Holy mackerel! I just saw this commercial attacking Ken Paxton, paid for by a proud Senator John Cornyn. Talk about a frontal assault! That's how mean and personal the Republican Senate primary run-off has gotten in Texas between the bland Senator Cornyn and the poisonous Attorney General Ken Paxton. Cornyn, not so bland after all. He's had to go very negative after Trump failed to endorse him, which according to the entire world of political punditry, Trump promised he would do -- to save Texas from born-again James Talarico, because most Texas Republican operatives think Paxton's baggage is as deadly as a suppressed sulfur fart. The very heavy ethical baggage that Cornyn has just aired in this minute commercial.
I've written about Texan James Talarico, the young Christian progressive running as a Democrat in the primary for US Senate, the John Cornyn seat. Talarico charmed even Joe Rogan. Rogan said to him on air, "You ought to run for president."
So I got a kick out of the Talarico campaign making hay out of something Cornyn said that was supposed to ring alarm bells. It's an old campaign trick to take your opponent's negative jibe and make it a positive.
[This young new candidate in Texas for US Senate] disagrees with fellow Democrats who have been campaigning on “defending democracy” against Trump. “I am not interested in defending this broken political system,” he said. “I’m interested in transformation, not preservation, and I think that is a fundamental mindset shift that has to happen in the national Democratic Party."
--James Talarico, 36, announcing he will run in the 2026 Democratic primary for US Senate in Texas, in the WashPost
Stop saying "Defend Democracy"? Stop marching in parades carrying signs? For energized Democrats right now, that's heresy, and it's shocking to hear it come out of the preacher's mouth -- for Talarico is studying to be a pastor. He's also one of the heroic "Texas absconders" who fled the state and exposed the gerrymandering corruption. Talarico's media exposure made him a kind of instant political sensation, a devout Christian and a Democrat whose policy views are stubbornly progressive, who speaks clearly and forcefully while looking so young, so scrubbed, so righteous, so (frankly) Republican. It's kind of surreal. That's a face you might expect to see leading an anti-abortion protest.
But really -- "defending Democracy" translates in many working-class ears to "defending the establishment," "preserving the status quo." In short, condoning the corruption of money and power that has the working world in its claws (and always has?).
I can see the need to think like MAGA, admit that the whole system is fucked and needs major renovation, and doesn't it? Starting with that whole Electoral College deal, with its lopsided obeisance to maps, with equal numbers of senators whether your map is largely empty of permanent residents or is crowded with big cities. There's something just basically unfair too about a president who couldn't win the popular vote but won the electoral college.
I'll be watching Talarico. He's a former middle school teacher who has served in the Texas House since 2018 and is studying to become a Presbyterian pastor. "With appeals to the Christian faith, he has gone viral for his impassioned speeches against Texas Republicans’ policy priorities, particularly their recent proposals for school vouchers and the required display of the Ten Commandments in public schools." His grilling of the Republican sponsor of the Texas Ten Commandments law shows him sharp but respectful, like a good Christian should be:
Talarico appeared on Joe Rogan's podcast. Rogan came around in the conversation and offered that Talarico should run for president. I believe he was sincere.
Here's the rub: Talarico enters a primary that already includes former congressman Colin Allred, the party’s 2024 nominee for Senate in Texas. According to WashPost, Allred lost by 9 percentage points, "but he attracted the national Democratic support that Texas Democrats have long craved and outperformed the party’s presidential ticket in the state." Allred's been campaigning all this year, raising money and forming a team. Talarico is going to look like a spoiler coming into the race right now, and the Party establishment in Texas may punish him. I want him for our side.
J.W. Williamson was the founding editor in 1972 of the Appalachian Journal: A Regional Studies Review, which he edited until July of 2000. He has taught college classes in Appalachian history, cultural politics, and literature, and he has lectured widely on the pop-culture history of "Appalachia" in the American consciousness. His books include Interviewing Appalachia, Southern Mountaineers in Silent Films, and Hillbillyland: What the Mountains Did to the Movies and What the Movies Did to the Mountains. He has won the Thomas Wolfe Award given by the Western North Carolina Historical Society, the Laurel Leaves Award given by the Appalachian Consortium, a special Weatherford Award given by Berea College, and the Cratis Williams-James Brown Award given by the Appalachian Studies Association.
The views expressed on WataugaWatch are solely those of J.W. Williamson or individual contributors and are not necessarily shared nor endorsed by the Watauga County Democratic Party nor by any other adults of sound mind in this or any other universe.
