State Convention Gives Talarico and Dems
Shot to Reclaim Narrative that GOP Hijacks Texas General Election Polls
Capitol Inside
June 25 2026
CORPUS CHRISTI - Thousands of Democrats poured into the largest Texas coastal city on Thursday for a state party convention that gives them a golden opportunity to defuse the GOP's attempts to define them as trans-loving extremists who are led by a man who isn't masculine enough to represent the Lone Star State.
The biennial gathering that plays for three days n the Sparkling City by the Sea will force U.S. Senate nominee James Talarico and the Democrats to make the call on whether they will fight fire with love or with all guns ablazing in the fall.
But Talarico may decide that the only hope for victory that he will have will be deeper in the mud that he could have possible anticipated before the Senate race. Or he may be a more kind and forgiving candidate who counters criticism and hatred with love - taking shots without the vitriol, imagination and need to exaggerate or prevaricate the things he's saying about the enemy.
With a packed house of cheering fans and cameras rolling, Talarico can make nice or go for the jugular when he takes the stage this weekend. Paxton has given him an arsenal of ammunition like no one who'd run for the Senate before either one of them could have ever imagined for an opponent in a race that the nation is watching with a very intense interest. The Texas race could determine whether the GOP retains control of the Senate or fumbles it to the Democrats in November.
The Republicans have gone to great extremes to define Talarico before he's had the chance to do so on his own terms as a first-time contender for a race on the ballot above the Texas House. Talarico finds himself now in a competiton against a tag team quartet featuring Paxton, President Donald Trump, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick and Governor Greg Abbott - who erected billboards on highways leading to Corpus Christi with a message depicting the Democrat as an advocate for boys in girls sports.
Abbott also unveiled a new web site - radicaltexas.com - with a magnificent seven radicals pictured at the top including four from Texas in Beto O'Rourke, Jasmine Crockett, Al Green and Talarico along with out-of-staters Bernie Sanders, Zohran Mandami and AOC.
Patrick repeated his claim that Talaric is doomed to hell for the blasphemous language that he's allegedly use during his campaign. As a minister who attend the seminary, Talarico can try to turn such rhetoric into an asset if he decides to play hard ball at the highest level where he can expect to find the Republicans who are ignoring their own general election foes and running as a group against the Democrat in the Senate contest.
This is war - and Talarico may feel compelled to get mean and personal as the only way to have a chance against the Republicans.
Talarico for starters could counter attempts to make him appear girly by calling out Republicans for the way they've let Trump bully them into submission. The U.S. Senate Republicans on a Iran war resolution this week after the president yelled at them and made threats is an example that could come up here.
Talarico could pick up on social media rants that call the current crop of U.S Republicans the least courageous since the Germans in the 1930s.
more to come ...
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