Meet James Talarico
James is an eighth-generation Texan, former middle school teacher, and Presbyterian seminarian. As a state representative, he’s led the fight against the billionaire mega-donors and puppet politicians who have taken over Texas.
Now, he’s running for U.S. Senate to take his fight against corruption to Washington and win power back for working people.
Before I was a politician, I was a public school teacher. I taught sixth grade Language Arts at Rhodes Middle School on the westside of San Antonio.
The westside is a beautiful, historic Mexican-American neighborhood. It’s also one of the poorest zip codes in Texas. Every day, my students struggled heroically to overcome poverty and systems designed to hold them back.
Growing up, I saw that same fight in my mother — a preacher’s daughter from Laredo who left home at 19 and met my birth father, whose drinking problem sometimes led to violence.
One night he became abusive again, but that night my mother’s love rose to meet it. She packed all our stuff into her little Ford Escort and took me to the hotel where she worked. The manager let us stay in one of the rooms until we found a small apartment of our own in East Austin.
Like my students, my mom was a fighter. And she passed that fighting spirit along to me.
I first ran for the Texas House in 2018 to fight for my constituents — people like my mom and my students. It was a district no one thought we could win, but together we flipped a district Donald Trump had won just two years earlier.
As a legislator, I’ve passed major legislation to fund our neighborhood schools, expand job opportunities for young adults, and lower the cost of child care, housing, and prescription drugs.
I’ve led the fight against the billionaire mega-donors that have rigged the system against working Texas families. And I’m the only member of the Texas Legislature who has never taken corporate PAC money.
Now, as those same billionaire mega-donors take over the federal government, we need more fighters in Washington who will take power back for working people.
That’s what my mom showed me on the eastside of Austin. That’s what my students showed me on the westside of San Antonio. And together, that is what Texans will show the country in 2026.
State representatives write and vote on state laws and the state budget. Each represents a district in the legislature's lower chamber, which is called the House, the Assembly, or the House of Delegates depending on the state. Most serve two-year terms.