Over 30 years in the making, Texas is sending a Democrat to the U.S. Senate after James Talarico defeated Attorney General Ken Paxton in commanding fashion by nearly 10 points.
Since he announced his candidacy, Talarico has made it clear that his goal is to unite Texans from both sides of the aisle in a fight against the one percent, the megadonors who buy elections, and the most powerful puppeteers in the nation pulling the strings. On Nov. 3, Talarico took a massive leap toward that goal as attendees of his watch party at the Long Center here in Austin watched dreams become reality.
But despite the overwhelming victory, the path to this point was never easy. Talarico, who has used his faith as a prominent component of his campaign, made that clear after giving his opening remarks, comparing the race against Paxton and the GOP to the biblical story of David and Goliath.
“In this race, we went up against our own Goliaths: the richest man in the world, the most powerful man in the world, and the entire Washington, D.C., establishment. David wasn’t as big or as strong as Goliath. He didn’t have as many weapons, but he had hope, he had faith, and he had a slingshot. You were my slingshot. The people of Texas were my slingshot. And tonight, we defeated Goliath,” he told the enraptured audience.
For the last 10 years, the common ground between the left and right has been severely fractured, warped by hate-fueled agendas. Talarico told the crowd on Tuesday night that it’s time for love to return to the driver’s seat. “People across the political spectrum are hungry for a different kind of politics,” he said. “Not a politics of hate, not a politics of fear, not a politics of division, but a politics of love. My faith teaches me that love is the strongest force in the universe.”
Attendees of the party waited in eager anticipation as votes began to roll in. From the jump, Talarico took the lead over Paxton and never looked back. Lloyd Hocutt, who has lived in Austin since 1995, has never seen Texas elect a Democratic senator while living in the state. He said he believed that leaning on his faith was crucial in Talarico gaining support from Independent and Republican voters.
“I think he’s a true believer in his faith, and he hasn’t backed away from it or shied away from it. And some people may be turned off to that, but I welcome it,” he told the Chronicle. “I thought it was really good for him to keep doing that the entire time.”
Talarico is taking his love-backed message to the nation’s capital, intent on repairing some of the bridges that have been burnt in these polarizing times. “We can’t defeat the politics of division with more division. We can’t win that game. We have to change the game,” he said.
Even after Paxton and the GOP unleashed misleading AI attack ads in an attempt to tarnish Talarico’s reputation, even after Elon Musk dumped around $200 million into the race, even after all of their desperate efforts to retain the seat, which Texas’ newest U.S. senator called “the final howls of a dying establishment,” Talarico flipped Texas. Now, “it’s time to start flipping tables.”
