If Alaska didn't exist, I could see myself living in Texas. Not in any of the cities, mind you, but that applies anywhere; I have already spent too much of my life in major cities, including 30 years in the Denver area. It was always my goal to get back to my rural roots, and sure, I could have done that in Texas. I've had the good fortune to have spent some time in Texas, from my Army time at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio in the mid-1980s, to an excursion hunting feral hogs in the Hill Country just last spring. Texas and Texans are great, even if their state is a little on the small side to suit me.
Texans: I kid, I kid. But yes, most Texans outside the city live up to the state's reputation: Tough, independent, cast along conservative lines in their behavior, their attitudes, and their politics.
That makes it all the more baffling why Texas Democrats would choose as their Senate candidate someone like James Talarico, who has the testosterone level of a soda cracker and a portfolio of policy positions that just aren't going to fly outside of Austin. An editorial over at Issues & Insights, one of my favorite daily reads, has a few of those policy positions; let's have a look at some of the more egregious ones.
Five years ago, he declared that there is a “link between climate change and white supremacy and capitalism in our country,” and said the only way to end “all three of those oppressive systems work together are we going to be able to begin the process of dismantling them.” Few Texans think this way.
No Texans with enough IQ points to click together two Legos think this way. Of all the global climate's many variables, influences, cycles, and so forth, human activity has a small part; and white supremacy, even if we admit the Democrat assertion that a white supremacist is hiding behind every door, can't possibly have any effect. This is corral litter of the first water.
While running for reelection in 2022, he boasted that his “campaign has officially become a non-meat campaign … so we are only buying vegan products from our local vegan businesses.” Texas is, of course, the biggest beef producer in the U.S.
Notice that Talarico did an about-face on this issue with a very uncharacteristic alacrity; some staffer must have gotten ahold of him, grabbed him by his narrow shoulders, and shouted, "Vegan!? In Texas? Are you insane?" Then, next thing you know, there's James Talarico, awkwardly consuming some Texas barbecue.
Here's a real howler:
Talarico argues for gun control from the “well regulated” language of the Second Amendment. This is wrong from both a legal standpoint and Texans’ widespread support for the right to secure their liberty with firearms.
Apparently, in this issue, James Talarico has been asleep for the last couple of decades, as there are no fewer than three Supreme Court decisions affirming that the Second Amendment recognizes and ensures an individual right, not some kind of "collective" right. The issue is decided by three Supreme Courts in three decisions, and somehow he seems not to have absorbed these facts. And he wants to sell this in Texas? Why not campaign to outlaw barbecue beef brisket while you're at it?
Then, there's this:
He has criticized his own “white skin,” which he says “gives me and every white American immunity from the virus” of racism – apparently either unaware or forgetting that white males sacrificed their lives for Texas’ independence.
Virus of racism? He is, of course, awkwardly trotting out the old canard that only white people can be racist, which assertion is, in and of itself, actually racist. Racism is the notion that people must necessarily think and act in a certain manner because of their racial background; that kind of prejudice is precisely what racism is, and it does not matter a jot what the ethnic background of the person making that assertion is. White, black, green, or purple with white stripes, anyone can be racist.
Now, back to the state of the race: Ken Paxton, the Republican Attorney General of Texas who contends with Talarico for the open Senate seat, is, by some measures, struggling.
According to the Texas Tribune, Talarico has amassed almost $32 million in campaign cash compared to the $9.3 million raised by his Republican opponent, Ken Paxton. Nearly half (45%) of Talarico’s haul came from out of state, most of it from California and New York. Only 17% of Paxton’s fundraising is from out of state, the majority of it from Florida and Utah, which are politically and culturally more like Texas than California and New York are.
Some people may be worried about this. I'm not. For one thing, Ken Paxton already seems to know where to aim his campaign ads to hit the bull's-eye.
James Talarico is going to continue his flip-flop tour, but make no mistake he is willing to sacrifice our children at the altar of the radical trans movement.
— Attorney General Ken Paxton (@KenPaxtonTX) August 20, 2026
Talarico is too weird and too radical for Texas. pic.twitter.com/jL143xnuuP
Paxton is right. The more James Talarico has to expose what he really thinks, the more policy positions he is called on, the more Texans get a really good look at what he really does and thinks, the lower his odds drop. Right now, Ken Paxton may be struggling in the polls, and right now, some Republicans may be a little worried. But while some Senate seats give us cause for concern, one of which is right here in Alaska, there's not too much reason to sweat this one. As AG Paxton says, James Talarico is just too weird for Texas.
