James Talarico tried to campaign as a moderate, but he is just as liberal as Jasmine Crockett. I hope John Cornyn wins the runoff and defeats Talarico in the general election. We can't afford to lose this Senate race because a loss could impact our control of the Senate.

B-1 83 said:

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Pichael Thompson said:

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So he's a gayer version of beta orourke



Well played Libs

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He's a Christian minister, damnit!

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100s of disgraced catholic priests on line 1…wondering what his favorite candy bar is.

My friend, I hope you are right. But Paxton holds no future for the GOP.

You can get away with a lot of transgressions, if you're Trump. He's not.

IMO, as much as Cornyn sucks, this is his last hurrah. Drag his old ass across the finish line and for the love of Christ hope we can find someone better for the next cycle because this will be his last without question.

Cornyn has repeatedly stabbed the right in the back. What is he doing to get Trump's judges confirmed? What did he ever do to stop illegal immigration? He's no better than Lindsey Graham.

I mean seriously?



Good lord we suck at this. GOP in Texas is just terrible.

I saw him interviewed the other day and I was like did he just get his ass kicked, drunk, all of the above?

FFS

Ron DeSantis please save us lol

I agree but see my above post

I wanted the black dude

He's out. Vote for the most conservative choice left.

Old RINO's that know they are done at the end of their term are the worst. See McConnell and a couple of the other old republican senators. They no longer have to pretend and will just straight up impede any conservative agenda. I'd rather take my chances with Paxton. I'd have been fine with Hunt too.

I just want to win guys.

I want the Trump agenda to keep rolling. We're not going to always agree on how we get there but I want Trump to succeed and he needs majorities to do it.

I'll check out. I don't endorse GOP on GOP violence. The other side is so ****ing crazy we just have to win period and do purity tests some other time.

Have a great night!

He's still a theater kid. Every day is an acting job for him.

X has been blowing up with all his tweets as soon as he won. People are going to start seeing the real talarico. Of course the stupid white chicks will still swoon over him because he's all about love.

Ag87H2O said:

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I think the Republicans need to wait a month or so before starting to lay all this nutty stuff out. After the runoffs or maybe even the local elections in May. Voter fatigue is real, and if all this comes out now, people get desensitized to it. Dangle a few of these between now and May and then hit him hard and continuously over the summer and fall. He's given Republicans plenty of ammo.

This could turn into a huge blowout. The guy is a hard left nutjob pretending to be moderate. He's no better from a policy standpoint than Crockett.

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The GOP has all the campaign ads it needs. Just keep showing tweets and videos talarico has already put out.

BTKAG97 said:

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Vote Paxton.

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If I could appoint Paxton I would, as he's the much better senator than Cornyn. But it's all about beating the left and I think Cornyn has a better chance of that than Paxton.

Infection_Ag11 said:

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Hubert J. Farnsworth said:

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Infection_Ag11 said:

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samurai_science said:

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Infection_Ag11 said:

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Any Texan who voted for Hunt or Paxton has no business mocking or complaining about Talarico, now or at any point in the future.

We have to stop this trend of voting for people who YOU KNOW leaves the door open to the opposition while simultaneously complaining about the opposition. You are either part of the solution or part of the problem. If Talarico wins, every person who voted for Paxton or Hunt voted for him.

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Both are still better than Talarico, miles better. Also this thread is about the Democrat

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Sure, but that's not the point. The point is ALL polling data suggests Talarico cannot beat Cornyn, but he has a real chance to beat Paxton and would beat Hunt.

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Polls don't mean squat

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The aggregate of the largest political polls are remarkably accurate as far as such things go. They are much more consistently accurate than the best economic and sports projections, for example.

The "polls don't mean anything" idea is a weird modern misconception largely driven by one outlier election cycle nearly a decade ago.

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That's simply false. We have three presidential elections where the largest political polls were consistently producing results that ended up being 3 points wrong from the final outcome. They were much further away than 3 points with one month to go in 2024 and only closed the gap to 3 late in that race when it was abundantly obvious they couldn't pull Harris across the finish line. It was so obvious Rasmussen predicted in late September we would see them all shift then mocked them when they did. The 3 points thing was so obvious I posted on this forum that Trump would win the popular vote by about 1-1/2 to 2 points then he did. All I did was look at the then current 1-1/2 points Harris lead in that metric and adjust for the proven 3 point pro-Democrat bias. Like the corporate news, the polling industry has ruined its own reputation and it's up to them to repair it but until they do don't gaslight me with "one election a decade ago" because we know better around here.

Beto ran while times were largely good. The people that voted for him were college kids and white women.

However, Talarico is running while times are shaky. Suburban middle class is struggling. Vouchers aren't going well, and will be worse in the Fall when it shows up as a negative line item in public school budgets. Property taxes are still high. White-collar tech jobs are drying up and leaving families without their breadwinner. The only people buying houses on the outskirts of Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, and Austin are foreign nationals. What's left of the neighborhood is being turned into data centers while communities are struggling with water access/affordability.

Paxton & Abbott represent all that is going wrong right now for a lot of people who haven't turned out to vote in strong numbers in the past.

Talarico & Hinojosa will see a bump from apathetic voters who want something different. If Cornyn doesn't run, there may not be enough reliable Republican-only rural voters to drag Paxton across the finish line. I don't know any Republican-leaning moderates who are excited about the future right now and if it gets too bad, they will easily vote for Talarico because they don't have party loyalty.

I think Paxton would have an easier go if it wasn't a gubernatorial race as well - Abbott is polarizing now and there will be a fair turnout to vote against him. I bet we see a fair number who vote Hinojosa & Cornyn or Blank & Cornyn, whereas if it's Paxton they will happily pull Hinojosa & Talarico, then R the rest of the ballot.

Everyone in America: “Women”

James Talarico: “neighbors with a uterus”

This guy is insane.

pic.twitter.com/QU4kgR0EFf

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) March 5, 2026

NEW: Democrats' great hope for flipping a GOP Senate seat in Texas -- James Talarico (not his birth name) -- actually said in a recent speech that "Our border should be like a front porch -- it should have a welcome mat." Talarico, who is Pete Buttigieg with a drawl, also wants…

— Paul Sperry (@paulsperry_) March 5, 2026

jopatura said:

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Beto ran while times were largely good. The people that voted for him were college kids and white women.

However, Talarico is running while times are shaky. Suburban middle class is struggling. Vouchers aren't going well, and will be worse in the Fall when it shows up as a negative line item in public school budgets. Property taxes are still high. White-collar tech jobs are drying up and leaving families without their breadwinner. The only people buying houses on the outskirts of Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, and Austin are foreign nationals. What's left of the neighborhood is being turned into data centers while communities are struggling with water access/affordability.

Paxton & Abbott represent all that is going wrong right now for a lot of people who haven't turned out to vote in strong numbers in the past.

Talarico & Hinojosa will see a bump from apathetic voters who want something different. If Cornyn doesn't run, there may not be enough reliable Republican-only rural voters to drag Paxton across the finish line. I don't know any Republican-leaning moderates who are excited about the future right now and if it gets too bad, they will easily vote for Talarico because they don't have party loyalty.

I think Paxton would have an easier go if it wasn't a gubernatorial race as well - Abbott is polarizing now and there will be a fair turnout to vote against him. I bet we see a fair number who vote Hinojosa & Cornyn or Blank & Cornyn, whereas if it's Paxton they will happily pull Hinojosa & Talarico, then R the rest of the ballot.

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I get your thought process but at some point Talarico is going to have to run against his own words. He's extremely pro-trans including transitioning children. He's extremely pro-illegal immigrant. He's extremely pro-socialism. These are all things Texas and Texans have made abundantly clear they are against. In 2026 you can't hide from things you've said publicly and he won't be able to. He's a white, male version of The Squad and that's going to be a problem for him. We know far more about him today than we knew about Beto months further into the cycle and what we know is going to turn off Texans. It just is. He's not going to do well because of his views and it's much harder to hide in 2026 than it was in 2018.

I'm curious on the comment regarding vouchers. Help me understand what you mean there. We're seeing a significant shift in how parents are choosing to educate their children with homeschooling growing at approximately 8% while ISD are plateauing or even shrinking. CSISD has slightly fewer kids this year than last and has actually begun pursuing kids from beyond its boundaries. Klein is rolling out a program where kids from anywhere can "attend" Klein ISD. We're seeing schools in places like Dallas be closed/consolidated due to falling numbers. If that's what you are referring to when you say "vouchers aren't going well" I think you're misunderstanding what's happening. On the day the voucher window opened there was something like 43k applications which would seem to indicate they're going quite well. Parents wanted a choice and we've given it to them. What am I missing?

Texas Democrat Senate nominee James Talarico in 2019:

"The American flag is such a complicated symbol for most of us. And in many ways, like Jesus, like the cross, it's been co-opted, and in some ways, its true meaning has been betrayed." pic.twitter.com/80YvvwPnwL

— Bobby LaValley (@Bobby_LaVallley) March 5, 2026

LOYAL AG said:

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jopatura said:

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Beto ran while times were largely good. The people that voted for him were college kids and white women.

However, Talarico is running while times are shaky. Suburban middle class is struggling. Vouchers aren't going well, and will be worse in the Fall when it shows up as a negative line item in public school budgets. Property taxes are still high. White-collar tech jobs are drying up and leaving families without their breadwinner. The only people buying houses on the outskirts of Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, and Austin are foreign nationals. What's left of the neighborhood is being turned into data centers while communities are struggling with water access/affordability.

Paxton & Abbott represent all that is going wrong right now for a lot of people who haven't turned out to vote in strong numbers in the past.

Talarico & Hinojosa will see a bump from apathetic voters who want something different. If Cornyn doesn't run, there may not be enough reliable Republican-only rural voters to drag Paxton across the finish line. I don't know any Republican-leaning moderates who are excited about the future right now and if it gets too bad, they will easily vote for Talarico because they don't have party loyalty.

I think Paxton would have an easier go if it wasn't a gubernatorial race as well - Abbott is polarizing now and there will be a fair turnout to vote against him. I bet we see a fair number who vote Hinojosa & Cornyn or Blank & Cornyn, whereas if it's Paxton they will happily pull Hinojosa & Talarico, then R the rest of the ballot.

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I get your thought process but at some point Talarico is going to have to run against his own words. He's extremely pro-trans including transitioning children. He's extremely pro-illegal immigrant. He's extremely pro-socialism. These are all things Texas and Texans have made abundantly clear they are against. In 2026 you can't hide from things you've said publicly and he won't be able to. He's a white, male version of The Squad and that's going to be a problem for him. We know far more about him today than we knew about Beto months further into the cycle and what we know is going to turn off Texans. It just is. He's not going to do well because of his views and it's much harder to hide in 2026 than it was in 2018.

I'm curious on the comment regarding vouchers. Help me understand what you mean there. We're seeing a significant shift in how parents are choosing to educate their children with homeschooling growing at approximately 8% while ISD are plateauing or even shrinking. CSISD has slightly fewer kids this year than last and has actually begun pursuing kids from beyond its boundaries. Klein is rolling out a program where kids from anywhere can "attend" Klein ISD. We're seeing schools in places like Dallas be closed/consolidated due to falling numbers. If that's what you are referring to when you say "vouchers aren't going well" I think you're misunderstanding what's happening. On the day the voucher window opened there was something like 43k applications which would seem to indicate they're going quite well. Parents wanted a choice and we've given it to them. What am I missing?

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+1 for all of this. He is also all in on trying to force the return of DEI to schools at a time when support for DEI is really unpopular in the demographic he is going to have to win to have any chance to defeat his R opponent. His stance on gun control alone will be hugely problematic for him as well. If he were an aw shucks Matthew McConaghey type who could play the lets all get along and work on this together card, I would be more worried. But he is going to lose to whoever he faces in November because all of his policy ideas that are antithetical to what Texas voters believe are going to be hung around his neck and used to sink him.

oh no said:

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He flees the state when there's bills he doesn't want to vote on, but he signs bills to restrict your speech and make his opinion of wrong think a crime

James Talarico thinks the words “China virus” is hate speech

Definitely don’t tag @jamestalarico and write “china virus” or he might cry 🤣 pic.twitter.com/cgLFJxWs3P

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) March 5, 2026

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And he lied on TV why he missed over 800 votes in the Texas Legislature by blaming it on when the Dems fled the state to break quorum. He wasn't there to vote. One small problem, the purpose of fleeing the state was to stop the legislature from voting. No votes happened because there was no quorum. The guy just missed voting over 800 times.

Talarico, Now do hoodies and BLM...

Urban Ag said:

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I agree but see my above post

I wanted the black dude

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I voted for Wesley Hunt, but he finished a distant 3rd.

Alex Latcham, the executive director of the Senate Leadership Fund, was confused. He'd started to hear chatter early last year that Republican Rep. Wesley Hunt wanted to run for Senate, against not only longtime incumbent Sen. John Cornyn but also Texas' high-profile attorney general, Ken Paxton.

So he talked with the Houston-area congressman last April to ask why on Earth he thought he could win and to try to talk him out of sabotaging his career.

"I basically said, 'Look, in a three-way race, given your profile, given the money I think you can raise, you're going to get in the mid-teens,'" Latcham told NOTUS in an interview Wednesday.

Latcham's warning proved prescient: Hunt finished a distant third in Tuesday's GOP Senate primary in Texas, with just 13.5% of the vote. It was an ignominious end for Hunt, who entered the primary in the fall over the objections of some Republican leaders but never seriously challenged for a place in the top-two runoff.

His defeat also marked the end of a campaign that GOP officials in Washington and Texas found uniquely frustrating. The congressman had little chance of winning, Republicans said, but his presence might have prevented Cornyn, the favored choice of many party officials, from winning the race outright Tuesday.

Instead, the incumbent now faces a time-consuming and expensive 10-week runoff against Paxton. And top Republicans blame both Hunt and the people working on his campaign.

"Ultimately, I feel bad for him," Latcham said. "Because he torched his career. And in my opinion, he was taken advantage of by his team and his consultants."

"He's an incredibly talented guy and does genuinely want to serve his country, but this was not the way to do it," Latcham, whose group is closely aligned with Senate Republican Leader John Thune, added.

https://www.notus.org/2026-election/wesley-hunt-texas-senate-primary-cornyn-paxton