign was building, so they upgraded to a full-size Ram for the shoot. When Weigel asked the campaign whether the candidate's car was in the shop, he said he did not hear back.
The ad itself is standard-issue Democratic populism with a Texas paint job. Talarico talks about taking on corruption and making "this economy work for working people again." He references his background as a teacher and his work in the state House on drug costs and property taxes. All very blue-collar. All delivered from behind the wheel of a truck he doesn't drive.
Talarico is running for the U.S. Senate seat against Republican Ken Paxton, the Texas Attorney General. He beat former Representative Jasmine Crockett in the March primary and currently leads Paxton 45% to 40% in polling, with a nine-point edge among non-college-educated voters. That last number explains the rental truck. When your strategy depends on winning working-class Texans, you need the right props.
This is the genre now. Politicians don't campaign on what they believe — they costume-design what they want you to think they believe. The truck, the rolled-up sleeves, the diner counter, the hard hat. None of it is accidental, and almost none of it is real. Talarico just got caught because Enterprise leaves license plates on their vehicles and reporters occasionally do their jobs.
The deeper problem isn't the truck. It's that Talarico's team looked at his actual life — a Chevy Colorado-driving former teacher turned state legislator — and decided it wasn't Texan enough to sell. His real truck wasn't big enough. His real story wasn't rugged enough. The entire ad is a confession that the candidate's authentic self doesn't match the voter he's trying to reach.