James Talarico

And I asked my mom what we were.

And she was like, we're Democrats because Democrats fight for the people.

That was what she said.

My mom is still a Democrat today.

But like, I don't know how much our party is still true to that.

But I do know that that's our historical legacy is the party that fights for the little guy.

And I think we're at our best when we do that today.

We're at our worst when we stray from that.

So I still believe the Democratic Party can get back to those roots.

I hope last year was a wake-up call, especially to the National Democratic Party, about what needs to change and how we need to be different if we're going to build a big coalition to take on the issues that we care about.

But that's why I'm a Democrat and why I hope the party can get back to those roots.

So, yeah, I told you I went to seminary.

I'm still in seminary.

I have about a year left of coursework.

I'm going slow since I'm doing all this other stuff.

My goal is to go full-time into the ministry whenever I'm done with seminary and I get ordained.

You basically kind of like passing the bar after you go to law school.

Like you go through seminary and you've got to get ordained, which is a whole different process.

But basically, I want to become a minister full-time, and I would love—my pastor is probably listening to this podcast—whenever he's ready to hang it up and retire, I would love to take over and lead my home church.

So I say all that because I don't want to do politics forever.