Hey, Trip Cast listeners. For the next two weeks, your podcast team will be taking a break for the holidays, so we'll be playing some interviews from the Texas Tribune Festival back in November. First up is my interview with James Tallerico, who is running as a Democrat for the US Senate. Hope you enjoy it and if you celebrate, Merry Christmas. Good morning, everybody, Welcome to day two of the Texas Tribune Festival. Very excited to be here with
Representative James Tallerco. First, a little bit of just housekeeping things to know. We're going to talk for about forty five minutes. Then we're going to have audience Q and A. There are two microphones out there in the line, so you know, once we get toward the end, you can start lining up and talking. This is the first of two candidate candidates that conversations related to the US Senate.
The second one will be with Representative Colin Alright, we're going to need to clear the room in between for security reasons, so I just ask, you know, let's try to get moving and back. You know, we can get back in line, but we want to be able to clear the room, make sure everything's safe in there. Representative. Thank you for being here.
Thank you for having me. This is one of my favorite churches here in the Austin area, one of the most beautiful sanctuaries. Kind of felt like you and I were getting married walking down the aisle. But anyway, it's so good to see all of you here.
Yeah. Absolutely, So, you know, I don't think we need to spend too much time on your bio, but just briefly. You know, you, of course a former teacher, Presbyterian seminarian state representative since twenty eighteen. But the thing I really want to touch on most importantly is that you are a twenty sixteen Texas Tribune Festival trivia champion. That's right, that's right, Thank you, thank you. So you know when go to trivia night when and it'll take you far.
That's right. That's right, that's right. So yeah, thanks for being here. So let's start talking about the race here. You have, you know, clearly built a passionate following a strong reputation, a lot of it built on your work in the state House, you know, advocating you know many times against you know, policies that have been passed or promoted in the Texas legislature by state leadership. You're now
running for the Senate. Tell me why you chose this race as opposed to you know, say, governor or lieutenant governor or something like that.
Well, I firmly believe that all thirty million Texans deserve a senator who's going to represent them and not billionaire mega donors. And I, you know, I, I I do feel like something is broken in this country. Our economy is broken, our political system is broken, but even our relationships with each other feel broken. And I think that's because the most powerful people in the world want it
that way. You know, my faith teaches me to love my neighbor as myself, not just my neighbor who looks like me, not just my neighbor who prays like me, not just my neighbor who votes like me. I'm called to love all of my neighbors the way I love myself. But those billionaires who own the algorithms, who own the cable news networks, who own politicians on both sides fighting on our screens, they want us at each other's throats. They want us focused on how we're different instead of
on how we're the same. And as I travel this state, I really get the sense that people are tired of being pitted against their neighbor. People are tired of being told to hate their neighbor. It's been it's been more than ten years of this kind of politics. Politics as blood sport, politics as trolling and owning, politics as total war, and it's tearing families apart, it's ending friendships, and it's regardless of what side of the hour we're on, it's
leaving us all feeling terrible all the time. And as I'm going around Texas As, I'm going to every corner of the state, I really do I sense that there's a hunger across the political spectrum for a different kind of politics, not one that's rooted in hate and fear and division, but a politics that's rooted in love. Love for this state, love for this country, and most importantly,
a love for our neighbors. And so that's what I'm trying to build in this campaign, politics of love that can heal what's broken in our country.
What do you carry from the Texas House to the Senate if given the opportunity to do that, What have you learned? What experiences will be relevant to this wet job.
You know, I have had my fair share of criticism of the National Democratic Party. I'm a proud Texas Democrat, but I already have a religion, and I already have a sports team, and so I have no problem sharing
hard truths with our party's leadership. And I really do believe that National Democrats could learn a thing or two from red state Democrats, particularly Texas Democrats, because we have to learn very quickly how to use every tool in our toolbox to fight for our constituents, fight for our values, fight for our freedoms, and we develop a thick skin, we develop certain muscles that I think you don't develop when you're in a safe blue seat on the coasts
in a blue state. And so I hope, hope that the next generation of leaders stepping up in our party are going to be coming from states like Texas and coming from places like the Texas Legislature, where you learn how to fight. And I think we need fighters in this moment. And unfortunately, what we've seen from Senate Democrats is their willingness to fold and not fight, and that has got to change if we're going to save this American experiment.
Yeah, you've clearly generated a lot of excitement. You know, I mean this is a crowded room full of excited people, and you know, a massive social media following, gotten attention beyond Texas. There were you know, we've seen this before, right that Joe Rourke had a similar path. He made a race in twenty eighteen, very close and ended up coming short. What's different this time? How can it be different this time?
Well, you know, Betho and I are very different people. There's a lot that his campaign did in twenty eighteen that we can learn from the ability to reach out to voters who feel disillusioned, who feel disconnected from politics,
particularly young voters. As I'm going all over the state, I've been shocked by the number of young people showing up at our events, Because this far out from an election, you don't typically see young people getting involved, but they're coming to our events and many of them say it's their first political rally ever. Many of them say that they've never donated to a candidate or signed up to
volunteer for a candidate until now. And you know, I think that's going to be the key to breaking through statewide in Texas. You know, a lot has changed since twenty eighteen here in our state, I think we've seen even more extremism, even more corruption, and there is this backlash growing all over Texas, not just among Democrats, but
independence and Republicans too. It's going to take a campaign that can use modern tools to organize and mobilize that backlash into electoral success, and we are building a campaign that can do just that.
There's of course a very interesting Republican primary in this race too, you know, and I'll stay for the record, all three candidates were in that side. We're also invited, and none of them were able to come. Do you does that situation, whether it's the position John cordenholds, the possibility of Ken Paxton, who of course has very controversial history, did that affect your interest and stepping into this race, and do you have a rooting interest in that primary?
Well, you know, I was Colin Allread's most active surrogate in twenty twenty four. I went all over the state for Colin and was proud to do it. And when I was campaigning for him, I often said that Ted Cruz is the worst senator in America. But now looking some Ted Cruz fans here, but now looking at the current Republican field in this Senate race, I think that title may be up for grabs because neither John Cornyn nor Ken Paxton deserve the honor of representing this great
state in our nation's capital. Both of them, both of them are far more interested in serving their billionaire mega donors than serving the people of Texas. Both of them have sold this out time and time again. Ken Paxton's crimes are well known. I was part of the bipartisan majority in the Texas House that voted to impeach our
corrupt attorney general. But you may not believe this, but I think John Cornyn may be even more corrupt than Ken Paxton, because because John Cornyn was the deciding vote on that big ugly bill a few months ago, that that big ugly bill that's going to kick millions of Texans off their healthcare, It's going to take food out of the mouths of hungry Texas children, all to give
yet another tax break to his donors. We oftentimes think about corruption as something that's illegal, as in Ken Paxson's case, But corruption is really just the betrayal of the public's trust. It is the abuse of your public office and by casting the deciding vote on that big ugly bill. John Cornyn committed an act of corruption of the highest order, and he has forfeited the right to represent all of us in the United States Senate.
So do you think that there is a more Do you think there's a better candidate for you to be running against? Is there a candidate that you think gives you a better chance to win?
They both have strengths and weaknesses, and they're very different kinds of candidates. I would welcome, I would relish the opportunity to prosecute the case against John Cornyn or Kem Paxton in the general election.
You mentioned being a surrogate for Colin al Redd. He of course is also in the race. And it was reported during the summer that you all read Vetto and Joaching Castro, I believe, came together for a meeting to talk about you know, all four of you pretty prominent politicians, All four of you had varying degrees of interest in reuning for a race, and people trying to make the case of you know, there's a lot of important seats
on the ballot this year. If we spread these folks out, it might be better for the Democratic party as a whole, call it already gets in the race. You get in the race a little bit longer. I mean, is this not a problem to have? You know, basically the two highest profile Democrats currently seeking higher office, both seeking the same office.
Well, I think you're seeing a strong ticket developing on the Democratic side. Those four politicians including me that you mentioned, are not the only strong leaders in the state, and you're seeing that ticket already filling out with incredible candidates. And so I think we're going to have a true team as a party going into the general election next year.
And you asked earlier, I don't think answer your question about why I didn't run for governor, and I was flattered that people were asking me to run for governor and senator. I really think about these positions as jobs. You're applying for a job, and if I'm going to go all over the state, I want to feel confident
that I can do the job on day one. Not that I couldn't serve as governor, but the skills that I developed in the trenches of the Texas Legislature, working across the aisle to pass legislation, questioning witnesses to get to the truth debating on the House floor with my colleagues. Those skills, in my mind, are much more transferable to a US Senate seat, and I know that I can do this job as a legislator. And so that's why I made the decision to run for this position, because
I feel like I'm most qualified for this job. And if I'm going to ask Texans to put their trust in me to hire me for this position, I want to feel confident that I can deliver for them on day one. So that's the reason I ran for this position. But I'm looking forward to working with the whole ticket, all the talented leaders that are running to change the politics of this state, which we desperately need to do.
So what's the difference between Colin Allread, someone you've supported in the past, and you. Why should people you voting for you over him?
Well, I've got all kinds of reasons people should vote for me. I'm not going to spend time in this race tearing down my fellow Texas Democrats because we are
all on the same team. We may have some friendly rivalries and friendly competition between teammates, but we all have the same goals and I'm going to be putting myself forward, and I'm going to be articulating why my vision, why my values, why my experiences and my skill set are going to be put to best use in the general election and hopefully as the next US Senator from Texas. I'm running a positive race in the primary, and I'm going to keep that commitment all the way until election day.
Let's set for sure, let's talk a little bit about current events. I think you know you're obviously not in the Senate right now, but it's maybe instructive to think about how you would be acting if you were. We just got through the end of the longest government shut down in you know, US history. How do you feel about how the Democrats handled that situation?
Frustrated? A handful of Senate Democrats caved to DC Republicans in these negotiations and got nothing in return. They called it a deal to end the government shutdown. But in my opinion, any deal that kicks one point seven million Texans off their healthcare isn't compromised. Its surrender, and we need, we need national Democrats to fight with everything they have for working people in this state and across the country.
That's our job as Democrats. We're the party of working people, and so if we're not able to do that, and if Senate Democrats are going to cave so easily, we shouldn't wonder why voters don't trust us at the ballot box. Republicans shut down the government for forty days, taking food out of the mouths of children to fund tax breaks for billionaires. And instead of holding the line, instead of holding those Republican politicians accountable, Senate Democrats folded. They snatched
defeat from the jaws of victory. And I think the only path forward is for red State Democrats to remake our party at the national level in our own image, because we desperately need fighters, not folders at this critical moment in our country's history.
Ye I want to drill into the Republicans shut down the government here because, of course, you know, the Republican House passed continuing resolution. The Senate Republicans voted for a clean bill that would have kept the government open. It was the decision of Democrats not to support that bill. You know, the push was to continue Affordable Care Act subsidies. I understand that, and that's a very important issue for Democrats, but it also means for forty three days that you know,
thousands of government workers went without a paycheck. It also means that it created sort of an air travel apocalypse for you know, a lot of people for a long time. But maybe most importantly, it meant that people, including many people in this state, were losing access to food stamps. You know, we can talk about caving and everything like that, but these are a lot of programs. This is happening against a party that is very skeptical of skeptical of government.
And when they hear the thing, you know, shut down the government put federal workers, you know, to the side, it kind of feels like the response is, you know, you don't threaten me with a good time here, you know, like, let's do this right. There might not have been a lot of leverage, so how can you say that you're willing to kind of continue to inflict that pain if there's not a sign that the Republicans are going to come across and make a.
Deal with you. Well, and the Republicans in Washington, who control every branch of government, they tried to pin the blame on Democrats for the shutdown, and the American people weren't buying it. Every single poll that came out showed that the American people understood exactly who's to blame for this shutdown, and if they need Democratic votes in the Senate, they need to negotiate with Democrats. Again. I've served for
eight years in the state legislature. I know how a legislative body works, and if you need someone's vote, you need to sit down at the table and figure out how to get that vote. And so I don't think Senate Democrats should give their votes away for nothing. And I think fighting to make sure that healthcare premiums don't skyrocket for nearly two million Texans is a very reasonable
thing to ask for in exchange for our votes. And so I'm proud that most Senate Democrats held the line on that issue and fought for the health insurance for millions of Texans and millions of Americans. And I'm incredibly disappointed that a handful of Senators decided that it was more important to cave without any concessions to DC Republicans in these negotiations instead of fighting for working people here in our state.
The other big bit of news coming into the festival was, of course, the release of these files related to Jeffrey Epstein and the president, you know, particular one calling Donald Trump the dog who hasn'tmbarked, he's spent you know, I think I think it was hours with a victim hasn't said anything about this. What was your reaction to that coming out?
I mean, when did pedophilia become a partisan issue. The American people deserve to know the whole truth about Jeffrey Epstein and every single powerful person who enabled him, every name, every flight log, every cover up, all of it. The White House and congressional Republicans are hiding the Epstein files. Why these are the same politicians who call librarians groomers,
who call their political opponents pedophiles. And to be clear, if there is a Democrat on that list, I will be the first to call for their prosecution, because if there's one thing we should all be able to agree on, Democrats and Republicans, conservatives and progressives, it's that no one, including the president of the United States, should be able to cover up crimes against children.
So as implicit in that at a feeling that Donald Trump should be prosecuted for what's in these files.
No, I think he needs to release these files. And if we have evidence that Donald Trump either knew about this pedophile ring and did nothing about it, or worst was somehow involved in it, then the justice system should should respond accordingly. But all I'm asking for is to see all the files, to have all the information, because I think that's what we're owed in this country. And when a powerful person tells you there's nothing to see here, that should be that should be an indication that there
is more to learn. And honestly, I think my suspicion is, when we get the whole truth here, this Epstein scandal is going to make Watergate look like a nothing burger.
If you are elected, there's two years of being in the Senate under Donald Trump. What is your approach to working with him or his administration during that time?
Yeah? Well, again, as a member of the Texas Legislature, I worked with my Republican colleagues across the aisle. I even worked with Governor Abbot on issues where we agreed. It's well known that he and I battled it out on his private school voucher scam. But when there was an issue that we agreed on, we worked together. And one comes to mind in particular, which is stopping fentanyl
overdoses in our state. I spoke at a press conference with Governor Abbot on my bill to equip every single school campus in the state with Narcan, which is what allows a fentanyl overnose to reverse. And so I'm going to keep working with people across the isle, even leaders who have deep dissert agreements with like Greg Abbott and like Donald Trump. But if there is a sliver of common ground, I'm going to seize it so that I
can make progress for my constituents. There's oftentimes a temptation for Democrats to choose between fighting back and getting stuff done. I think that's a false choice. I think effective legislators can do both, and I have done both over eight years in the legislature, and I will do both as the next Senator from Texas.
There was another piece of news in the past week, a story that ran an Axios about your social media account. It said, you know, among the thirty seven hundred people that you follow on Instagram was a small handful of adult entertainers or perhaps maybe even sex workers in that I'm curious whether you could just tell us what's going on there?
What's Yeah, So, our social media team, including me. We follow back all big accounts that have major followings, because that's how new media works. We've been able to build one of the largest Instagram followings of any Democrat in the country, and we've done that by following back actors and musicians and athletes, and I even followed back a very popular bulldog which I don't know much about. But they share our content and get our message out and
we're all for it. And you know, the media went through this long list of big accounts that we follow back, and they looked and found out that some of them, you know, are in the sex industry, and decided to decided to report that as clickbait because it gets clicks and it makes them money. Axios a few days after that story came out, said that they had blown past all their revenue goals for the year, and so, you know,
I was glad to help, I guess. But while I didn't know how these women made money, I don't judge them for it, and I will not participate in an effort to smear them for clickbait. That is exactly the kind of senator I would be. And I just you know, the corporate media is going to do their thing. But I don't think Texans are interested in clickbait. I think they are interested in bringing down costs and cleaning up government and taking on this broken, corrupt political system.
The headline of that story described you as a faith forward candidate. I think the implication being that there was maybe some hypocrisy there. I mean, what do you how do you feel about that framing?
Again? I mean, the goal was for that website to make money, yeah, and that's exactly why they they wrote the headline the way they did. But again, my faith calls me to fight for all of my neighbors, every single one, regardless of how they make their money. It also requires that I don't judge my neighbors, and so I'm going to keep doing that, whether Axios wants to turn it into a clickbait article or not. I'm going
to keep fighting for every single Textan. And that's what people can expect if I'm the next US Senator from the state.
I mean, you have put your faith very forward out there, and I wonder if you could just talk a little bit about how I mean, this is somewhat unusual these days for a Democrat to do. Tell us a little bit about how it guides you in your politics and you're legislating and all those things, and what it means for you to be a Christian and a Democrat.
Yeah, well, my faith is the reason I'm in public service. So I feel that as a public official and as a candidate for public office, that I should be sharing my why. And for some leaders that's fair. For others, it's maybe an experience, it could be a worldview, it could be a certain policy issue, but we should explain to voters why we're doing this crazy thing of running for office. And I was taught at a very early age to follow those two commandments from Jesus to love
God and love neighbor. My granddad was a Baptist preacher in South Texas, and he always said, the reason we have those two commandments is because there is no love of God without love of neighbor. Loving our neighbors is how we show our love for God. And so that's what led me to led me into public service, first as a public school teacher on the west side of
San Antonio and now as a public official. Every day in the legislature, I am trying to love my neighbor through public policy by bringing down the cost of childcare, bringing down the cost of prescription drugs, bringing down the cost of housing. That is how I I show love for my neighbors all over this state, and it's exactly why I'm running for Senate. But the most challenging question in the New Testament, a question that's posed to Jesus when he says that we should love our neighbors, is
who is my neighbor? And right now, for me, my neighbor is the child going to bed hungry tonight. My neighbor is the worker making poverty level wages in this state. My neighbor is the mother kidnapped by masked men in unmarked vehicles off of our streets. My neighbor is the student sitting in an overcrowded classroom in an underfunded school. And so those are the neighbors I'm fighting for in this race, and they will be the neighbors I fight for as us senator from Texas.
You know, we are, of course in a state where a lot of our leaders put their faith very forward into the decisions that are being made. Is it important to you to provide sort of a counter narrative of you know, how you see things differently being guided by your faith.
Well, I, as you know, in my time in legislature, got fed up with my fellow Christians who are twisting our religion to hurt our neighbors on a whole host of issues, and I felt a moral obligation as a believer to speak out against that perversion of our faith, tradition,
and that subversion of our democracy. You know, although I am, although I'm a Christian, although it is central in my life and central in my public service, I am also probably the fiercest champion for the separation of church and state because I came I mentioned my granddad being Baptist. I come from a tradition that cherished that separation. I was taught that it is a sacred boundary. And the separation of church and state doesn't just benefit the state.
It also benefits the church because when the church as an institution gets too cozy with political power, it robs the church of its prophetic voice, of its ability to speak truth to power. And so this separation is something that religious people and Christians in particular should cherish and
should defend at every turn. That's what I'm trying to do in the halls of power and I hope to see us cultivate more of a Christian commitment to democracy, to the First Amendment, and to the separation of church and state.
I wonder if, as you look forward to a election, if you make it out of the primary, you'll be running as a Democrat in a state that has not elected a Democrat in a very long time. Statewide, there's a lot of conversation within the Democratic Party about how
to most effectively win in this state. Is it reach out to the middle, paint yourself as a moderate, maybe disavow some of the more controversial stances of the Democratic Party related to guns, defunding the police, things like that law enforcement, or do you activate the base, do you fire up young folks who might be, you know, disinclined to vote these days, and things like that. Which strategy do you think is the right strategy?
Well, I don't think we should be painting ourselves one way or the other. I have two simple rules when it comes to political communications. One is tell the truth, two is be yourself. And I've found that if you can do both of those things, you can connect with most people, even people who don't with you. And so I'm not a believer in making yourself look one way or the other, or or trying to change yourself to
appeal to certain voters. I'm going to be me all the way through this campaign, and I hope that's enough to get elected. If it's not, i'llbe at peace with that. But I'm not going to change myself or my convictions or my beliefs in order to get a vote. But to answer your question about strategy, so I first got elected by flipping a Trump district in Williamson County. It was a district that no one thought was winnable. It was a district that hadn't voted for a Democrat in
thirty years, and it's in the current boundaries. When I was running, and I remember I was told that it was an impossible, unwinnable race. But my neighbors and I we ran an aggressive, authentic, unorthodox campaign that brought people together, and on election night, we flipped that district with fifty one percent of the vote. And so when I was running that campaign, I certainly saw that there were swing voters who were choosing between the Democratic Party and the
Republican Party, and I won over those voters. And I plan on competing for those voters in this race, but the largest group of swing voters were people choosing between the Democratic Party and the couch. It was particularly young people who felt disillusioned, who felt disconnected, who felt disempowered in our political system. And I remember I was knocking
on those doors, apartment complexes, dorm rooms. I was talking to my fellow young people, millennials like me, but also gen z And that is also a form of persuasion, because they may agree with me on policy for the most part, but I'm trying to persuade them of their
own power. I'm trying to persuade them that the only way that this corrupt political system will change, the only way this corrupt media system will change, is if they get in the game, if they and millions like them all over the country use their god given rights at the ballot box to transform this broken system and remake
it in their own image. And so I'm going to be doing persuasion with both kinds of voters, voters who are maybe in the middle, but also voters who are sympathetic to my policy views but feel like they can't make a difference in this broken system.
Another person who ran an aggressive, authentic unconventional campaign is the new mayor elect of New York. I couldn't help, but notice, you know, almost immediately after that happened, there started to be emails in my inbox from the NRSC, the Republican Senate campaign arm, seeking to tie you to him, saying, you know, he's trying to do the Mamdani style in Texas. I wonder like, do you what do you think of that compare and do you see yourself as an ideological ally to mom Donny.
I think the beauty of the last election night was that you saw Democrats of all kinds winning in very different parts of the country. And that's what's going to be necessary if we are gonna if we're going to revitalize the Democratic Party, if we're going to win in places like Texas, we have to have candidates who who actually represent their communities. I don't know much about New York City, don't know much about New York City politics, but I do know Texas, and I plan on running
a Texas campaign to serve Texans. And you know, you talked about unconventional tactics when I was first running in Williamson County in that Trump district. One of the things I did was walk the entire length of my district from round Rock, Texas to Taylor, Texas, all on one day, all in the Texas heat, twenty five miles all on, and I held three town halls along that walk. I
livestreamed the whole thing on social media. And to me, not only was that a great way to get out, get attention, and let people know there's a race in their community, that I was a candidate in that race, but to me symbolically it was refreshing because it felt almost like an old school form of politics. Like right now, in our political system and our media system, there are so many filters right There's so many things in between
you and the people you seek to represent. And so by getting on the ground, by walking humbly with the people that I wanted to fight for, I think it was it was the antidote to the kind of politics we've all been suffering underneath. And those are the kind of tactics. I don't think I can walk the whole state of Texas.
But.
That that is going to be the kind of approach to this race. I'm going to do things differently. I'm going to go places you wouldn't expect a Democrat to go to I'm going to talk to people you would and expected Democrat to talk to because the cookie cutter campaigns of the past are not going to cut it, and they're certainly not going to cut it in Texas,
and so this campaign will be different. And I think you're already seeing in the first two months of our baby campaign, you're seeing this energy and this excitement growing, and you're seeing people take ownership of the campaign. We've had eight thousand people go to our website and sign up to volunteer. That's without us asking. They're just going to the website and saying they want to make phone calls, they want to knock on doors, they want to write postcards.
And then during this snap crisis, those volunteers start organizing to go to food banks and to serve our neighbors. And to me, that is what politics should be about. It shouldn't be about self promotion or personal advancement. It should be about service. It should be about loving our neighbors. And I am so proud that we're building a movement to do just that here in Texas.
All Right, we are getting close to the audience. Q and a portion, so if you have a question, you might start ambling your way toward the microphone. But before we do that, I am going to try to do a little bit of a policy lightning round here. Let's talk about some substance here and there's it looks like we're getting a good line, so let's try to keep it quick here. If you were elected Democrat, if Democrats were to retake control of the Senate, would you support repealing the filibuster?
I would support reforming the filibuster. I think the current rules for a filibuster and the Senate really disrupt the democratic feedback loop where people elect a Congress and they expect to see policies from that Congress so they can judge whether or if those policies hurt or help, and the current rules I think disrupt that feedback loop. I think we should have a speaking filibuster where the minority
can be represented. But I would certainly support an effort to reform the current filibuster that we have.
Okay, if Democrats were to control Congress, which of these three options should they prioritize? Pursuing Medicare for All a public option, or shoring up the affordable care Act a public option.
I really do believe that healthcare is a human right. I believe we should guarantee healthcare for every single American. As a Type one diabetic, I know what it means not to be able to afford my insulin, and it's why I worked with Republicans here in Texas to put in place the first ever cap on insulin copays in our state's history. And so I think a public option provides both the guarantee for insurance but also provides the flexibility for people to choose what that insurance looks like.
Legalized marijuana thumbs up or thumbs down, thumbs up, all right, great mandatory assault rifle buyback program, thumbs up or thumbs down.
I would do what I did in legislature, which is fight for common sense gun safety things like universal background checks, closing the gun show loophole, red flag laws. I am a believer in the Second Amendment. I don't pick and choose between the bill of rights. I value them all equally and give them all equal weight. And so I will always defend a citizen's right to bear arms, the citizen's right to defend themselves and their families. But just like any freedom in the Bill of Rights. There can
be common sense regulations to keep us all safe. And that's what I'll fight for if I'm US senator.
Very good than you think. Should the US repeal Section thirteen twenty five, which criminalizes illegal border crossings.
No.
I've said before on immigration that our southern border should be like our front porch. There should be a giant welcome mat out front and a lock on the door. We can do both of those things. You can be pro immigrant, which I am. You can also be pro security, which I am. And I know it's gonna be a little longer than the Lightning Round, but this is an
important issue. I do feel like both political parties have failed the American people on this issue, and Joe Biden's failures on the border are what opened the door to this extremism from the current administration, Kidnapping people off the street, tearing parents from their children, waiting in school pickup lines, lurking in hospital waiting rooms, deporting the very people who
keep our economy running. So I think the American people, I think people here in Texas are desperate for a candidate who can both ensure that we're welcoming immigrants who want to build our economy, who want to live the American dream, who want to contribute to our communities, and also secure the border so that we can keep us all safe. I think you can do both of those things at the same time.
Do you believe that Donald Trump has committed offenses during his first two years in office? That should Democrats take control of the House and the Senate impeach him for and remove him from office for.
Well, I participated in an impeachment effort here in Texas. We were just talking about Ken Paxson's impeachment, so I think Texans should know that I would. I would approach any impeachment charge of any president the same way I approached it as a state legislator, which is very seriously evaluating all the evidence and making a judgment based on our constitution and laws and nothing else, not partisan politics,
not personal political beliefs, but based on the law. That's exactly what I would do if impeachment charges wherever brought last one?
Would? I think I know the answer to this, but I'm going to ask it anyway. Would you consider yourself a Democratic socialist?
No, I wouldn't, but I do think that the Democratic Party has to become a big tent party again, and I think that means welcoming Joe Mannhan. It also means welcoming AOCS. I think we need all kinds of Democrats in order to get this country back on track, and we cannot be satisfied with a fifty one percent coalition. We have to grow a majority that's a lot bigger than that if we're going to transform this political system and transform this economy so that it works for regular people.
Again, Okay, and I promise we'll get to questions, but I realized I forgot to ask one other thing that I need to ask, which is, what do you think of the possibility of Jasmine Crockett entering the race?
Well, Jasmine our friends. We served here in the state legislature together, and I would welcome her entry into the race. I think competition is good in politics. I think it's good in sports, it's good in business, and I think it's good in elections because it makes us all stronger and better. And again, all Texas Democrats are on the same team. We're all trying to do the same thing, which has changed this political system in Texas so that
it works for working people. And so I would welcome anyone and everyone getting in this race so that we can have a healthy, productive, positive competition.
Excellent, All right, thank you. We will go to audience questions. Now, we'll start here. We'll go there just very quickly. Please make sure the questions are short, because we've got a lot of people asking and in with a question mark and you know, are respectful as well. So we'll start here, then we'll go, you know, back and forth.
Hi, Chloe Wilkinson with Austin Community College Democrats. I just wanted to ask because I am a Jewish trans woman of faith, and it's very refreshing to see a campaign of faith that is based on love and unity, especially with so much division between different fates and sets, between Jewish and Muslims, or Catholics and Protestant. I'm curious, how do you think we revitalize politics and faith to where we're rooted in the shared history of Abrahamic beliefs, are shared religious freedoms.
Yeah, you know, I think politics is just another word for how we treat our neighbors, and so we all bring our philosophies, our moralities, our worldviews to our politics, and faith is no different and I completely agree that the major world religions are all speaking about the same fundamental truth, the same fundamental oneness, that we're all connected. The word religion literally means to religament, to reconnect us to each other, into one body because we are, We're
all coming from the same source. Whatever that source is, it's a mystery. And having a reverence for that oneness, that interconnectedness, I think is what's missing from our world right now, and I hope that this campaign can be just part of the effort to bring that love back into our politics, back into our systems, and back into our communities.
All Right, we'll go to the same.
Thank you for taking our questions, so I'll just make it quick. Do you believe it is time for new leadership in the House and the Senate among Democrats given everything that's happened over the last few weeks.
Thank you well. I absolutely think that we should. We should welcome a new generation of leaders in the Democratic Party. I hope more millennials like me, but also gen zers will step up and run for office at all levels. We need new blood in our party. And that's not to discount the wisdom and the experiences of our more
senior elected officials. I know working here in the legislature, I've probably learned more from Sinphronia Thompson than I've ever learned from anybody about how to fight for people in the legislature. So I don't mean to make this a binary choice between young folks and old folks. But I do think we have to make room for new leaders in our party. And I think it's to our detriment that we have kept young people out of leadership positions at the national level.
So does that mean you would vote for someone other than Chuck Schumer to leave the nympret So.
I actually I've been asked this question a lot of the last week. I think this is a much bigger problem than any one senator, any one minority leader. And there's a temptation in our politics, especially in our media entertainment complex, that we all are stuck in to kind of pin the blame on one personality rather than having a more difficult conversation about a culture and a system that incentivizes national Democrats to fold and to cave instead
of to fight. And so that's the conversation I want to have. And when it comes to a minority leader, or hopefully a majority leader. If I'm elected, I'm going to do what I did as a state lawmaker. I'm going to sit down with every candidate and I'm going to have a lot of tough questions about their plans and their vision, and then I'll make a judgment based on those conversations.
So I think, thank you.
You seem pretty strident on the issue before. But I'm wondering if you can see any nuanced value of the Democrats who help the government reopen, having showed that Trump would deny snap benefits and work actively to deny them
to needy people, he would ignore rising healthcare costs. And I guess secondly, can you compare the Democrats allowing the government to reopen with the Texas legislatures the Democrats who walked out to protest a vote of vouchers but then you guys came back and vouchers passed.
What did that accomplish?
Yes, So, as a Texas Democrat and a Republican dominated legislature, I'm usually working with a losing hand, and my and my colleagues are Our job is to try to lose in the best way possible where we are, Where we're where we're hurting the you know, the fewest number of Texans and mitigating as much harm as we can. It's not a glamorous job, but it is an important job. But this is not the case when it comes to national Democrats who have a lot more power, a lot
more leverage than we had here in Texas. And that was my frustration is politically and legislatively, they were in a position to actually get concessions on some of these key issues, healthcare premiums for the ACA being foremost among them. And my frustration is that they didn't use their leverage to be able to fight for the people of the state, nearly two million people who are going to lose their health care because of what the current administration is doing.
And so, you know, I think it's because of my experience in the Texas legislature that I feel so much frustration that they're not willing to go to the links that we went to here in Texas to fight for our people.
Sorry, I'm kind of covered by this poll.
Good.
My name is Rowan Bancroft. I'm a political science student at Lone Star College. Yeah, and hopefully I'll be your coworkers, So remember me Okay, I have a question. And the Trump administration announced this morning plans to make major budget cuts towards homelessness efforts. And even throughout this few days that I've been here, I've walked on the street and been yelled at and been cussed at by homeless people,
and I don't have any ill will towards them. I sit and I pray that they get the help that they need, because they clearly have addiction struggles and mental health struggles. So I ask you, with these plans that are being made to worsen their conditions, with the anti homelessness architecture that is being built into our society, and with the demonization of these people, how do you plan to help them?
Yeah? And I don't think we should just pray for their well being. We have to act as a community for their well being. And one example, you know, we've got some communities here in Texas that are innovating on this issue. And I've gotten a chance to speak with some of the professionals in communities around Texas that are starting to solve the issue of homelessness in their own neighborhoods. I didn't realize how this crisis is so much bigger
than just housing, although housing is central to it. But for instance, it's something like seventy percent of homeless people aren't able to pick up prescriptions that are filled for them, and so you saw people having a mental health crisis on the street, it's because they don't have a way to get to Walgreens or to CBS and be able to get the medicine they need. So if we're going to solve this crisis, it can't just be about housing.
It's got to be holistic. We got to make sure that we are meeting their needs and providing them the help they need so that they can become full contributing members of our community again, which is what they want. And so my goal as a US Senator is to actually solve this problem and not score political points off of it.
Thank you, Hi, thank you. My name is Blair Lyles and I'm from here in Austin, and I am so excited about you and your campaign. And I know you mentioned that you're you know, you can't do this alone and you really need volunteers. And we've had these no Keys rallies that have just brought huge energy and then everything just kind of falls off and people get really resigned, and we get all these emails and texts and everything for money from the Democrat. They ask for money all
the time. But how And I know you said that you can't do this alone and you want to get volunteers involved and engaged, But so how are you going to engage people and get people involved instead of just asking for money?
Yeah, and I know you kind of answered that.
A little bit.
Yeah, it's such a great question. And you know, contributing money to campaigns is an important part, but it's not everything when it comes to organizing. And like I said, we had eight thousand people go to the website sign to volunteer, and those volunteers have already started organizing meetups in communities all over the state, red and blue and purple communities alike, and they're organizing to engage in direct action, in direct service, especially when so many of our neighbors
are going hungry all over the state of Texas. And I think that's going to be the key again. Politics shouldn't just be about winning votes. It should be about winning hearts and minds. It should be about serving our neighbors and doing something that's bigger than any one of us individually, and I'm really excited that our campaign, just in the first two months is already building that kind of grassroots movement, and I'm excited to see what we're
going to accomplish together next year. Thank you, thank you.
Hello.
My name is Vincent's. I study political science at the University of Houston ko Koog's.
Hey.
Earlier, you mentioned embracing authenticity, telling the truth, being yourself, so I wanted to wanted to follow up and ask what is the biggest mistake misjudgment that you've made during your legislative career and on that, how did you learn from that or course correct.
Well, you know, I've told this story of my friendship with Representative James Frank He's a far right conservative from wich Tall Falls. I think was a member of the Freedom Caucus at one point, if I'm not mistaken, he and I started a friendship on the most superficial basis. We shared the same first name, and you know that's how all friendships start, right with the silliest of things,
And so, you know, it became an ongoing joke. We said we were members of the James Caucus and we would debate who was chair, who was vice chair, and then that kind of ongoing joke led James to come sit with me in the back row when there was not a lot going on on the floor, and we started talking, and we realized that despite our many differences, we actually shared a lot of the same beliefs on how our political system is so deeply and thoroughly broken,
and how there's no longer room for dissent and disagreement within political parties, and that idiosyncratic or unorthodox beliefs aren't really welcome anymore. And then we were able to put that commonality into practice on the House floor. He ended up supporting a bill of mine, a Bernie Sanders bill to import cheaper prescription drugs from Canada into Texas. I filed the bill. I didn't think it was going to pass. I was just trying to start a conversation. But James
Frank read the bill. He called me up. He was like, I love this because I believe in free markets and big pharma is disrupting the free market here in our country. And he and I got that bill passed through the House, through the Senate and then signed by the governor, and hopefully if the FDA approves it, we're going to start
importing those cheaper prescription drugs into Texas. But then, to answer your question, there was a bill that James Frank put forward that would allow homeschool students in Texas to participate in UIL, participate in public school sports and extracurriculars. And I was adamantly opposed to the bill. I think I even publicly spoke out against the bill because my first instinct was public education is not a buffet line.
You can't just pick and choose what you want to participate in and what you want to buy into and not take all of it. But that was a big mistake. James Frank came to my office because we had a friendship, because we had a relationship, again proof that the only way people change is through relationships, through trust, through respect, through love. He sat down with me and he said, James talking to me. He said, it's confusing. He said, you always say when we talk about immigration that we
shouldn't punish children for the decisions their parents make. I know he had me, and you know, I realized that these kids, this may be the only opportunity they have to interact with kids their own age, to experience some of these extracurricular activities, whether it's sports or music. And I ended up crossing party lines to support that bill, and it was because James spoke to me and my values.
And I then got to meet after we passed that bill, some of the homeschoolers who participated in the program, and I saw how life changing it was for them. And I will say, and James probably hates this, but it has become a huge recruitment tool for public schools because, you know, because public schools are great, and you know, once you experience what we have to offer, oftentimes you want to come and join our community. And so that was a big mistake that I made. I was thankful
that my Republican colleague helped me correct that mistake. Thank you.
All Right, Well, I think this is We're gonna have to be quick. We'll do one last question because you're right in front, but everyone else, I'm sorry. I know you've waited, but I'll be running out of time.
And I'll stick around a little bit. So yeah, thank you for being here.
Representative Taliquo. My name's Arvin. I'm a student at the University of Texas at Austin and a lot of young people are really worried about the future of emerging technology and the way it's going to impact our job markets with AI data centers and you know, energy prices, surveillance. Yeah, what principles and what specific policy are you going to carry with you when you reach the Senate as you kind of lead this country into the future.
Yeah, thank you for asking this question. AI is coming when we already have a huge generational crisis in our economy. I was just reading a stat that said ninety percent of baby boomers went on to earn more money than their parents. For millennials like me, it's fifty percent. It's even lower for gen Z. So the American dream that was once a reality for the vast majority of people in this country is slipping away for young people, and I worry that if we don't have a regulatory framework,
we're going to see AI exacerbate that crisis. I already saw that only thirty percent of recent college graduates have been able to find an entry level position in their field. Thirty percent of college graduates, and so I am deeply concerned that AI is going to destroy the opportunities for an entire generation. I think if we do this right, though we can harness that technology to help people instead
of hurt people. But that means that the US Senate and our federal government has to get in the game and be involved in this emerging technology, just like we did in the Space Race or with the Manhattan Project. When you have this kind of technology with such potential but also so much danger, the public sector, US as a democracy, we have got to be involved in that conversation. It cannot be something that's only done in you know,
by private hands, in for profit corporations. So I would love if I'm elected to be a leading voice on this issue and help figure out how we can harness the potential AI instead of allowing it to destroy the opportunities for young people all across this country.
Thank you, Thank you, Representative. Thank you so much. A reminder will need to clear the room, but thank you for being here. Thank you all. Chris