Texas Democratic state Rep. James Talarico is set to announce a Senate bid in next year’s midterm elections on Tuesday, according to sources familiar with the plans.
The news was first reported by Politico.
Talarico has served in the Texas state legislature since 2018. The 36-year-old former teacher is part of a group of Texas Democrats who fled the state last month to delay a Republican redistricting push, and has been widely considered a rising star in Texas politics.
Sources tell CBS News that Democrat strategist Lis Smith is serving as an advisor to Talarico. Smith previously worked on the presidential campaigns for Pete Buttigieg and Barack Obama.
Next year’s Texas Senate contest is already more crowded than most statewide races in recent Lone Star State lore.
The seat — which has been in Republican hands since 1961 — is currently held by GOP Sen. John Cornyn, but he’s facing a primary challenge from his right in Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Talarico will also need to face off against several other Democratic primary hopefuls, including Rep. Colin Allred, who announced a bid for the seat in July.
Members of both parties are taking a serious look at the race, given a clear weakness for Cornyn among base Republican voters in public and private polling. But recent surveys suggest Cornyn, who has served in the Senate since 2003, is keeping even or pacing ahead of Paxton. The state attorney general survived an impeachment trial in 2023, but his wife announced plans this summer to divorce him amid accusations of extramarital affairs.
With polls showing Paxton would lose a hypothetical general election contest against a generic Democratic candidate, outside Republican groups began spending millions of dollars in digital and television advertising to buoy Cornyn and remind GOP primary voters of Paxton’s past legal and personal issues.
Talarico would join a field that includes Allred, a former NFL linebacker with the Tennessee Titans and Dallas Cowboys who served three terms in the House before an unsuccessful campaign against Republican Sen. Ted Cruz last year. Terry Virts, a Houston-based former astronaut and Air Force veteran, also launched a Senate bid in June, and has been a strident critic of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat.
The state representative didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
