James Talarico

is also domination.

And in a democracy, it's all about sharing power.

We acknowledge that power is real and that it has consequences.

And we commit to sharing that together as a nation, as communities.

And I think that's where we have to strive.

Theocracy,

in my mind, is the most dangerous form of government, because the only thing worse than a tyrant is a tyrant who thinks they're on a mission from God.

And that's why our faith in Jesus should lead us away from theocracy, away from tyranny, away from Christian nationalism, and toward a multiracial, multicultural democracy where we can all freely love God and fully love our neighbors.

So in my very first campaign back in 2018, I was running for the state house, and I decided to walk the entire length of my district from Round Rock, Texas to Taylor, Texas.

And, well, I wanted to – you know, so much of politics now is –

filtered, sometimes literally, but also just there's so many layers between me and the people that I seek to represent.

There's the traditional media, there's social media, there's algorithms, platforms, there's staff, campaign staff, and interviewers.

There's all these layers in between a person running for office and the people they seek to represent.

And so I was trying to figure out how could we

tear down some of those filters?

How could we break some of those walls in between me and the people in my community?

And so I had this idea of just walking the length of the district on foot all in one day and holding three town halls along the way.

And so it was 25 miles, did it all in the Texas heat, did it all on foot.

I wasn't worried about my ability to do the walk.

I was 28 years old, perfectly healthy.