James Talarico

Jamie Kern Lima.

I think it's so crazy that people have asked me this question just because I think in Texas, there is such a focus on the task at hand, which is...

ending 30 years of one party rule in our state.

All of us in Texas are living with the extremism and the corruption in our government.

We have schools that are closing in my district, in communities across the state.

We have people who can't access basic healthcare, women who can't access basic reproductive healthcare.

And so I think people in our state are so singularly focused on this task at hand that any effort to take our eyes off the prize is going to get shot down pretty quickly, including by this Texan, just because we know what's at stake here and everything else is a distraction.

Um, winning political power in Texas in November of this year is the only task at hand.

It's the only thing that matters in our state, um, because people are suffering, uh, right now across Texas, because we don't have a check on that, that one party rule and all of that could change this year if we play our cards right.

So I don't mean to dodge your question, but, um, I think in Texas, there is such a sense that, um, anything that distracts from this current race, um,

This current moment in our state is something not worthy of our attention and time.

Oh, my gosh.

So the first priority, I think, needs to be comprehensive political reform.

And I know that sounds wonky.

It sounds like inside baseball.

It sounds like process.

But if you can't afford groceries, if you can't afford gas, if you can't afford insurance, if you can't afford childcare, if you can't afford housing—

None of that is going to get better until we fix this corrupt political system, until we get the money out of our politics and rebuild a government of by and for the people.

We have to do that first before we make progress on costs, on jobs, on healthcare, on education, all the issues that I work so hard on in the legislature.

We've got to fix the system itself.