Democrats haven’t won a U.S. Senate race in Texas for more than 35 years. In 2018, Beto O’Rourke came the closest when he lost to Ted Cruz by only 2.6 percentage points. In 2024, Cruz, boosted by Donald Trump’s performance in the state, beat then-Congressman Colin Allred by 8.5 percentage points. But, as many Texans fail to see the Republican promises of economic prosperity materialize, Democratic candidate James Talarico is running on the slogan to “start flipping tables” of Texas politics’ status quo.
A former San Antonio public school teacher and current Presbyterian seminarian, the 36-year-old Talarico first won a seat in the Texas House back in 2018. Since then, he’s gained a reputation as an effective advocate for public schools and an unyielding opponent of school vouchers and right-wing zealotry who’s effectively built and wielded a massive social media following.
Since launching his campaign in September, Talarico has raised a boatload of cash and garnered a Beto-esque number of fawning national headlines. The question is centered around whether this young man of faith has what it takes to not just flip the political tables, as his campaign slogan portends, but to flip the state of Texas. Talarico already has endorsements from more than a hundred state and local officials, as well as kudos from former president Barack Obama for his leadership in Texas’ redistricting battle. But first he’ll have to win a contested primary against repeat-runner Allred and, possibly, Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett.
