A Senate candidate hoping to lead a Democratic comeback in Texas is seeking a boost by linking himself to the San Antonio Spurs as they attempt a comeback against the New York Knicks in the N.B.A. finals.
James Talarico, the Democratic candidate, plans to run an advertisement during Game 5 on Saturday night celebrating the Spurs’ history and style of play, his campaign said Saturday.
The 30-second spot, which is mostly black and white, intersperses images of Spurs greats such as David Robinson, Tim Duncan and the former coach Gregg Popovich, along with images of Mr. Talarico working with students in San Antonio’s Westside when he was a middle-school teacher.
“San Antonio has shown the world how to win the right way,” Mr. Talarico, a 37-year-old state lawmaker, says in the ad. “Not by hogging the ball, but as one team. I learned that as a teacher on the Westside. My students didn’t have much, but they had each other’s backs.”
The commercial will run in the San Antonio market as part of a six-figure ad buy, said JT Ennis, a Talarico campaign spokesman. The Spurs trail the Knicks in the series 3 to 1. If San Antonio wins Game 5 on Saturday night and extends the series, the ad will also run during Game 6, Mr. Ennis said, adding that there are no plans to run the ad during Game 7, if the series goes that far.
It is Mr. Talarico’s latest effort to leverage the popularity of sports. His campaign says it has invested more than $800,000 in Spanish-language ads running across Texas during World Cup games. And during the Democratic primary race, in which Mr. Talarico defeated Representative Jasmine Crockett, his campaign spent more than $100,000 to run a Super Bowl commercial in the Houston area outlining his positions on campaign finance reform.
In the general election, Mr. Talarico faces Ken Paxton, the state’s Republican attorney general. A Democrat has not won a U.S. Senate seat in Texas in nearly four decades. President Trump won the state by nearly 14 percentage points in 2024.
But some Democrats are optimistic about an upset. Mr. Talarico has a unique profile for a Democratic candidate: He is a Presbyterian seminarian who puts his faith at the center of his politics, and he would be the country’s youngest senator. Mr. Paxton, a Trump-backed Republican who won a bruising primary against Senator John Cornyn, must overcome a number of recent scandals, including an impeachment by state lawmakers (he was acquitted), an indictment on securities fraud charges (he reached a deal with prosecutors to avoid a trial) and a messy divorce that played out in public.
Mr. Paxton’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Mr. Talarico’s ad. The N.B.A. and the Spurs did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The commercial comes as politicians across the country have been trying to link their campaigns to sports teams and events — to mixed results.
In November, the White House took down a social media post that was apparently intended to mock Zohran Mamdani, then New York’s mayor-elect, and that featured a Knicks logo altered to show President Trump’s name. The franchise had asked the administration to remove the post, according to The Athletic. That came days after the Knicks were said to have told Mr. Mamdani’s campaign to remove an ad that featured a team logo altered to show his first name.
Last month, the campaign of Graham Platner, a Democratic candidate for Senate in Maine, ran an ad during Boston Red Sox telecasts blaming the ownership for the team’s poor performance and suggesting private equity interests were ruining the franchise. The broadcaster, New England Sports Network, which is owned by the Red Sox, stopped running the ad, claiming an intellectual property violation.
Mr. Talarico’s campaign wasn’t the only one seeking to score points during the Super Bowl. One Nation, a nonprofit allied with the top super PAC for Senate Republicans, invested in ads in Maine supporting Senator Susan Collins, a vulnerable Republican, who now faces Mr. Platner in the general election.
The N.B.A. finals do not get nearly the viewership of the Super Bowl. But Republican strategists said Mr. Talarico’s ad was effective.
“In the world of TV these days, it’s hard to gather a large audience, and the N.B.A. finals, with a Texas team in it, is his best opportunity,” said Vinny Minchillo, a Republican strategist in Texas. “It’s a smart move.”
Republicans have cast Mr. Talarico in ads as weak and outside the political mainstream. His new commercial appeared to be aimed at helping his standing with men, said Matt Mackowiak, a Republican strategist who worked on Mr. Cornyn’s campaign.
“He’s got to have broader appeal to have a chance,” Mr. Mackowiak said.
Taylor Robinson contributed reporting.
