As State Sen. James Talarico and Attorney General Ken Paxton vie for a U.S. Senate seat, both are making the case for what Texas is and could be under their leadership.
The two men paint largely different visions of the Lone Star State. Paxton is touting his bona fides on what many call culture war issues, like policy around transgender kids and sports. Meanwhile, Talarico is bringing his trademark liberal lens to everything from the economy to the Bible.
Both candidates recently made campaign stops in the Rio Grande Valley, and Texas Monthly Senior Editor Allegra Hobbs attended the events. She said the Paxton campaign is raising the question of “who is Texas enough” to win the race.
“I think what he is hoping and what other Republicans are hoping is that voters in the state of Texas will reject Talarico as not representative of their values,” Hobbs said. “They’re casting him as a far left radical. I think they’re trying to appeal to more socially conservative voters.”
Paxton’s campaign has taken aim at Talarico’s supposed eating habits and his masculinity. Talarico, meanwhile, has taken a different approach, talking about corruption and his goal of turning over a new leaf in the Senate.
“The way Talarico has been campaigning… he’s been talking to people and meeting with them. The Edinburg event was what his campaign called an ‘act of service,'” Hobbs said. “He was helping to raise money for this local woman who is battling cancer. The whole tenor of his campaign has been it’s time to start flipping tables — that’s the catchphrase he’s using.”
Flipping tables is a reference to part of the Bible where Jesus drives merchants out of the temple and rededicates the space to worship.
“With the ‘Love Your Neighbor’ signs that you see at his campaign events, he is making an argument that this is what Christianity — and by extension, Texas values — is or should be,” Hobbs said.
Paxton is positioning himself as a fighter who is aligned with President Donald Trump, Hobbs said.
“If you look at his campaign website, I will say it’s quite sparse when it comes to policy. But what it does do is it makes an argument about his toughness, his ability to stand up to the radical left, his defense of President Trump’s agenda,” she said. “The tone at a Paxton campaign rally, it’s oppositional, it’s angry. ‘This guy is trying to transform our state, and we have to stop him, and I’m the one to do it.’”
In contrast, Talarico is following in the tradition of the Democratic Party and trying to build a big tent.
“He’s trying to invite in Cornyn voters who now feel kind of homeless after the runoff. He’s trying to invite would-be Republican voters or past Republican voters who perhaps can’t stomach voting for Ken Paxton, who is dogged by controversy,” Hobbs said. “The tone is, in summation, ‘love thy neighbor.’”
One of the questions in the background of these campaign stops is the political leanings of voters in the Rio Grande Valley. Many of the counties along the border made headlines in 2024 by swinging for Trump after being consistently Democratic.
“The counties in which these events took place were previously kind of reliably blue counties, and they swung for Trump in 2024. And so, I think the question is now, will they swing back?” Hobbs said.
“Certainly, there are voters along the border who are disillusioned. And then there are some voters who are socially conservative. And to them, what Talarico calls the ‘culture war’ is, it’s not that it’s a distraction or less important than economic issues, but they care very much about what they see as safety issues for children, abortion, the way that they view their Christian faith. They want to be certain that the integrity of that is preserved and not under threat.”
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