James Talarico stood at a Dallas press conference with Jeffrey Epstein survivors and declared war on the Epstein class.
While Talarico was on that stage, someone from the Epstein files was writing him checks.
Now Talarico has to explain why he is the Epstein class.
Reid Hoffman: Epstein Island Visitor and Talarico's Biggest Super PAC Donor
Big Tech mogul Reid Hoffman co-founded LinkedIn and became one of the Democratic Party's most reliable billionaire checkbooks.
He visited Jeffrey Epstein's private Caribbean island after Epstein had already registered as a sex offender, mailed him a surfer statue as a Christmas gift, and emailed about sending ice cream "either for yourself or for 'the girls.'"
Epstein himself described a 2015 dinner with Hoffman as "wild," with Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, and Peter Thiel also at the table.
When the DOJ released the Epstein files in early 2026, Hoffman's name appeared on page after page – at the island, at the Manhattan penthouse, at the New Mexico ranch.
Hoffman says it was all just fundraising for MIT. He kept at it well after Epstein had pled guilty to soliciting sex from a minor.
When reporters started asking questions, Hoffman said his last meeting with Epstein was in 2015. He was wrong. He later admitted to six additional meetings – calls, in-person sessions in Cambridge and Palo Alto – stretching all the way to March 2018.
How Talarico's Texas Senate Campaign Became Tied to the Epstein Files
James Talarico has built his entire Senate campaign around one word: corruption. He calls Ken Paxton corrupt, declares billionaires the enemy, and promises to ban super PACs, ban corporate PACs, and tax the wealthy into submission.
He stood next to Epstein survivors Annie Farmer and Sharlene Rochard at a September press conference in Dallas and used them as props to attack Paxton over an "Epstein-style sweetheart deal."
"The Epstein Class has no place in Texas," Talarico declared.
Meanwhile, Reid Hoffman – Epstein's island guest, gift-giver, and email correspondent – was bankrolling Talarico's super PAC to the tune of $11.5 million.
Hoffman dropped $10 million into Lone Star Rising PAC in June alone.
That single check was nearly 80 percent of the PAC's entire second-quarter fundraising haul.
Before that, he had already written checks for $500,000 in January and another $1 million in February.
Lone Star Rising has now collected nearly $22 million total – and Hoffman is the engine.
Talarico's campaign has a convenient answer: federal law prohibits campaigns from coordinating with super PACs.
Translation: not our money, not our problem.
That answer might work if Talarico had not spent months using Epstein as his sharpest political weapon.
He never once said a word about Reid Hoffman.
Reid Hoffman Has Been Buying Democratic Senate Races for Years
Talarico is not the first Democrat Hoffman has done this to.
Since 2016, Hoffman has funneled more than $77 million into Democratic candidates and committees – including money to fund E. Jean Carroll's bogus civil lawsuit against Donald Trump.
In 2023 and 2024, he poured maximum contributions into Senate races in Montana, Nevada, and Pennsylvania – all while his name was surfacing in the Epstein files.
He bankrolled fake "Republican women" PACs designed to fool conservatives into voting Democrat, and co-invested with George Soros in Courier Newsroom – a network of partisan websites disguised as local news.
Democrats cash his checks and say the right things about Epstein at the right press conferences.
Then they move on and hope nobody does the math.
Talarico is polling ahead of Paxton by 3.1 points with weeks until election day.
He may actually pull this off – becoming the first Democrat to win a Texas Senate seat since 1988 – with Epstein's island buddy writing the checks.
Democrats call it democracy.
Call it what it actually is: a man who declared war on the Epstein class while letting the Epstein class buy him a Senate seat.
Sources:
- Josh Christenson, "Billionaire Jeffrey Epstein associate Reid Hoffman bankrolling James Talarico's Texas Senate run," New York Post, October 8, 2026.
- "Billionaire who visited Epstein island pours thousands into coffers of vulnerable Dem Senate races," Fox News, July 21, 2023.
- "Reports: Epstein-Linked Megadonor Reid Hoffman Drops $10 Million on Anti-Billionaire Talarico," Breitbart, July 16, 2026.
- "Talarico and Ossoff criticize 'Epstein class' while raking in cash from dead pedophile's ally," The Blaze, 2026.
- "Talarico's Senate Campaign Backed by $11.5 Million From Donor With Ties to Jeffrey Epstein," The Daily Signal, September 17, 2026.
- "Dem Megadonor Funding Trump Rape Lawsuit Visited Jeffrey Epstein's 'Pedophile Island,'" Washington Free Beacon, 2024.
- "'Moderate' Dems Take Big Checks From Billionaire Donor With Epstein Ties," The Federalist, February 5, 2026.