Leadership and Experience

With a career rooted in the classroom and public service, James Talarico has dedicated his life to fighting for working-class families and standing up against special interests. Most recently, as a four-term Texas State Representative, he has served on the Public Education Committee, partnering with parents and educators to deliver historic funding to public schools and protect local communities. He has led the charge against the billionaire mega-donors and corrupt political systems that have rigged the economy against regular Texans.

James’s commitment to service is deeply personal. An eighth-generation Texan, he was raised by a single mother in East Austin, learning firsthand the resilience needed to overcome hardship. Before entering politics, James was a public school teacher, instructing sixth-grade Language Arts at a school on the westside of San Antonio—one of the poorest zip codes in Texas. He first ran for the Texas House in 2018, flipping a district that had previously swung conservative. He is the only member of the Texas Legislature who has never taken corporate PAC money. Now, he is running for the U.S. Senate to take his fight against corruption to Washington and win power back for working people.

How he’ll help your community:

• Lowering the Cost of Living: James is focused on building an economy that works for everyday people rather than giant corporations. In the U.S. Senate, he will push to cut bureaucratic red tape, expand working-family tax credits like the Child Tax Credit, and lower daily grocery expenses by combating corporate mergers that artificially jack up prices.

• Protecting Public Education: As a former teacher, James knows that a strong community relies on strong neighborhood schools. He will fight to reject private school voucher scams that defund public systems, establish universal Pre-K for every three- and four-year-old, and increase federal investments to raise teacher pay.

• Health Care as a Human Right: After being diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes and facing a staggering $684 bill for his first month of insulin, James passed legislation in Texas to cap insulin costs. In Washington, he will advocate for a federal public health option, work to lower prescription drug costs, and institute out-of-pocket caps for lifesaving medications.

• Affordable and Secure Housing: James will stand up to the Wall Street investors and corporate landlords who manipulate the market to artificially hike rents. He will fight to pass federal protections that ban large investment corporations from buying up neighborhood single-family housing stock.

His position on key issues

• Rooting Out Political Corruption: James believes that getting dark money out of politics is essential to fixing the system. He advocates for banning super PACs and corporate PACs, prohibiting Members of Congress from trading individual stocks, and enacting strict term limits.

• Public Safety and Justice: For James, true public safety means ensuring law enforcement agencies have the necessary resources to prosecute violent crime while simultaneously funding mental health care, youth programs, and substance abuse treatments to stop crime before it starts. He supports universal background checks to keep guns out of the hands of criminals.

• A Fairer Tax System: James believes the wealthiest 1% and massive corporations must pay their fair share. He will fight to raise the corporate tax rate, eliminate tax loopholes used by hedge funds and billionaires, and create an extra tax on corporations that pay their CEOs more than 250 times their average worker.

• Securing the Energy Grid: Having witnessed the devastating fallout of extreme weather and grid failures in Texas, James will advocate for federal resources to weatherproof and modernize power infrastructure. He will also champion policies that require massive energy users, like AI data centers, to cover their own infrastructure costs so utility spikes aren’t passed on to regular consumers.

To learn more about James, visit his website: https://jamestalarico.com/