James Talarico: America's Corrupt System Is Designed To Keep You Poor! | Texas Senate Candidate

James Talarico, you could become the first Texas Democrat elected to the Senate since 1988, and people even float the presidency. Before any of that: who are you, what formed you, and what do you stand for?

I’m an eighth-generation Texan, born to a nineteen-year-old single mother, a preacher’s daughter working overtime in Austin to keep us going. She left a violent relationship with my birth father, packed us into her Ford Escort, and found a small East Austin apartment. I slept in a crib in her closet, made beautiful with toys and pictures. She taught me to stand up to bullies, fight for people I love, and make time for service. I try to hold compassion alongside the harm my birth father caused; that never excuses abuse. Mark Talarico gave me his name, raised me as his own, and showed me decency when nobody’s watching.

At sixteen, I wanted to teach history. My teachers kept me on track when I wasn’t the model student. I led choir and debate, but I’m surprised enough to be running for Senate. After four legislative terms, I nearly went to seminary; my pastor helped me see that a campaign can be ministry when it gives people hope and helps them see God’s image in one another. I’m not chasing the presidency, and I’ve committed to no more than two Senate terms. Office can become your identity, and self-preservation can eat your values. My strength is legislative work: building coalitions. In a Republican-led Texas House, I passed sixty bipartisan bills on housing, health care, schools, teacher pay, and property taxes.

You want major change, but America has produced growth and innovation. If the middle class is shrinking, how do you reverse that without throwing the whole system away?

I’m asking us to recover shared growth. Texans work multiple jobs and still can’t cover groceries, gas, medicine, a home, children, or retirement. We were told hard work and school would deliver the American dream; for many, they haven’t. Fifty years of choices concentrated wealth and power. That’s crony capitalism, not real capitalism. Trickle-down economics isn’t theory; it is theft. Workers deserve higher wages, stronger overtime rules, revived unions, debt relief, investment in education, and a larger child tax credit. Make the wealthiest contribute fairly. Big money, gerrymandering, and captured institutions let donors write the rules, so changing one politician isn’t enough. I’m proud when Texas companies succeed and I’m not trying to ban billionaires. But child poverty beside enormous fortunes is morally sick. Public investment helped build private success; leave a ladder behind. Close tax breaks and enforcement gaps, back small innovators, and break up health-care consolidation.

AI may bring an even bigger disruption: job loss, autonomous vehicles, and robots replacing routine work. What does protecting workers mean if it comes quickly?

AI could cure chronic disease, ease work, and make roads safer, but Congress has been missing in action. Rules must protect workers and the economy, children vulnerable to harmful chatbots, and democracy from deepfakes. A few billionaire CEOs cannot alone decide an innovation this consequential. People deserve a say in its rules and a share in its value, perhaps an AI dividend. I’ve heard fears of five trillionaires and thirty percent unemployment. That is not the Texas future I want. I’d still want a trained person monitoring an eighteen-wheeler, like a pilot reassures us even when a plane automates much of its flight. Taxing AI gains could fund entrepreneurship and human creativity. Social media showed the cost of regulating after the damage; the economy is for people, not the other way around.

Some “woke” politics became performative, more concerned with approved terminology than dignity and respect. Democrats also lost people genuinely hurting over prices. Many Texans disliked Trump’s conduct but remembered lower costs before the pandemic and hoped he would fix the economy, end wars, release the Epstein files, and drain the swamp. Those hopes have not been met, but disillusioned neighbors need an open hand, not contempt. Trump was right that Biden failed at the southern border. Security does not require masked agents, unmarked vehicles, or treating children and longtime community members without humanity. Secure the border while expanding lawful paths. I taught Dreamers in San Antonio, and I support citizenship for people brought here as children and undocumented neighbors rooted here for years.

Iran is a mess we should not have entered. Congress must restore checks and balances, demand clear aims, and withhold funding without a credible exit strategy. Use diplomacy, economic leverage, and regional partnerships to prevent a nuclear Iran and end this war. We have already lost nineteen-year-old Texan Isabella Gonzalez in an Iranian strike; honoring her means refusing endless war as inevitable. Faith is home base for me. Jesus calls us to love God and neighbor, even the person least like us. Ken Paxton is my opponent and a child of God; love does not erase accountability. Seminary taught me I need prayer and action. Faith is trust: like learning to swim, not fighting the water but letting it hold me. Institutions can be corrupt, but I find beauty, truth, and love in inherited traditions.

Winning Texas is no small thing: eighteen million registered voters, twenty media markets, and two time zones. We’re underdogs until every vote is counted, especially with Elon Musk planning to spend millions against us. Still, thousands are volunteering, more than a million people have donated, and many are praying. Even if you disagree with me or vote differently, keep me in your thoughts and prayers.