Talarico Says He Would Work With Trump If Trump Wants to Build

James Talarico, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Texas, says he would like to help President Trump deliver on the "promise" of MAGA. The remarks came in a long podcast interview released Monday, Nov. 2, the day before Election Day in his race against Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton.

The offer stands out for two reasons. Trump has called Talarico "Talafreako," according to the Washington Examiner, and has called him mentally ill. And Talarico is trying to do something no Texas Democrat has done since 1988: win a Senate seat. He is reaching toward Trump's audience while running against a Republican the Examiner says Trump "more or less handpicked."

There is also a timing wrinkle. According to the episode's description, the interview was recorded on Sept. 8, almost two months before it was released. Coverage has treated the remarks as current, and the notes do not establish whether they came before or after any particular Trump attack, including a rally in late October.

What Talarico Said

Talarico sat down with host Steven Bartlett on "The Diary of a CEO", where the episode had about 980,000 views. The Washington Examiner, which first reported the comments, quoted him this way:

"I would love, as the next U.S. senator from Texas, to work with Donald Trump to actually fulfill some of the promise of his political project."

He named housing, healthcare and education as places where the two could find common ground, and talked about cutting red tape to build "millions of new homes." On housing he pointed to the president's old line of work: "If he wants to tackle the housing problem, Donald Trump is a builder."

Talarico said there was still time to do that, and said, "My hope is that this midterm will be a wake-up call for the president..." Fox News listed childcare alongside healthcare and housing, and its video caption described a Democratic midterm success as a possible "rebirth" for Trump's presidency. We could not review the full Fox article or confirm the exact wording of that remark against the audio.

It is worth reading the offer for what it is. Some headlines have described Talarico as "warming" to Trump, but his words are conditional: he would work with the president if the president wants to take on these issues. That is an offer with a condition attached, not an endorsement.

Trump's Attacks and the Response So Far

Trump renewed his criticism of Talarico at a rally in Corpus Christi on the Tuesday before the interview was released, about Oct. 27. Newsmax, citing Reuters, reported that he criticized Talarico on oil and gas, renewable energy and transgender issues. Newsmax attributed the original report on the podcast to the Examiner.

No response from Trump, the White House or the Paxton campaign to the podcast remarks appeared in the reporting reviewed for this story.

A Close Race on the Final Day

Texas has not elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1988, a Republican streak of 38 years. Even so, the indicators cited by the Examiner pointed to a close contest. The Cook Political Report rated the race a toss-up, though the Examiner said Cook may "put a pinky on the scale for Talarico," and said Paxton's campaign has been dogged by controversies from his time as attorney general. The RealClearPolitics average of polls from Oct. 15 through Nov. 1 showed Talarico ahead by about 2.5 points, and the prediction market Kalshi gave him a 71 percent chance of winning. Those are market odds and polling averages, not votes.

Talarico describes himself as an eighth-generation Texan. He is a former public school teacher and a state representative.

What Comes Next

Results in the Talarico-Paxton race were not available when this story was prepared. If Talarico wins, the open question is whether the White House engages with his offer. Any response from Trump or Paxton to the remarks would also be worth watching.