While most Americans will be quick to assume that Texas state Rep. James Talarico’s religion and home state automatically render him a conservative Republican, this rising progressive star couldn’t be further from being aligned with today’s MAGA-dominated politics.
First, some context. James Talarico was born to a young mother and an abusive drunk father in 1989. Soon thereafter, Talarico and his mother left his birth-father, and he was later adopted by Mark Talarico. Talarico was brought up Presbyterian, attending public school, and later receiving his Bachelor of Arts from the University of Texas at Austin and a Master of Education from Harvard University. After graduating, Talarico taught sixth grade English language arts in West San Antonio, before running for an open seat in the Texas House of Representatives in 2018. Today, Talarico is still serving in the state House in the middle of his fourth two-year term, representing part of Austin and its suburbs.
Rather than using his religion as a justification for pushing a conservative agenda — which is common amongst Christian nationalists — Talarico takes a different approach, using Christianity to garner support for progressive policies. He references the teachings of Jesus to preach love and charity, often citing a section from Matthew 22:39 as the backbone of his ideology, which reads “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Talarico employs this line surrounding love, as well as many others, to advocate against villainizing people with different backgrounds, political views, lifestyles, and expressions from one’s own — breaking from the mainstream Christian political approach.
Talarico’s record in the state House further reflects his progressive ideology. He’s introduced and voted for numerous bills concerning juvenile justice reform, greater public school funding, and the importation of cheaper prescription drugs from Canada, among many others — as well as opposing bills targeting the LGBTQ+ and immigrant communities.
Most notably, Talarico was a staunch opponent of SB10, which requires every public school classroom to display a poster containing the Ten Commandments. While many of his fellow Christian legislators enthusiastically supported this bill, Talarico saw it as being in direct violation of the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause, saying “We were not founded as a Christian nation; we were founded as a nation where you are free to be a Christian.”
Additionally, Talarico was one of the 51 Texas House Democrats who left the state to break quorum in order to delay the passage of a mid-decade gerrymandered redistricting plan. That plan, pushed by President Trump, prompted state legislators to redraw Texas’s congressional map in a way that guaranteed Republicans five additional seats in the U.S. House ahead of the 2026 midterms.
However, despite holding strong convictions surrounding the role of hate and exclusion within Texas governance, Talarico, serving in a Republican-dominated legislature, is forced to reach across the aisle and work in a bipartisan manner to advance legislation. Texas Democrats are the minority in both chambers of the legislature, as is the situation at the federal level. This is precisely the approach that Democrats nationwide could learn from. Rampant polarization and disdain for opposing beliefs has led to inefficient lawmaking, even when the bill in question is inherently attractive to both sides. Talarico doesn’t allow for his ideological differences with conservatives to get in the way of crafting and passing quality bills — something that, if adopted nationally, could greatly benefit the general public and improve the effectiveness of representative democracy.
And with the Democratic Party’s approval rating at an abysmal 33.6 percent, according to RealClear Polling, they — while also applying equally to the Republican Party — need to stop playing into this party war and get back to seriously governing for the people, even if that means supporting legislation that opposing party members supports. As Talarico’s mom often told her son, “Democrats fight for the people” — which nowadays seems like a saying lost in time.
Being so focused on opposing Republicans at every stop — with good reasons at times — national Democrats have unintentionally painted themselves as the status quo party with mostly reactionary beliefs. It has become clear, especially during the last election cycle, that they’ve clung to the existing social order as a political shield against the increasingly powerful Right, instead of setting their own progressive, forward-thinking agenda. In doing so, national Democrats come off as defenders of a broken system rather than reformers looking to improve it.
This reactionary nature strongly contrasts with the party’s historical identity — with Democrats such as Franklin D. Roosevelt and Lyndon B. Johnson once being leaders of transformative reforms — reflecting how the modern party has drifted far astray from their roots of societal and economic progress. And, as was evident by the rightward swing in the 2024 national elections, the Democratic Party is no longer a party on which working class voters can rely. Talarico expressed this view to a rally crowd, preaching that “national Democrats don’t know how to fight. They’re conformable on the coasts and conformable with the status quo.”
Talarico, clearly, is still a firm believer in the values of New Deal Democrats, fighting to improve Texans’ current living conditions rather than working to maintain them. He concentrates his fight around defining the billionaire class as the underlying cause for most of America’s problems, arguing that “the only minority destroying America is the billionaires,” and that “we are focused on the wrong one percent.” Here, Talarico reinforces who the true opposition to progress is while simultaneously defending immigrants and transgender individuals, an effective strategy to employ for any Democrat looking to attract voters.
Now that Talarico has launched his campaign for the U.S. Senate on Sept. 9, he has a chance to bring this much-needed style of governance to the national level. However, the road ahead is not smooth. Talarico has entered an already crowded race, first needing to secure the Democratic nomination. Former U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, who lost to Sen. Ted Cruz last year but has accumulated significant name recognition across the state, already announced his candidacy for 2026. Even if Talarico manages to become the nominee, incumbent Republican Sen. John Cornyn, who has served in the Senate since 2002, will pose a difficult challenge to election.
Nevertheless, whether Talarico is successful in this race or not, Democrats across the country should take close note of his message — a call to return to their core principles as the party of the people, embracing bipartisanship while staying true to their progressive values. James Talarico reminds Americans of a truth too often forgotten in today’s polarized politics: “The biggest divide in our politics is not left versus right. It’s top versus bottom.”
The Zeitgeist aims to publish ideas worth discussing. The views presented are solely those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial board.
