Talarico Claims Texas Election Laws Are ‘Stacked’ Against Democrats, Vows to Outmaneuver Paxton in 2026
Texas Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico has ignited a fresh debate over the state’s voting laws, arguing they effectively tilt the electoral playing field against him as he strives to become the first Democrat to win statewide office since 1994.
“It means you’re probably going to have to win by a little more than we would have to in a completely free and fair election,” Talarico said during a recent podcast interview, voicing a sentiment that has long echoed among Texas Democrats.
Talarico’s critique underscores a broader Democratic theory: that Republican dominance in the Lone Star State stems not from conservative voter preference but from suppressed turnout driven by election security measures. This belief continues to fuel Democratic efforts to flip Texas despite decades of GOP control.
As of March, Talarico had raised an impressive $40 million, yet he faces a steep climb against Republican candidate Ken Paxton, the state’s current attorney general, whose name recognition and party machinery give him a significant head start.
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“We’re going to have to overcome that. We’re going to have to out-organize, out-work, out-hustle that voter suppression if we’re going to win,” Talarico said, framing the campaign as a grassroots battle against a system he considers rigged.
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In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Texas lawmakers enacted a series of election-security measures, most notably Senate Bill 1 (SB1). The law requires voters to provide specific identification numbers—either a Texas driver’s license, an election identification certificate, or the last four digits of a Social Security number—when registering and casting a ballot. It also banned drive-through voting and unsolicited mail-in ballot applications.
Talarico, who served as a state representative when SB1 was passed, said he opposed it from the start. “I will say that we already have a lot of voter suppression in Texas. It’s baked into our laws. I’ve fought fiercely against many of those laws when they were coming through the legislature,” he said.
“Texas is one of the hardest places to vote in the country as a result. It’s why we see such low voter turnout in our state compared to other states,” Talarico added.
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While Texas does rank in the bottom five states for voter turnout, data from the United States Election Project shows that 56.6% of eligible voters cast ballots in the 2024 presidential election—higher than in 2016, 2012, and 2004. Similarly, the 41.8% turnout in the 2022 midterms exceeded levels from 2014, 2010, 2006, and 2002, complicating the narrative of consistent decline.
Talarico’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
Republican strategists, however, dismiss his concerns, arguing that Talarico’s focus on turnout masks prioritization of election security. Zach Kraft, a Republican National Committee spokesperson, told Fox News Digital: “James Talarico wants illegal aliens to vote in our elections. While Talarico puts illegals first, Ken Paxton will continue to put Texans first by working with President Trump to get the SAVE America Act signed into law and ensure foreign citizens never vote in American elections.”
Notably, as a state legislator, Talarico also voted against a bill that increased state penalties for noncitizens voting in Texas elections from a Class A misdemeanor to a second-degree felony—a vote that Republicans have seized on in their attacks.
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Despite his pessimistic outlook on Texas’s voting laws, Talarico urged supporters to draw confidence from long-shot movements throughout history. “They were all up against a rigged system. So, if they can do that, we can certainly do that against this stacked deck,” he said, invoking civil rights campaigns and labor organizing as examples of overcoming structural disadvantages.
Original article source: Talarico makes stunning claim about why he thinks Texas elections aren't 'free and fair'