Why this Senate candidate’s Super Bowl ad is such a big flex
Plus: This symbol could help more safely document ICE raids
Texas state Rep. James Talarico’s U.S. Senate campaign just dropped six figures for a single ad ahead of next month’s Democratic primary, but it might actually pay off if the advertising can successfully convince an important slice of voters.
Talarico’s 30-second spot “Billionaires” will air during Sunday’s Super Bowl in the Houston market, which matters since the region was where about a quarter of the votes were cast in the last Democratic midterm primary election in 2022, according to the Houston Chronicle.
On its own, the more than $100,000 ad buy is impressive enough as a show of Talarico’s fundraising prowess. He brought $13 million in the last quarter of last year, which was double his primary opponent Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas). But the subject matter is also important. Implicit in an ad attacking billionaires is the idea that billionaires didn’t pay for the ad.
Technically, the ad’s no good, with Talarico lit from above, but the message is one that resonates with Democrats.
Talarico’s spot shows a clip of him speaking to a standing-room group of voters about the influence of the hyper-wealthy on today’s politics. Other people are shown watching Talarico’s speech from iPads and smartphones as the candidate says he doesn’t take corporate PAC money, and if elected, he’ll support banning congressional stock trading and raise taxes on billionaires to fund tax cuts for the middle class.
“Billionaires don’t just influence politicians, they own them,” Talarico says.
The Super Bowl gives advertisers an attentive, one-of-a-kind audience, but the price range for air time is prohibitive for most political campaigns. Not to mention the timing only really works for campaigns that have an election coming up soon, as Texas does.
What Talarico’s campaign is doing is rare, and it shows he has a budget to work with. By using the premium ad buy to advertise a populist anti-billionaire message, though, the campaign is taking something pricey and positioning it for the people. The medium reinforces the message.
Talarico and Crockett are polling within the margin of error of each other, according to Texas Public Opinion Research. The winner in March will face off on Election Day in November with the winner of the Republican primary where incumbent Sen. John Cornyn is facing intra-party challengers.
This symbol could help more safely document ICE raids
State legal observers in New York will wear purple vests to identify themselves.
Federal immigration enforcement officers operating in New York will soon be met by legal observers in purple vests.
New York Attorney General Letitia James announced Tuesday that her office is launching an initiative called the Legal Observation Project. Trained legal observers from her office — including lawyers and other state employees — will serve as “neutral witnesses” of the federal government’s immigration enforcement activity on the ground in the state, James’s office said.
By observing and recording the actions of agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or other federal agencies, which the public has a right to do, the observers will provide the attorney general’s office with information that could one day be used in future legal action if any laws are broken. By having a uniform, they are standing out and identifying themselves.
“We have seen in Minnesota how quickly and tragically federal operations can escalate in the absence of transparency and accountability,” James said in a statement. “My office is launching the Legal Observation Project to examine federal enforcement activity in New York and whether it remains within the bounds of the law.”
James’s office says specifically that observers from the initiative won’t interfere with enforcement activity and that their job is to merely document federal conduct safely and legally. Her office did not respond to a request for comment.
The purple vests these observers wear will bear the insignia of the attorney general’s office. They’re the latest example of state-level officials turning to colored vests amid President Donald Trump’s escalation of federal immigration enforcement. In Minneapolis, the Minnesota National Guard last month began wearing yellow safety vests so people could tell them apart from federal agents.
In the absence of a single dress code, mostly masked federal officers from multiple agencies have worn a range of clothing, from jeans to fatigues and tactical vests in the Minneapolis area. The yellow vests are bright signifiers “to distinguish our members from those of other agencies, due to similar uniforms being worn,” as Minnesota National Guard spokeswoman Army Major Andrea Tsuchiya put it. A safety vest signals that the wearer wants to stand out and actually be recognized.
In New York, the vests’ color “will aid in the ability of the trained legal observers to stand out in a crowd of bystanders and federal agents,” University of Minnesota College of Design faculty lecturer Kathryn Reiley tells me. “The federal agents tend to wear uniforms that are black, navy blue, or army green. The purple vests will produce the intended result of making the trained legal observers identifiable as a separate group of government employees that are not federal agents.”
This pro-ICE billboard in San Francisco ahead of the Super Bowl was just removed
It’s from a group called American Sovereignty.
