It was a packed house at the Capri Bar in Marfa Sunday night as Democratic U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico took the stage to outline his vision to a rally of supporters. While Democratic faithful from Marfa were in attendance, a good portion of the crowd also came from Fort Davis, Marathon, Alpine and across the state to fill out the 600 or so people in attendance.
“This is a people-powered movement. Something extraordinary,” Talarico told the cheering crowd. “We are going to end 30 years of one-party rule in this state and elect a senator who serves us.” Talarico, from Round Rock, has served in the state House since 2018
Much of Talarico’s speech focused on what he called his “corrupt” Republican opponent, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. “Paxton was impeached by his own party for using his public office, his position of public trust, to enrich himself and his donors at the expense of the people of Texas,” Talarico said. “Ken Paxton is everything that’s wrong with this broken, corrupt political system. Since taking office, Ken Paxton has become a multimillionaire on a government salary.”
Republicans, of course, have been attacking Talarico on his “Frontera Tour,” rallies from Brownsville to El Paso. “We hope that James Talarico, the Christian-bashing, gun-grabbing, gender-radical, open-borders Austin liberal takes a picture with every South Texas Democrat he can find,” said Christian Martinez, in a statement from the National Republican Congressional Committee.
Attendees echoed Talarico’s call for a fight against corruption. “We’re here because people are tired of the corruption of Ken Paxton,” said Deece Eckstein of Marathon.
Another central theme was heard: that Talarico listens and cares about Texans. “It seems that it’s been too long since people in government cared about people,” said Karen Crenshaw, of Marfa, with her friend Paula Campbell. “He’s for your rights, all people’s rights, and he listens and cares,” Campbell said.
Jerry Mitchell said he wants to see if Talarico could stand up for Texans. “I came from Alpine, came here to see if he’s really going to be tough enough to take on those SOBs in Congress.”
Talarico also was sure to work in a note on the border wall: “This broken, corrupt system. We can start unrigging this economy. We can start raising our pay, cutting our taxes, lowering our costs. We can finally start to get ahead, and we can stop our government from spending billions of our tax dollars on a useless wall in Big Bend, one of the most sacred places in the great state of Texas.”
