So Why DID James Talarico Use a Stunt Truck in Sad Ad Ploy?

A video making the rounds on Wednesday is not a Dodge trucks ad, but you could be forgiven for thinking so.

As it turns out, it's actually just an embarrassing campaign ad.

Oh wait, wrong clip. Here's the correct one:

Can you imagine buying a pick-up truck called a Colorado to seem more Texan? That's basically what James "Jesus Loves Abortion" Talarico did. He's a Chevy Colorado owner and, by all accounts, right in the brand's wheelhouse. But still, in a new ad, he's driving around in what is apparently a rented Dodge Ram.

Now, I know what you're gonna say: "But Caleb, you're always wearing Ford hats so you're biased!" Oh wait, y'all don't know me that well. Okay, then maybe you were going to say "But stranger online, if he actually owns a pick-up already, why would using a different one in an ad burnish his image?" Let me answer that question with a pullquote, as we say in the business.

They named it the Colorado because you’d have to be high to think buying one was a good choice.

There are jokes about the Chevy Colorado all over the internet, as with most things. But these do seem to follow a central theme, and one that is surpassingly apt for Talarico.

The bed of a Chevy Colorado stays new forever because it's never used to haul anything but Whole Foods groceries and "I'm With Her" signs.

I may have tweaked that one, but you get the idea.

Talarico is the Texas candidate who keeps trying to convince everyone he's a down home Christian Texan by arguing that, "Akshully all this progressive gender stuff is exactly what the Bible meant to say!"

With the trucks it's a pretty simple basis. The demographic profile of their customers, the target audience for their respective ad campaigns, the places they are popular.

Here’s what one source who has worked extensively in automotive marketing told me:

“Colorado buyers tend to be younger by about nine to ten years. They’re also less well-off, generally, than Ram 1500 buyers. That’s just as you would expect, given the $20-30,000 price differential between the two trucks (the Ram 1500 is the more expensive). The Colorado is more for urbanites and suburbanites who want a parkable truck. The Ram is more for heavy duty, rural towing, and again, it’s generally regarded as a much more comfortable truck—so again, more sought after by better-off, older men—also known as Republicans. People who maybe have some back problems, because they're not 25 or 30 years old anymore.”

For what it’s worth, searches with Google and Microsoft AI support that assessment and comparison. So does normal intuition. (Democrats are big on intuition.) You can look at the RAM and see it looks tougher than the Colorado. Size matters. That RAM is taller, longer, wider. More like a truck. Better for an ad. He's wearing lifts to look taller. Think Dukakis tank.

So why would Talarico diss his own truck? Because he’s probably already getting the support of more than enough urban and suburban younger men who like the idea of the Texas aesthetic, but are married to, date, or pal around with what right-wingers call AFWLs. Affluent White Female Liberals. But the rural, richer, older, male voters Democrats covet, the people who probably loved Rick Perry as governor, but maybe aren't quite as sold on Ken Paxton? Yeah, he needs them. He thinks he can get them, sway them. And there's no detail too small when the margins are like they are.

Talarico's entire gimmick, like much of his party, is trying to pitch himself as a good ol' boy who just happens to also love drag shows and abortion. What he wants is to hit that sweet spot where he's just lib enough to keep the Democrat pressure groups mollified, and just "normal" enough that waffling traditional Texan voters might switch the (L)etter on the ballot this time.

Not for nothing, but this is what Democrats are relying on in dozens of races. It's what they thought they had with Graham Platner, and what they want to get out of lionizing that dog-abusing podcast jerk who now holds sway over their 2028 nomination. It's something they just can't get a handle on. I mean they call it the "man-o-sphere" so, yeah, they don't get it. But boy howdy do they keep trying, one spectacular implosion after another.