Beto O'Rourke

But I think that the greatest success accrues to those candidates who are most genuinely and honestly themselves.

And so whether it's an affect or not, I think this really is Tallarico and people really believe that and respond to that and it energizes them.

And in this competition for eyeballs, this premium placed on authenticity that is so richly rewarded Trump, who, you know, no one believes that anybody has written any of those speeches for him or the crazy things that he comes up with.

I think having somebody who's equally honest and authentic, but is coming from a good place who says things that we can agree with, make rational, logical sense and hopefully bring us together at a time of extraordinary division.

That might be the ticket in Texas.

Yeah, no, I think there's so much to that.

It's a challenging moment, though, to pursue that path because of what's happening in the country.

I mean,

Everything is on the line in November.

If Democrats don't win a majority in the House and perhaps Texas pick up the 51st seat in the U.S.

Senate, this slide to authoritarianism and fascism, I think, is unstoppable.

I really there's there's no argument that has convinced me that we can get this country back there.

That Republican majority Congress will roll out

the royal red carpet for a Trump third term or for his designee, we will no longer have real elections in this country.

And that's very much on my mind.

It's very much on the mind of Democrats across this country.

And I think it's what's driving to a point that you made earlier

so much of the donations and attention and interest in national media that some candidates like talarico are enjoying right now but to your other point which i think is absolutely excellent the way that you win on the ground the way that you win these votes in a general election is by ensuring that the people in this state

know that you know who they are and where they live.

When I went to King County in 2018, for example, small rural county in Texas that voted for Trump 96% in the 2016 election, I knew it wasn't perhaps going to win a whole bunch of votes there, but meeting the county judge of King County, other people who lived in that community and understanding their water issues, their water is literally undrinkable.