Texas Democratic state Rep. James Talarico is ready to announce a Senate bid in subsequent yr’s midterm elections on Tuesday, in response to sources accustomed to the plans.
The information was first reported by Politico.
Talarico has served within the Texas state legislature since 2018. The 36-year-old former instructor is a part of a bunch of Texas Democrats who fled the state final month to delay a Republican redistricting push, and has been broadly thought of a rising star in Texas politics.
Sources inform CBS Information that Democrat strategist Lis Smith is serving as an advisor to Talarico. Smith beforehand labored on the presidential campaigns for Pete Buttigieg and Barack Obama.
Subsequent yr’s Texas Senate contest is already extra crowded than most statewide races in latest Lone Star State lore.
The seat — which has been in Republican palms since 1961 — is at the moment held by GOP Sen. John Cornyn, however he is dealing with a main problem from his proper in Texas Lawyer Common Ken Paxton. Talarico will even have to face off towards a number of different Democratic main hopefuls, together with Rep. Colin Allred, who introduced a bid for the seat in July.
Members of each events are taking a severe have a look at the race, given a transparent weak spot for Cornyn amongst base Republican voters in private and non-private polling. However latest surveys recommend Cornyn, who has served within the Senate since 2003, is conserving even or pacing forward of Paxton. The state lawyer basic survived an impeachment trial in 2023, however his spouse introduced plans this summer time to divorce him amid accusations of extramarital affairs.
With polls exhibiting Paxton would lose a hypothetical basic election contest towards a generic Democratic candidate, exterior Republican teams started spending thousands and thousands of {dollars} in digital and tv promoting to buoy Cornyn and remind GOP main voters of Paxton’s previous authorized and private points.
Talarico would be part of a discipline that features Allred, a former NFL linebacker with the Tennessee Titans and Dallas Cowboys who served three phrases within the Home earlier than an unsuccessful marketing campaign towards Republican Sen. Ted Cruz final yr. Terry Virts, a Houston-based former astronaut and Air Drive veteran, additionally launched a Senate bid in June, and has been a strident critic of Senate Minority Chief Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat.
The state consultant did not instantly reply to requests for remark.
