Beto O'Rourke

There's 150 of them.

Every open state Senate seat, there's 16 of them.

And every congressional race, there are 38 of them.

We have a full ticket for the first time since 1974.

And even if many of those Democratic contenders do not win in, let's say, the Panhandle or Abilene or Odessa or East Texas,

they are still going to draw in net new Democratic voters and send those votes all the way to the top of the ticket, which is only going to help James Tallarico.

So this set of conditions that I just described, when you add that to the fact that we're in the president's midterm and he has never been more unpopular, including in Texas, the policies he's pursuing, the tariffs that are decimating farmers and ranchers,

In this state, the ice raids that are breaking up families, the fact that we were already the least insured state in America, and now hundreds of thousands more will be kicked off Medicaid.

None of this stuff is popular.

And it's really kind of a perfect storm, not just for James Tallarico, but for Texas Democrats.

So I'm very optimistic and very excited by what I'm seeing right now.

Going back to 2018, though, though I lost to Ted Cruz by about two and a half points, beneath me on that ballot, you saw people break through who had no business winning, much less even running.

Colin Allred, who defeated Pete Sessions in that year.

Lizzie Pantle-Fletcher.

won a congressional seat against an entrenched, well-funded incumbent in Southeast Texas.

And James Tallarico, who no one had ever heard of, defeated an incumbent state house Republican in that year.

It was a sea change for Texas.

And David, the response from the governor, Greg Abbott, and the Republican legislature

was to make it even harder for people to vote in Texas.

This is the state that makes it harder than any other, not only to register to vote, but to cast a ballot.