If faith is indeed “the substance of things hoped for,” as St. Paul wrote in his letter to the Hebrews, then James Talarico’s win on Tuesday in the Texas Senate primary was surely, at least for the Lone Star State’s Democrats, “the evidence of things not seen.”
What has not been seen for nearly 40 years is a Senate victory for the party, and the 36-year-old Talarico, a state representative and Presbyterian seminarian, has gotten Democrats excited. After his decisive six-point primary victory over Rep. Jasmine Crockett, they are hoping, as they have for at least 10 election cycles — that the massive state, with its 31 million residents, of which at least 40% are Latino, will turn finally blue. That Republicans are staring down a lengthy, costly and nasty runoff between incumbent Sen. John Cornyn and Texas attorney general Ken Paxton, the scandal-ridden MAGA firebrand, has only increased excitement on the left.
