James Talarico on the Rage Economy, Billionaires and Flipping Texas

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<p>James Talarico is asking Texas to do something it hasn’t done in nearly 40 years: Elect a Democrat to the U.S. Senate. It won’t be easy. It will take a vast coalition of Democrats, independents and Republicans in a bright red state that President Trump won by about 14 percentage points in 2024 — and where Republicans have plowed hundreds of millions of dollars into beating Mr. Talarico. And yet, poll after poll shows that Mr. Talarico could pull it off and defeat his Republican rival, Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general and a Trump ally.&nbsp;</p><p>On Monday, nearly two weeks before Election Day, Michael Barbaro spoke with Mr. Talarico about the kind of race he’s running, why it has succeeded so far in appealing to Republicans and what he wants Democrats to do if they flip control of the Senate on Nov. 3.</p><p>Guest: James Talarico, the Democratic nominee for Senate in Texas.</p><p>Background reading:&nbsp;</p><ul><li>Top Democrats, who have long been hesitant to spend money in Texas, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/29/us/politics/james-talarico-ken-paxton-texas-senate-race-money.html" rel="noopener noreferrer">have started to back Mr. Talarico</a>.</li></ul> <p><p>For more information on today’s episode, visit <a href="http://nytimes.com/thedaily?smid=pc-thedaily"><strong>nytimes.com/thedaily</strong></a>. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. </p><p> </p><p>Subscribe today at <a href="http://nytimes.com/podcasts">nytimes.com/podcasts</a> or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher">https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher</a>. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.</p></p><br/> <p>Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See <a href="https://pcm.adswizz.com">pcm.adswizz.com</a> for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.</p>