"It's Not Just a Texas Problem. It's an American Problem." [View all]

[Jilly_in_VA]

A lot of people want to get a hold of James Talarico these days. The 36-year-old Texas state representative and seminary student is a rising Democratic star. You—like 5.6 million others—may have seen him in your social-media feed, calling a proposal to place the Ten Commandments in every public-school classroom “un-Christian” and the mark of a “dead religion.” Or perhaps you caught his recent two-and-a-half-hour conversation with Joe Rogan—who told him he should run for president. (He’s thinking about running for Senate.)

He’s also on the lam. The state speaker of the house ordered arrest warrants for Talarico and dozens of Democrats who left the state last weekend to prevent a vote on a mid-decade redistricting plan that would likely give Republicans five more congressional seats. “Right before we got on the flight to leave Texas, we all gathered in an interfaith prayer, holding each other’s hands, because this is not just a political struggle, it’s also a spiritual struggle,” Talarico says. I spoke to the legislator via Zoom from an undisclosed location outside Chicago on Thursday, hours after Republican Sen. John Cornyn—a man he may end up running against next fall—announced that the Trump administration would assign FBI agents to help “hold these supposed lawmakers accountable.” This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Tim Murphy: Sen. John Cornyn says the FBI has agreed to help locate you. How does it feel to officially be wanted by the FBI?

James Talarico: Well, I mean, I think Senator Cornyn is trying to stay relevant in his primary battle with Ken Paxton. So I understand the gimmick, but I think it should trouble us that any politician is trying to use the resources of the state to arrest or remove duly elected legislators who are exercising their constitutional right to break quorum. The Texas State Constitution gives us this tool in our toolbox as the minority to check the abuses of the majority, and so we’re not doing anything wrong. And there’s about 200 years of history in this country of legislators breaking quorum, including Abraham Lincoln. You know, we’re here in Illinois, in the Land of Lincoln. And that’s appropriate because, because Abraham Lincoln broke quorum in 1840 as a state senator by jumping out of the window of the Illinois State Capitol. And thankfully, I didn’t have to jump out of any windows back in Texas. But this is not unusual. It is a tool the minority has. And so for Greg Abbott to threaten to remove us from office, for Ken Paxton and John Cornyn to be threatening our arrest, it is unacceptable in a democracy, and this is a page out of an authoritarian playbook we’ve seen in other countries, and it should be alarming to all of us, regardless of our political party.

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/08/james-talarico-texas-redistricting-gerrymandering-cornyn/

So far, I'm liking this guy.