James Talarico

I've had so many people trying to figure out where to, how to label me.

And we do that to each other.

And we do it as a shorthand.

And I think it's part of what flattens us because the honest truth is, and I'm sure your family members would agree,

We have all these things inside of us, right?

There are some issues where I'm a little more conservative, some issues where I'm a little moderate, some issues where I'm a little more progressive.

And I always try to do what I think is best, even if it's bucking my own party to do it.

And I've done that a bunch of times in the Texas legislature.

And so I think about in our faith tradition, the...

The tree that Adam and Eve ate from was the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

And it's that dualistic thinking.

It's the trying to make things black or white, this or that, that gets us in so much trouble in our politics.

And it's what I'm trying to avoid as much as I can in this campaign, because I think these are oftentimes false choices.

And it allows us to...

It allows us to look past some of the complexities in our politics and policymaking.

But if I was to give a label for myself, I would call myself a Texas Democrat.

This seat that I'm running for is Lyndon Johnson's seat, LBJ's Senate seat.

And LBJ, he's from the Texas Hill Country, Central Texas, which is where I'm from.

He was a former teacher before he ran for office.

So I have a lot of, I feel a lot of connection to LBJ and his legacy.