James Talarico

And politically,

He was able to marry two things, bold, moral, political imagination.

He was able to really see what was wrong in this country and have bold solutions for how to transform it.

Not nibble around the edges, but I mean, I'm talking about Medicare, Medicaid, Head Start, and Title I, the War on Poverty, Civil Rights Act, Voting Rights Act.

I mean, he went big.

He was able to marry that bold imagination with practical politics, coalition building, reaching out to people on the other side, building a team that could actually pass these policies, implement them, and sustain them.

And that kind of...

That marriage between pragmatic politics and bold moral imagination, I feel like that is the key to success for the Democratic Party moving forward.

We have to hold both of those things together like LBJ did, like Dr. King did, because that's how they were able to pass the Great Society.

And if we want to do that...

For our generation, if we want to have bold action that's going to restructure this economy, restructure this political system so that it works for regular people again, we're going to need to have those two things together.

And I think it's only appropriate that the person who holds LBJ's Senate seat brings those two things together in the U.S.

Senate.

I think it just reveals a hunger for someone under the age of 80 to run for office.

I love our senior lawmakers and legislators, but I do think people, especially the Democratic Party, are hungry for a new generation to step up.

And that's what we saw in the Kennedys.

That's what we saw in President Obama was young people stepping up to lead.

And I think that's so important right now because

Young people are able to see the world anew and dream of the way things ought to be.

And I think we've really been lacking for that.