State Rep. James Talarico, the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate from Texas, addressed a packed auditorium on the Pasadena campus of San Jacinto College Sunday evening.
He devoted much of his speech to questions of affordability, as he continued the rollout for his recently announced economic agenda, a package he called "the New American Dream."
"The American dream has become an American nightmare," Talarico told the crowd. "It is too expensive to buy a home. It’s too expensive to get married and have kids. It’s too expensive to retire comfortably. People are working hard. They’re playing by the rules, but those rules of today weren’t written for us. They were written for billionaires."
Talarico called for increasing the minimum wage, rolling back tax breaks for the wealthy in favor of tax breaks for the middle class and small businesses, and rebuilding the strength of labor unions. Pointing to what he called record levels of household debt, he also proposed canceling medical debts and capping credit card interest rates.
The Democratic nominee leaned heavily into his populist message, repeatedly attacking billionaires and tying them to his opponent, Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton.
"If you are struggling to afford your groceries, if you’re struggling to afford your gas, if you’re struggling to afford housing and childcare and prescription drugs, the things that we need to survive, it is not because you’re lazy. It is not because you made bad choices. It is because the system has been rigged against you by billionaire megadonors and corrupt politicians like Ken Paxton," Talarico said.
Paxton made his own campaign swing through Houston last week, in which he discussed his own economic plan, largely focused on tax cuts.
"My opponent wouldn’t vote for any of that stuff. And how do I know? Because my opponent voted for a state income tax," Paxton said. "I think he voted for every possible tax increase, including a new death tax, which we never had in Texas."
While Talarico did not vote in favor of a state income tax or an estate tax, he did oppose constitutional amendments that permanently bar the state from adopting such taxes.
Talarico spoke just two days after a fourth consecutive poll showed him leading Paxton, this one conducted by Texas Pulse and Texas A&M University's Bush School, had Talarico leading by a margin of 47% to 43%. Among other findings, the Texas Pulse/Texas A&M poll found that 87% of Black voters would support Talarico if the election were held today, compared to 2% for Paxton. That follows a Texas Southern University poll, released last week, which showed Talarico leading Paxton among Black voters by 79% to 12%.
The findings among Black voters are particularly significant given a second TSU survey whose results were released last week. This second TSU survey found that, while Talarico is viewed favorably by 71% of Black Texas voters, 77% of Black Texas voters agree with the statement that the Democratic Party in Texas takes Black voters for granted.
Talarico has acknowledged this last concern publicly and has pledged to invest $25 million in Black voter outreach. According to the Talarico campaign, those funds are being spent on hiring Black staff members and consultants from across the state; Black-owned media firms producing paid advertisements aimed at Black Texans; investments in local Black media; and partnerships with Black churches, local community organizations, and historically Black colleges and universities, among other measures.
"For too long, the Democratic Party has taken Black voters for granted, assuming that Black folks here in Texas and around the country are just going to show up and vote for any Democratic candidate. That's not true," Talarico said in July at a town hall with Black voters at Houston's Kingdom Builders' Center. "The fastest way to lose an election is to take any voter or any community for granted. We're not going to make that mistake in this race."
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