Beto O'Rourke chased Hollywood cash to beat Ted Cruz in 2018 and still lost Texas.
Now Texas Democrat James Talarico is running the same Hollywood playbook with Georgia's Jon Ossoff standing beside him.
Talarico built his campaign on hating billionaires, then flew to Los Angeles to cash their checks.
Two Visionaries One Night Sells Out at $27,000 a Seat
The fundraiser had a name straight out of a streaming pitch meeting, "Two Visionaries, One Night."
It happened Thursday in Los Angeles and put Talarico and Ossoff on the same stage asking the same rich donors for money.
Grey's Anatomy and Bridgerton creator Shonda Rhimes opened her home to host it.
Lost creator Damon Lindelof co-hosted alongside his wife, Heidi Lindelof.
Heidi Lindelof sits on the board of the Center for Reproductive Rights.
Rhimes spent last cycle campaigning for Kamala Harris.
Tickets started at $1,000 and topped out at $27,000 a head.
The two cheapest ticket tiers sold out before the caterers finished setting the tables.
That leaves the actual seats at the table to the people who can afford five figures for a plate of chicken.
Everyone still stuck in the $1,000 tier is basically paying to watch below-the-line crew members and caterers mingle near the bar.
Every dollar raised gets split evenly between Talarico's Senate campaign and Ossoff's reelection account.
Talarico Built a Campaign on Billionaires and Found One Anyway
Talarico is a former middle school teacher who beat Jasmine Crockett in the March primary by running as the guy who would take on billionaires and oligarchs.
He wants to outlaw super PACs and close billionaire tax loopholes.
That message plays well with a Democratic base that spent a decade calling Republicans puppets of rich donors.
A super PAC called Lone Star Rising raised almost $9 million to elect him anyway.
LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman personally cut it a $1.5 million check.
Hedge fund manager Stephen Mandel kicked in another $500,000.
Physician and philanthropist Lisa Primus and venture capital spouse Simone Coxe each wrote $500,000 checks of their own.
Another group called Lone Star Forward Fund tossed in $250,000 on top of that.
A dark money outfit called Government That Works PAC kicked in $3.75 million, and $4 million of that PAC's funding traces straight back to the Sixteen Thirty Fund, a group that by law doesn't have to report its donors.
Talarico's team insists 97 percent of his direct donations come from small-dollar givers.
Nobody writing a $27,000 check at Shonda Rhimes' dinner party counts as a small dollar giver.
Talarico isn't some fringe long-shot padding his war chest for a race he can't win.
He is running against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who just knocked off longtime incumbent John Cornyn in the Republican primary.
Recent polling has shown Talarico with a bigger lead over Paxton than Beto O'Rourke ever managed against Ted Cruz in 2018, and Talarico is already outraising Paxton without any help from Hollywood.
That is exactly the kind of race a mansion full of showrunners wants to buy a piece of.
Ossoff has the same donor problem, just with higher stakes.
He has raised $68.7 million and is sitting on $42.6 million in cash, more than any Senate candidate in the country.
His campaign still emailed donors in July begging for "$5 to keep us on the air."
California donors have already sent Ossoff more money than Georgia has.
That's why Ossoff needed Shonda Rhimes more than Shonda Rhimes needed him.
Hollywood Rescued Beto and Allred Too and Texas Fired Both of Them
Texas Democrats have run this exact play twice before and buried it twice.
Beto O'Rourke packed Los Angeles fundraisers with Gwyneth Paltrow, Jimmy Kimmel and Meg Ryan money in 2018 and Ted Cruz still beat him.
Colin Allred took the same Hollywood road against Cruz in 2024 and lost by a wider margin than Beto did.
Talarico is now the third Texas Democrat to bet that a Bel Air mansion full of showrunners can out vote rural Texas.
Ossoff needs that bet to pay off even more than Talarico does, because California donors are already outspending Georgia.
Neither man seems to have noticed that this exact strategy has a perfect losing streak in Texas.
Shonda Rhimes can write all the checks she wants from her living room in Los Angeles.
She still cannot cast a single vote in Waco or Marietta, and neither can Reid Hoffman.
Talarico spent months telling Texans he was different from the billionaire-funded politicians he ran against.
Then he got on a plane, walked into a mansion owned by a woman who wrote Grey's Anatomy for two decades, and let her collect $27,000 checks in his name.
That's not fighting the oligarchs.
That's just picking which ones write the checks.
Sources:
- Jennifer Oliver O'Connell, "Talarico Goes to Hollywood: TX Dem Teams With GA Jon Ossoff to Grift From the Gullible Glitterati," RedState, September 7, 2026.
- Staff, "Here Are the Megadonors and Dark Money Groups Boosting James Talarico's Anti-Billionaire Senate Bid," Houston Public Media, May 14, 2026.
- Staff, "Gov. Abbott Blasts Beto O'Rourke for Going Hollywood as He Racks in $4M From Californians," Houston Chronicle, 2018.
- Staff, "Beto O'Rourke, Seeking to Oust Ted Cruz, Returns to L.A. for Fundraiser," Variety, 2018.
- Robert Schmad, "Misleading Voters? Ossoff Warns Donors He's Falling Behind Despite Leading Senate Fundraising," Fox News, July 21, 2026.
- Staff, "Top Senate Fundraiser: Ossoff Passes $80M as Campaign Seeks More Donations," Newsweek, 2026.
- Staff, "Tracking Poll Results for James Talarico and Ken Paxton in the Texas U.S. Senate Race," The Texas Tribune, August 7, 2026.
- Alec Schemmel, "Vulnerable Dem Senator's 'Grassroots' Campaign Powered by Out-of-State Cash, Mostly by Coastal Elites," Fox News, October 24, 2025.
