Texas state Representative James Talarico is the Democratic nominee for Texas Senator John Cornyn's seat in the 2026 midterm elections. His Republican opponent will be decided between the incumbent Cornyn and controversial, scandal-ridden Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton after a run-off slated for May 26.
Talarico has been part of his home state's legislature since 2018. Before that, he was a middle-school English teacher and an executive director for a Texas nonprofit focused on bringing technology to low-income classrooms.
Born in Round Rock, Texas, Talarico graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a Bachelor of Arts in government in 2011, then graduated from Harvard University with a Master of Education in education policy in 2016. While serving in the Texas House of Representatives, he also earned his Master of Divinity degree at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary.
The Texas Democrat has proven to be a devout Christian who practices what he preaches and what the Bible teaches, denouncing both Christian nationalism and the "prosperity gospel" espoused by Evangelical ministers-turned-millionaires off donations from their flocks.
So for a group that declares themselves the party of family values—while being led by thrice divorced and chronically unfaithful MAGA Republican President Donald Trump with policy written by Christian nationalists and White supremacists—Talarico is kryptonite for the GOP.
As such, Republican strategists and party organizations like the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) have been desperately looking for ways to besmirch Talarico. The NRSC's attempt using an AI generated deepfake of Talarico reading old Twitter posts failed miserably.
On April 29, Republican strategist Bobby LaValley tried his luck at tarnishing Talarico's public image by posting on X a screenshot of a 14-year-old Facebook post the Texas state representative made.
LaValley captioned his post:
"Democrat James Talarico posted this in 2012:"
"'Looking forward to spending my birthday with the 6th grade boys…'"
"No teacher, let alone a U.S. Senate candidate, should ever post that."
You can see LaValley's post here:
As a member of the GOP, where almost every day brings a new scandal involving a Republican with an underage victim, arrests for child pornography, or sex crimes of some kind, it's easy to see why LaValley's mind took him someplace salacious over a post Talarico made about a 6th grade field trip to his alma mater, the University of Texas at Austin.
Others just found LaValley's attempt to attack Talarico pathetic, creepy, and a major self-own.
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Even conservatives found LaValley's attempt to smear Talarico ridiculous, though not without trying to get their own pathetic dig in.
Despite serving in a Republican-controlled legislature, Talarico was the lead sponsor of 16 bills that became laws, including eight focused on education, childcare, and youth workforce development.
Videos of his words and his actions, in and out of the Texas legislature, went viral several times, as early as 2021 when he called out then Fox News host Pete Hegseth live on air for spreading Trump's Big Lie about his 2020 election loss, years before Talarico became a known entity on the national political landscape.
Talarico has also been vocal in his opposition to Christian nationalism, calling it "the worship of power—social power, economic power, political power, in the name of Christ." He called out the Christian nationalists that dominate the GOP for turning Jesus "into a gun-toting, gay-bashing, science-denying, money-loving, fear-mongering fascist."
Maybe that's why now Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's pastor and Christian nationalist grifter Brooks Potteiger prayed alongside MAGA podcaster Joshua Haymes for God to kill Talarico.
But the Democratic state representative responded with his usual grace.
The RNC saw Talarico as such a threat that Trump’s FCC threatened CBS and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert with sanctions if they aired an interview with the Texas state representative set to air even before Talarico was the Democratic candidate for Senate.
CBS pulled the interview, leading to widespread backlash—and, as a result, the interview went viral online.
Every strike the Republicans have tried to make against the Texas Democrat has blown up in their faces. At this rate, Talarico could shut down his campaign activities and just let the GOP do the work for him.
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