Texas has made its choices. On one side of the November Senate ballot: James Talarico, a former middle school English teacher, seminary student, and eighth-generation Texan who flipped a Republican district and spent his career fighting for teacher pay, property tax relief, and prescription drug costs. On the other side: Ken Paxton, a man who has been under felony indictment for securities fraud for nearly a decade, was impeached by his own Republican colleagues in the Texas House, and stands credibly accused of using the power of his office to do favors for a campaign donor.
Texas is calling this an election. The rest of us can call it what it is.
Talarico has framed this race as the people versus Ken Paxton, and he is not wrong. But it is more specific than that. It is a man who spent his life in service to other people’s children against a man who spent his career in service to himself. It is a candidate who swore off corporate PAC money against a candidate whose entire political existence is a monument to what happens when money and power go completely unaccountable.
Make no mistake — Paxton has survived everything. He survived the indictment. He survived the impeachment. He survived because the Texas Republican machine protected him, because his donors funded him, and because no one with a clean record and a compelling story had stepped up to make him answer for any of it. That changes in November.
Talarico is not a perfect candidate. He has said so himself. But the contrast here does not require perfection. It requires a pulse and a record that does not include felony charges. On that standard, Talarico clears the bar by a distance that should embarrass every Texas Republican who stood behind Paxton and called it leadership.
Texas has a choice. A teacher or a criminal. The ballot will not be this clear again for a long time.