James Talarico

But a lot of them show me their pumps or they show me their numbers or their glucose monitor.

Underneath my suit jacket, I have a monitor here that hooks up to my phone so I can see how my sugars are doing during the day.

And when I have a chance to talk to them, I always remind them that this disease is also a blessing because it, for me at least, it is like a daily reminder that I am a finite, organic being, and that life in every minute is a gift.

And I knew that intellectually, but before I got this disease, I would always forget that.

I would always think that I was invincible, that I was immortal, because we're all told that we're going to die, but all of us just kind of deny it in our brains.

But I'm reminded of it every day.

almost every minute of every day, because anyone who has type one, anyone who knows someone with type one, you know it's just a constant struggle.

If they're too high, you die.

If they're too low, you die.

And so as you're trying to keep your sugars in this narrow band, and it's difficult and it's frustrating many times, especially when you have other things you're trying to accomplish,

But it is such a reminder that this thing doesn't last forever.

And it is a beautiful, precious, fragile gift that we receive.

And it's something that we should cherish.

And I don't think I would understand that at the gut level if I hadn't been diagnosed with this illness.

Yeah, let me be honest with you.

I alone am not gonna change this.

I know there are some politicians who say I alone can fix it.

I'm not one of them because I don't wanna promise you something I can't deliver.

My goal with this campaign is to be a catalyst for people all over the state to come together and organize so that we can start, again, not finish, but start our way toward a more representative form of government.

So specifically, we talked earlier about comprehensive immigration reform.