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Talarico makes stunning claim about why he thinks Texas elections aren’t ‘free and fair’
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Texas Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico said he believes state laws have stacked the deck against him as he looks to become the first Democrat to win statewide office since 1994.
«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 in a recent podcast interview.
Talarico’s posture towards Texas voting laws reflects a broader Democratic belief that Republican dominance in the Lone Star State is due to low turnout brought on by election security measures rather than the state’s conservative leanings — a theory that continues to drive long-running attempts to flip the state.
Despite having raised an impressive $40 million as of March, Talarico faces an uphill campaign against Republican candidate Ken Paxton, the current Texas attorney general, who has widespread name recognition.
TEXAS MAP FIGHT ESCALATES AS JEFFRIES VOWS ‘ALL OPTIONS’ TO STOP GOP PLAN
James Talarico, a Democrat from Texas and US Senate candidate, speaks at a campaign event in Round Rock, Texas, U.S., on Tuesday, March 3, 2026. (Jordan Vonderhaar/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
«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.
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Texas passed a flurry of election-security bills.
Most notably, the legislature passed SB1, a bill that requires voters to provide specific identification numbers to vote and to register to vote: either a Texas driver’s license, an election identification certificate or the last four digits of a Social Security number.
It also banned drive-through voting and unsolicited mailing of ballot applications.
Talarico said he opposed its passage as a state legislator.
«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,» Talarico 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 said.
RED STATE AG INVESTIGATING MORE THAN 30 POTENTIAL NONCITIZENS WHO VOTED IN 2024 ELECTION
Democratic Texas State Rep. James Talarico speaks during a campaign launch rally in Round Rock, Texas, on Sept. 9, 2025. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
Although it’s true that Texas ranks in the bottom five states for voter turnout, the 56.6% of voters that cast a ballot in the last presidential election was greater than turnout in 2016, 2012 and 2004, according to data from the United States Election Project. Similarly, the 41.8% participation in the 2022 midterms exceeded levels from 2014, 2010, 2006 and 2002.
Talarico’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
To at least one GOP strategist, Talarico’s concern over turnout comes at the expense of his prioritization of election security.
«James Talarico wants illegal aliens to vote in our elections,» Zach Kraft, a Republican National Committee spokesperson, told Fox News Digital.
«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,» Kraft said, referring to the national voter integrity bill championed by Republicans in Congress.
Notably, as a state legislator, Talarico also voted against a bill that increased state penalties for illegal aliens voting in Texas elections from a Class A misdemeanor to a second-degree felony.
TRUMP COMPARES DEM SENATE CANDIDATE TO FRECKLE-FACED CARTOON CHARACTER, PROMISES TO CAMPAIGN FOR PAXTON
Texas Senate candidate James Talarico urged voters to reduce meat consumption in a 2022 clip that went viral on Tuesday. (Mark Felix/Getty Images)
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Despite his pessimistic outlook on Texas’s voting laws, Talarico urged viewers to draw confidence from other long-shot campaigns, such as civil rights movements and labor organizers.
«They were all up against a rigged system. So, if they can do that, we can certainly do that against this stacked deck,» Talarico said.
elections, democrats elections, law, republicans elections, voting
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WATCH: Surfaced videos of Dem Senate candidate backing ‘defund the police’ contradict recent denials
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The front-runner in Michigan’s messy Democratic primary has repeatedly said he never called for defunding the police, but unearthed interviews and video from years earlier tell a different story.
Abdul El-Sayed, who is running for the Democratic nomination in Michigan against Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Mich., has been adamant throughout his push for the Senate that he never wanted to strip tax dollars from police departments, going so far as to say he deleted old tweets embracing the ideology.
But in a video for the University of Michigan published five years ago titled, «Systemic Racism as a Public Health Issue,» El-Sayed argued that funding police and their use of force was a facet of systemic racism and constituted a public health issue.
DEMOCRATS’ CIVIL WAR HEADS TO MICHIGAN, WHERE PROGRESSIVES FACE BIGGEST TEST YET IN HIGH-STAKES SENATE SHOWDOWN
Michigan Senate Democratic candidate Abdul El-Sayed has spent his campaign denying that he wanted to defund the police, but in an unearthed clip, he asked, «Do police really need to use guns?» (Sarah Rice/Getty Images)
«Why are we investing so much in people with guns and less in people with the means of being able to invest in young folks, empower folks through their livelihoods, and empower them to live their best lives?» El-Sayed questioned.
«Do police really need to use guns? Do we need as much of a police force?» he continued. «And so, if we ask ourselves about how we spend money in the public, where that money goes, where it comes from, we need to make a lot better decisions about investing in the things that root out poverty, rather than investing in policing poverty.»
The video follows a report from CNN that found during the height of the «defund the police» movement in 2020, El-Sayed leaned into it.
During an interview with Detroit Public Radio from June 2020, El-Sayed argued that he never directly called to «defund the police,» but he contended that the principles behind the movement were difficult to express online in a tweet.
MICHIGAN SENATE CANDIDATE CONFRONTED REPEATEDLY OVER ISRAEL’S RIGHT TO EXIST, DEFUNDING THE POLICE
«So, you’ll note, I didn’t say ‘defund the police,’ I just described what needed to be done,» El-Sayed said. «And I do think we need to be really focused on describing or explaining rather than sort of hedging on one side or the other behind a hashtag.»
«Defunding the police is disinvesting in the means of incarcerating someone or killing them on the streets and investing more in the means of educating and empowering and engaging communities with the means of being able to take on systemic poverty that we’ve allowed to fester in too many communities.»
El-Sayed tried to pitch his stance as «refunding» the police to ensure taxpayer dollars don’t flow to «buy war materiel to wage war in our streets.»
«What we call that is, to me, less important than what we do on the problems on the ground,» he said at the time.
DEMOCRATIC SENATE CANDIDATE CALLED FOR MASS RELEASE OF CRIMINALS DURING PRISON ABOLITION WEBINAR
Chicago police officers patrol downtown on Aug. 26, 2025, in Chicago. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Roxie Richner, a campaign spokesperson for El-Sayed, said in a statement to Fox News Digital that he worked closely with law enforcement during his time as director of Health, Human, and Veterans Services for Wayne County, Michigan, and that «as hands-on experience always allows, his perspective has become more nuanced.»
«One simple word has never been enough to fully explain the reforms we need for a challenge as complex as our criminal legal system,» she said.
«Just as he did in Wayne County in 2023, Abdul believes we need to improve law enforcement recruitment, retention, and retirement funding so that law enforcement officers come from the communities they serve,» Richner continued. «He also believes we must reject militarized policing, pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, and opt for community violence intervention, behavioral health response, and improvements in public health to reduce violence and protect the lives of communities and law enforcement alike.»
Still, El-Sayed has sought to clean up his position on the matter as he runs ahead in one of the most consequential races of the 2026 midterm cycle.
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He and Stevens are vying to replace retiring Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., for a seat Republicans are hungry to flip.
And more broadly, El-Sayed is part of the progressive wave that is flooding into the Democratic Party, sporting endorsements from progressive heavyweights like Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.
The candidate, however, can’t seem to shake off his posts and interviews from years ago despite this support.
Just last week during an interview with CNN’s Kasie Hunt, El-Sayed was pressed on his old posts and shot back that he «deleted all the tweets, because I didn’t want them to be taken out of context like this.»
He chalked up the issue to «clickbait in D.C.»
«I think this debate about 2020 and the ways that tweets are going to play are really nice on CNN if you want to get clicks,» El-Sayed said. «They’re not that effective, and nobody really asks me about them on the streets or in communities in Michigan.»
politics, police and law enforcement, democratic party, midterm elections, george floyd
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Sube el petróleo y caen los mercados tras la nueva escalada entre Estados Unidos e Irán en Medio Oriente
Los precios mundiales del petróleo se dispararon más de 6% este miércoles después de que el presidente estadounidense, Donald Trump, afirmara que el acuerdo de cese el fuego con Irán “se terminó”, tras una nueva escalada de ataques en Medio Oriente que reavivó el temor a una crisis energética global.
El barril de referencia internacional Brent avanzó 7%, hasta los USD 79,35, mientras que el contrato estadounidense West Texas Intermediate (WTI) subió 6,5%, hasta los USD 75,04 por barril. Ambos contratos habían retrocedido en las últimas semanas desde picos que superaron los USD 100, a niveles cercanos a los previos al estallido de la guerra con Irán, a fines de febrero.
Estados Unidos lanzó una ofensiva contra el régimen de Teherán luego de que fuerzas iraníes atacaran tres embarcaciones en el estrecho de Ormuz, la vía marítima por la que transita cerca de una quinta parte del petróleo y gas natural que se comercializa a nivel mundial.
“Para mí, creo que se terminó”, respondió Trump al ser consultado sobre el estado del cese el fuego, al margen de la cumbre de la OTAN que se celebra en Ankara, Turquía, aunque aclaró que permitirá que continúen las negociaciones. “Es solo una pérdida de tiempo tratar con ellos”, agregó el mandatario.
Los principales índices de Wall Street recortaban parte de sus pérdidas respecto de la apertura, aunque se mantenían en terreno negativo. El Dow Jones cedía 1,19%, hasta los 52.295,99 puntos. El S&P 500 retrocedía 0,49%, hasta los 7.467,28 puntos, mientras que el Nasdaq Composite, de fuerte peso tecnológico, perdía 0,26%, a 25.750,64 puntos. El índice de volatilidad VIX saltaba 8,5%, hasta los 17,50 puntos.
El repunte del crudo también presionó al mercado de bonos: el rendimiento de los Treasury a 10 años avanzaba 1,32%, hasta 4,589%, mientras que el bono a 30 años subía a 5,08%. Analistas advirtieron que los inventarios estadounidenses en la Reserva Estratégica de Petróleo cayeron a su nivel más bajo desde 1983, lo que deja a los mercados más expuestos ante eventuales shocks de oferta.
La atención de los inversores también se centra en la publicación, esta tarde, de las minutas de la última reunión de la Reserva Federal, la primera bajo la presidencia de Kevin Warsh. Según datos de futuros de tasas, los operadores elevaron a 85% las probabilidades de una suba de tasas para diciembre, frente al 80% del martes, mientras que las apuestas para una suba en la reunión de octubre pasaron de 70% a 75%.
En Europa, las pérdidas se profundizaron respecto de la apertura. El DAX alemán perdía 2,21%, hasta los 24.901,24 puntos, y el CAC 40 de París caía 2,26%, a 8.245,52 unidades. El FTSE 100 británico bajaba 1,67%, hasta los 10.487,89 puntos, y el EURO STOXX 50 retrocedía 1,87%.
En la región asiática, el Nikkei 225 de Tokio se hundía 2,1%, hasta los 66.819,05 puntos, mientras que el Kospi surcoreano se desplomaba 5,4%, a 7.246,79 unidades, arrastrado por la venta masiva de acciones tecnológicas vinculadas a la inteligencia artificial, como Samsung Electronics y SK Hynix. Samsung caía 6,3% este miércoles, tras retroceder cerca de 7% la jornada anterior, pese a haber proyectado un salto de más de 1.800% en su beneficio operativo por la demanda de chips de IA. SK Hynix, por su parte, perdía 5,7%.
En contraste, la Bolsa de Hong Kong subía 3%, hasta los 24.199,46 puntos, impulsada en parte por un salto de más de 13% en las acciones de la firma china de inteligencia artificial Zhipu. El índice Shanghai Composite cedía 0,5%, a 3.970,88 puntos, y el Taiex de Taiwán avanzaba 0,6%.
Analistas del mercado señalaron que la escalada geopolítica se combina con una creciente preocupación por las valuaciones del sector tecnológico y de inteligencia artificial, que en las últimas semanas venía concentrando la atención de los inversores. En el mercado cambiario, el dólar se fortaleció frente al euro y se mantuvo cerca de mínimos de 40 años frente al yen japonés.
En el marco del acuerdo provisional para poner fin a la guerra, Irán y Estados Unidos habían pactado permitir el paso de buques por el estrecho sin cobro de tasas durante 60 días. Sin embargo, Teherán insistió en controlar las rutas de navegación y advirtió que más adelante cobraría tarifas de tránsito, lo que alteraría décadas de prácticas establecidas en la vía marítima.
Los buques atacados el martes navegaban por una ruta cercana a la costa de Omán, distinta de la autorizada por el régimen iraní. Según el Centro de Operaciones de Comercio Marítimo del Reino Unido, un petrolero resultó alcanzado y se incendió frente a las costas omaníes; la televisión estatal iraní sostuvo que el buque de gas natural licuado fue atacado tras ignorar advertencias, sin reivindicar el hecho de manera directa. Otras dos embarcaciones sufrieron daños menores y continuaron navegando. El vocero de la Cancillería de Qatar, Majed al-Ansari, calificó de “acto inaceptable” el ataque al petrolero qatarí Al Rekayyat y responsabilizó legalmente a Irán.
(Con información de AFP, AP y Reuters)
Corporate Events,Europe
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