Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico appealed face-to-face to skeptical Republicans and independents Wednesday night in a joint town hall hosted by CNN and Jubilee, framing the election in populist terms and insisting he is willing to break with his own party if doing so benefits the state.

“I’m a proud Texas Democrat, but I already have a religion and I already have a sports team,” he said. “So, I have no problem sharing hard truths with my party if it’s what’s best for Texas.”

Talarico faces Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton in one of the most important Senate races of November’s midterm elections. Democrats need a net gain of four seats to claim the Senate majority, and flipping a GOP-held seat in Texas would be a significant boost to that effort.

Talarico, a former seminary student, peppered his remarks with references to his “spiritual heroes” and made references to the last three popes. He said he felt he could find common ground with conservatives — in part by looking to solutions to the problems that fuel cultural divides, rather than treating those divides as a political hammer with which to “beat each other over the head.”

And as he campaigns for the votes of independents and moderate Republicans in Texas, where Democrats haven’t won statewide in three decades, he attempted to frame the election in populist terms — regular Americans against wealthy individuals and corporations.

“The only minority destroying America is the billionaires,” Talarico said.

 

Paxton — who has refused to debate Talarico and has not responded to an invitation to hold his own town hall — was absent from nearly all of Wednesday night’s discussions. Talarico only circled back to the topic of his Republican opponent at the end, after telling the audience that he doesn’t “want people to vote just against Ken Paxton. I want them to vote for me.”

But he took one big swing at Paxton in the final minutes.

“We have an opportunity in this race not just to defeat the most corrupt politician in Texas; we have an opportunity to defeat this entire corrupt system,” he said.

Here are takeaways from Talarico’s town hall:

Courting a broad spectrum of voters

Talarico repeatedly sought to reach out to the Republican and independent voters he’ll need to win in deep-red Texas, emphasizing that there is common ground to be found — an effort that was on display when he was challenged by a woman who opposes abortion rights.

Talarico told the woman that “it’s OK that you and I come to different conclusions” about the moral and theological questions surrounding the issue.

“What I think we can do is actually come together on reducing the number of unplanned pregnancies and the number of abortions,” he said. “Because if we treat this issue as a public health problem and not a culture war problem, then we can actually make progress together.”

It was one of several ways Talarico looked to make appeals across the aisle on Wednesday night. He also emphasized his willingness to break with the Democratic Party. He called the national debt “an emergency” and said policymakers should seek to run the federal government more efficiently. He broke with progressives’ calls for aggressive breaks from fossil fuels to combat climate change, emphasizing his support for Texas’ oil and gas industry and declaring that he endorses an “all of the above energy strategy.”

 

He also declared himself “a border security Democrat” and criticized former President Joe Biden’s administration’s management of the US-Mexico border.

Asked if he supports abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement — a position held by many progressives within his party — Talarico quickly responded: “No, and I never have.” He then argued that President Donald Trump’s mass deportation efforts have gone too far, and that the president has deployed ICE as a “secret police force.”

“We don’t want federal agents murdering our neighbors before our very eyes,” he said.

‘Nasty case of the flu’

Talarico opened the town hall by addressing his recent absence from the campaign trail that lasted more than a week and fueled Republican attacksthat at times veered into debunked conspiracy theories. Talarico returned to making public appearances on Friday.

Talarico reiterated that he had a “nasty case of the flu” and said he now feels “much better.” Looking back, he said he would not have handled the absence differently,

“I think the responsible thing to do when you have something like the flu is stay at home and not get other people sick,” Talarico said, adding that he was able to work remotely.

Talarico knocked Paxton and the “conspiracy theorists” for their attacks over his absence, calling them a distraction from issues that are more important to voters.

“Conspiracy theories don’t put food on the table,” Talarico said.

Clarifying past statements

Talarico sought to clarify a number of comments he has made in recent years that have drawn scrutiny as he runs for Senate.

One of those comments came in 2020 during a Sierra Club event where he called capitalism an “oppressive system.” Talarico took issue with the media’s characterization of the remark and said he was referring to a “crony capitalism” that disproportionately benefits the wealthy.

“What I’m trying to get back to is OG capitalism where we actually reward work instead of wealth,” Talarico said.

Talarico was also asked about a Senate primary debate in January where he criticized Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He said at the debate that it was “time to tear down this secret police force and replace it with an agency that actually is going to focus on public safety.”

Talarico said he does not support abolishing the agency.

“We need Immigration and Customs Enforcement in this country, but that’s not what we’re seeing,” Talarico said. “What we’ve seen over the last year is a secret police force, and that’s what we don’t want in this country.”

Later, Talarico was confronted again about his 2021 comment that “God is non-binary.” He reiterated that he was “being provocative” when he said it.

Connecting health scare to economic message

Talarico has framed his entire campaign around his willingness to take on big business and wealthy interests — and used the emotional story of his own diabetes diagnosis as he laid out one example of how he said he wants to do so.

The 37-year-old Talarico choked up briefly as he explained that in 2018, during his first campaign for the state legislature, he walked 25 miles across his district in one day — and then fell ill and slept for 36 hours. He was hospitalized and diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.

Talarico said when he went to Walgreens to pick up his prescribed insulin for the first time, he learned the cost was $684 — money he did not have at the time.

That was the impetus behind his successful push to cap insulin copays in Texas at $25 per prescription, he said.

If he is elected to the Senate, Talarico said he would push to similarly cap costs across the nation for other medical necessities, including cancer drugs and EpiPens. He also said he would seek to roll back cuts in Affordable Care Act spending imposed by congressional Republicans and Trump in 2025, and would push for a new “public option” that would allow Americans to purchase health insurance coverage from a government-run program.

“These for-profit corporations are making billions of dollars in profit off our pain,” Talarico said. “If you’re willing to take on this corrupt system, then you can actually make change for people.”

Facing scrutiny of his Biblical interpretations

At least two voters challenged Talarico on his liberal interpretations of the Bible — and the candidate sought to find common ground with them.

One of those voters was a Catholic Texan who described herself as a “one-issue” voter on abortion. Talarico told her that some of his “spiritual heroes,” such as Pope Leo, are “pro-life” and that he “can respect anyone like you who is consistently pro-life.”

“We’re both Christians, and the Bible is silent on the issue of abortion,” Talarico said. “It means you and I both have to look at different scriptures to try to come to a conclusion. But what I think we can do is actually come together on reducing the number of unplanned pregnancies and the number of abortions.”

The voter disputed Talarico’s claim that the Bible does not address abortion, pointing to the Ten Commandments, one of which says, “Thou shalt not kill.” Talarico responded sympathetically, saying it was “OK that you and I come to different conclusions about that.”

Another voter, a Republican named Sarah Gardner, also raised issues with how Talarico has used his faith to argue the Democratic position on social issues. She said people “need to be careful using modern cultural terms when talking about God.”

Talarico agreed, saying it was a “very fair criticism.”