Democrats’ U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico brought his general election campaign kickoff to San Antonio’s on Friday evening, packing roughly 500 attendees into the Paper Tiger music venue on the St. Mary’s strip.
Talarico has San Antonio ties — he taught sixth grade on San Antonio’s West Side for several years with Teach for America before embarking on his career in the Texas House.
But Friday’s visit comes as political analysts say Talarico’s path to success relies heavily on some course corrections in this part of the state.
In 2024, roughly 48,000 voters who Democrats can typically count on in Bexar County didn’t come out to vote, San Antonio political strategist Kelton Morgan said Friday.
That was part of a larger trend of voter apathy from traditionally Democratic voters that dogged the party’s candidates last election cycle, Morgan said, but it was particularly prevalent among Hispanic voters and voters in South Texas.
On Friday, Talarico delivered a roughly 15-minute stump speech that referenced his great-grandfather’s favorite Bible verse about servant leaders, recalled lessons about what makes a man from his stepfather who mowed their elderly neighbor’s lawn, rehashed his Republican opponent Ken Paxton‘s lengthy criminal record, and promised to introduce legislation to reduce the influence of money in politics.
All of it is aimed at bringing back disaffected voters who feel left behind by the political process.
“That’s who I’m running for,” he told reporters afterward. “It’s all the working Texans who feel like they’ve been screwed over by this corrupt system.”
He also acknowledged the challenges he faces reenergizing voters in a county where he must run up the score in November to make up for losses in Texas’ large, rural, conservative parts.
“There’s no way to win Texas without winning Bexar County. It’s why we’re here. It’s why we’ve been here multiple times already in the course of this campaign,” he said. “We’re going to be showing up here in San Antonio and in Bexar County many more times. We’ve got thousands of volunteers on the ground here in Bexar County, doing the organizing work, registering voters, making sure they have the knowledge and resources they need to show up and vote this November.”
Friday’s visit comes just three days after Texas Republicans nominated Paxton as their U.S. Senate candidate — tossing out longtime U.S. Sen. John Cornyn who national Republicans broke spending records trying to protect as the stronger general election candidate.
The primary runoff was rocked by a last-minute Trump endorsement for Paxton, and Cornyn lost by 28 points.
On Friday afternoon, the first public polling by Texas Public Opinion Research on a Talarico-Paxton matchup after the runoff had Talarico up 47-44%.
“There is something happening in Texas,” Talarico said Friday. “There’s something in the air. I am confident. I feel it in my bones that we’re going to win this election.”
‘Talafreako’ fights back
Talarico won the Democratic nomination outright in the March primary, avoiding a runoff and allowing him to stockpile campaign cash while the Republican race raged on.
The prolonged GOP primary has also left Republicans too preoccupied to attack the Democrat — something that changed quickly the day Paxton became the nominee.
At Paxton’s election night party, Republicans were already criticizing Talarico for past comments about transgender kids and a House floor speech suggesting “God is nonbinary.“
So far Talarico’s trying to roll with the punches, selling T-shirts that said “I’m a Talafreako” — the new nickname Paxton has given him.
“They’re gonna throw everything they have at us. They call me a radical leftist, they call me a fake Christian, they even call me a vegan — and those are fighting words,” Talarico told the crowd Friday. “I’m an eighth-generation Texan. I’ve been eating barbecue since before Ken Paxton’s first indictment.”
Talarico, in return, has been hitting Paxton over a criminal record, including allegations of investment fraud and bribery that led up to his own party impeaching him in 2023.
The conservative Texas Senate would later acquit Paxton, whose legal woes have largely lifted ahead of the Senate race.
At Friday’s event, Talarico’s campaign distributed fresh signs with the phrase, “The people vs. Ken Paxton.”
“He serves himself and his donors,” Talarico said. “Since taking office, Ken Paxton’s net worth has increased 7,000% while our pay has remained stagnant. He has 11 homes now, while most Texans can’t afford one. He’s taken bribes from wealthy donors, while blocking overtime pay for Texas workers and gutting our healthcare. This is the rot at the core of our broken system. It’s why we can’t afford anything. … It’s why everything sucks right now. It’s why everyone is so angry.”
Democrats haven’t won a statewide race in more than 30 years in Texas, but those in attendance Friday were as optimistic as ever about his chances against a flawed opponent.
Lauren Gracia, a 19-year-old San Antonian who’s been studying history and economics at Fordham University in New York, said she’s become a fan of the newly elected New York City mayor and is excited to vote for someone similar back home.
“He feels like our [Zohran] Mamdani in Texas,” said Gracia, who first heard about Talarico on Instagram.
Older Democrats in attendance were hopeful Talarico could avoid some of the mistakes that have cost his predecessors precious capital.
Nathan Glavy, a 33-year-old who works in environmental advocacy, said he believed Talarico would bring a more measured approach that succeeds where Democrats’ former standard-bearer Beto O’Rourke, who was more shoot-from-the-hip, failed.
“He’s a former minister … he’s very real. He’s very down-to-earth. And he has a moderateness about himself that I feel like is necessary in Texas,” Glavy said of Talarico. “I feel like he is a really safe bet in terms of pushing the envelope just enough to get to the change that we need.”
Gina Sandoval, a 58-year-old who works in finance, said she was thrilled that Democrats chose him as their contrast to Paxton.
“We’re a split household — my husband voted for Talarico and I voted for [his Democratic primary opponent] Jasmine Crockett,” she said. “But [Talarico] really is the best person because I’m hearing a lot of people saying that they used to vote with the Republican Party, and that really were Cornyn supporters, and they just cannot find themselves to be supporting Paxton.”
The crowd at Paper Tiger was dotted with down-ballot candidates who are also counting on Talarico to run a strong campaign: Democrats’ nominees for the 35th and 21st congressional districts, Johnny Garcia and Kristin Hook, to name a few.
Councilmembers Sukh Kaur (D1), Jalen McKee-Rodriguez (D2), Phyllis Viagran (D3), Ric Galvan (D6) and Marina Aldrete Gavito (D7) were also in attendance, while state Rep. Diego Bernal (D-San Antonio), one Talarico’s closest allies in the Texas House, opened for him on stage.
“I really believe that our city, San Antonio, is going to save Texas,” Bernal said. “Because in this race now we have a true supervillain. … [But] James is going to win in November.”
