Meet U.S. Senate Candidate
James Talarico
Texas
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Why This Race Matters
Since the 1990s Texas has been a Republican stronghold. For decades Republicans have held every state-wide office and majorities in both legislative houses. Democrats have not won a statewide race since the 1994 Lieutenant Governor election. Trump won the state in ‘20 by six points and by double digits in 2024.
This time, however, in addition to the competitive Talarico Senate race, Democratic challenger Gina Hinojosa is actively campaigning against incumbent Republican Governor Greg Abbott.
Both Texas US Senators are Republicans as are 25 of the state’s 38 member US House delegation. With Supreme Court approval, Texas enacted a controversial mid-decade redistricting map targeting five Democrat – held seats in 2026. But national Democrats are cautiously optimistic that they can compete in these re-drawn, heavily contested districts which are highly volatile and subject to fluctuation particularly regarding the Latino vote.
Talarico’s opponent is Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton who was indicted on two counts of first-degree felony fraud and investigated by the FBI for separate allegations of bribery, abuse of office, and witness retaliation.
Paxton, endorsed by Trump just days before the primary, easily defeated incumbent Republican John Cronyn. Cronyn has served in Congress for 23 years including 12 years as a high-ranking member on the Senate Republican leadership team.
Given his personal and professional baggage, Paxton may be the weaker of the two candidates and it remains to be seen how Republicans vote – or if they vote – in November.
Both The Cook Political Report and Sabato’s Crystal Ball rate this race as lean Republican meaning Paxton has a small edge, but the race is competitive.
Hear directly from James Talarico in this short video:
Background + Experience
Born in Round Rock Texas, Talarico has a BA from University of Texas in Austin, an MEd from Harvard, and an MDiv from Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary. Early in his career, he was a middle school English teacher in San Antonio for the Teach for America program. Later Talarico was Central Texas executive director for Reasoning Mind, a nonprofit bringing technology to low-income classrooms.
Talarico was elected to the Texas House of Representatives in 2018 at 29 and served through 2025. In his four terms in a Republican-majority legislature, he was lead sponsor of multiple bills, 16 of which became law, including eight focused on education, childcare, and youth workforce development.
On the Issues
The James Talarico for Senate website details his priorities for work in the Senate:
- Get big money out of politics
- Ban partisan gerrymandering nationwide
- Make it easier for citizens to participate in elections
- Ban congressional stock trading
- Institute term limits for Congress members
- Require members of Congress to hold annual town halls
- Ban presidential pardons
- Increase Supreme Court accountability
- Increase oversight and improve ethics at all levels of government
Talarico sees political corruption as the central issue of our time.
He says, “...making progress on every other issue we care about – health care, education, or the cost of living – comes down to getting dark money out of our politics and making sure government is accountable to us.”
“...we are running against the broken system and the powerful people who broke it. They’re scared of the movement we are building. They're going to throw everything they have at us. . .They’re going to call me a radical leftist. They're going to call me a fake Christian. They’ll call our movement un-Texan, un-American. The only truth is, we are a threat. We’re a threat to their corrupt system.”