Tim Dunn PAC Depicts Talarico as China Spy
as Landman Spoof Mocking Dem Goes Viral Texas General Election Polls
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August 17, 2026
Midland oilman Tim Dunn - a hardline conservative who's one of the Texas Republicans' all-time biggest contributors - surfaced in the U.S. Senate race for the first time on Monday when a group that he's bankrolled portrayed Democrat James Talarico as a double-agent for the Chinese in a new ad online.
But the anti-Talarico spot that's generated the most buzz since its unveiling on Sunday on social media is an AI spoof on the Texas-based television show Landman complete with starring performances from characters that look like series star Billy Bob Thornton and the two main competitors for the Senate seat.
The new 30-second spot that seeks to tie Talarico to the Chinese communists was produced by a super PAC called Protecting America's Future, which had been broke on the last day of June. The committee reported raising almost $189,000 during the entire election cycle in 2023 and 2024. Dunn accounted for $150,000 of the money that Protecting America's Future raised during that span of time while the rest came from when another PAC to which he's contributed called Jefferson Rising.
The advertisement opens with shots of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton warning on the possible dangers that China poses to the U.S. "Democrats agree China is a threat," a narrator says. "Who disagrees? Radical James Talarico."
While the artificial intelligence video pattered on the hit Taylor Sheridan series on Paramount+ is admittedly fake, the super PAC commercial takes substantial liberties with the truth as well. "Talarico voted to keep allowing China to buy Texas land and infiltrate Texas cities," a narrator contends in the Protecting America's Future advertisement. "And Talarico even voted to keep allowing Chinese agents to spy on and blackmail Texas families."
The ad is apparently referring to the Austin state representative's position last year on legislation that sharply restricted the sale of land in Texas to China or interests tied to the Asian nation and other countries that have been declared to be national security threats. Talarico and most of his Democratic colleagues opposed the proposal in question in Senate Bill 17. But the line about espionage is pure fantasy.
Produced by a conservative activist and podcast host who calls himself PhantomTM on X, the artificial intelligence video opens with a shot of Thornton's character Tommy Norris standing between Republican Senate contender Ken Paxton and his Democratic opponent Talarico. .
."If you think for one second I have any doubt who Texas should be supporting, you're out of your mind," Thornton's character shouts at the camera before turning to Talarico and pushing him to the ground. "Not the Talafreako show."
The AI video includes a cameo by Jasmine Crockett, who Talarico defeated in the primary election, slapping the Texas Senate nominee on the shoulder and taking a swipe at his chin. "Even I can't stand your dumb ass," the fake Crockett character tells him. The Paxton character pipes in with a grin and giggles. "Yeah nobody in America with two brain cells can either."
The PhantonTM production shows Norris and his lawyer on the show Rebecca Falcone, who's played by Kayla Wallace, take a ride in his pickup truck through a version of the oil patch that's filled with tents for the homeless against a backdrop of oil wells burning out of control. Norris tells Falcon: "This is what a Talafreako show would look like."
The 86-second Landman parody shows a crew of workers getting off a well. "Talarico says shut it down - windmills are taking over." It plays to racial stereotypes as well with a scene that shows a Black man with outlandish looks on his face while selling "Talarico vegan cheeseburgers" out of paper bag.
"What in God's name is Talafreako doing over there?" the Falcone character wants to know. The video mocks the Democratic Senate candidate's faith and status as a seminarian who's studying to be a Presbyterian minister. Talarico in one scene is clutching what appears to be a Bible while preaching to paupers in the oil field.
"Windmills might make our state poor - but we can all be rich in the soul with our non-binary Jesus," the Talarico character tells his flock before going over to a group of kids who look like paupers and all have blue hair. "You can grow up to be just as whacked out in the head as me," he tells them.
The Paxton's supporter's video is laden with profanities that a devout Christian like Dunn would normally find offensive. It makes fun of people who are intellectually challenged as well. "That's the kind of retarded shit I'm talking about," the character in the AI video that looks Thornton says before yelling more obscenities at Talarico from the window of the truck. "Kiss my ass you dumb son of a bitch." Talarico meekly replies near the end of the AI spot that "retarded lives matter, too, right."
Thornton - for the record - has made it a point to stay out of politics while blasting the activism in Hollywood. While the Thornton character refers to "my Texas" in the AI video, the actor actually is a native of Louisiana.
more to come ...
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