When a young, untested former school teacher stood up to address a modest gathering of local donors in Austin, the state capital of Texas, Wendy Davis felt sorry for him.
asserted
Davis → stand → him
“Poor kid,” she remembers thinking.
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she → think → kid
Then James Talarico began speaking.
asserted
Talarico → begin → ?
“He was like five or six sentences in and I knew that something was different about him,” recalls Davis, a former Democratic state senator.
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Davis → know → him
From that day, I started calling him ‘Baby Obama’.”
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I → start → him
Eight years after that first fundraising event, “Baby Obama” is no longer a precocious candidate for the state house with paper slogans that read “A future as bright as Texas”.
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that → read → Texas
Now 37, Talarico will aim to redraw the political map next week by becoming the first Democrat to win a Senate seat in the Lone Star state since 1988.
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Talarico → aim → 1988
The threat that he poses to Republicans’ grip on power has become clear in the final stretch of a fraught campaign.
asserted
he → pose → campaign
Over the past month Donald Trump rallied in Texas and branded him “James Talafreako”; JD Vance implied that Talarico is gay; and rightwing influencers spread a baseless lie that he checked into a mental health clinic in Ohio (in fact, he was ill with flu).
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he → rally → flu
Despite the desperate attacks, most opinion polls give Talarico a narrow edge.
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polls → give → edge
On Tuesday the voters will have their say on whether the four-term state representative, a Presbyterian seminarian preaching a gospel of hope, can overcome Republican Ken Paxton, a scandal-haunted state attorney general and Trump ally who has financial backing from tech billionaire Elon Musk.
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who → have → Musk
Facing a barrage of culture war attack ads funded the world’s wealthiest man, Talarico has responded with an unorthodox blend of economic populism, progressive politics and an unapologetically Christian message that challenges the religious right on its own turf.
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that → face → turf
His campaign raised a record $64m in the third quarter, including donations from a vast number of small-dollar contributors.
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campaign → raise → contributors
Last week Talarico told a crowd of young voters and local activists gathered at his alma mater, the University of Texas at Austin, that Republicans’ billionaire donors were starting to fret.
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donors → tell → Austin
“They are terrified because they see what we see: we are about to win this election,” he said.
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he → terrify → election
An eighth-generation Texan, he was born James Dell Causey in Round Rock, a small town north of Austin, in 1989.
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he → bear → 1989
His mother, Tamara Causey, was a preacher’s daughter who left home at 19 and met his biological father, whom she has described as an alcoholic prone to violence.
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she → leave → violence
One night the abuse became too much.
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abuse → become → ?
Tamara drove James and all her belongings in a small Ford Escort to the hotel where she worked as a sales assistant.
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she → drive → assistant
They lived in an empty room at the hotel until they found an apartment in Austin.
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they → live → Austin
Tamara subsequently married a sales manager named Mark Talarico, who adopted James and gave him his surname.
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who → marry → surname
At school, Talarico was a keen debater and actor, with roles including Danny Zuko in the musical Grease.
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Talarico → include → Grease
Allegra Hobbs, author of a profile in Texas Monthly magazine, reported: “His high school theater director, Aaron Johnson, joked to me that the young Talarico did not so much inhabit the character as play a version of himself.
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Talarico → report → himself
When the theater department handed out superlatives, ‘Jimmy’ was voted most likely to be president – a running joke among his friends that he would laugh off.”
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he → hand → that
Talarico studied at the University of Texas at Austin, where Mike Garcia, a 38-year-old lawyer and former legislative staffer, first encountered his political ambitions.
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Garcia → study → ambitions
In 2009, Garcia presided over the College Republicans while Talarico led the University Democrats.
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Talarico → preside → Democrats
Despite their ideological differences, the pair initially found common ground in nonpartisan voter drives and a campaign for tuition relief.
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pair → find → relief
Speaking from Fort Worth, Garcia recalls: “It was a little strange but I was glad that we were putting our differences aside and doing something that would help everybody.”
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that → speak → everybody
The goodwill did not last.
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goodwill → last → ?
During student government elections, Talarico’s organisation endorsed establishment candidates who opposed tuition re-regulation, according to Garcia.
uncertain
who → endorse → Garcia
The move provoked outrage among Democrats who had supported the campaign, some of whom turned up at a College Republicans meeting to protest.
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some → provoke → meeting
Garcia suspected Talarico had calculated that the endorsement would win him favour with university administrators ahead of a possible run for student body president.
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endorsement → suspect → president
“That sounds like exactly something Jimmy would do,” he says.
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he → sound → something
Years later, when the two crossed paths again at the Texas capitol – Garcia working for Republican legislators and Talarico now an elected representative – Garcia felt he saw a similar gap between political rhetoric and personal charm.
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he → cross → rhetoric
Talarico would “routinely just rail against all these people I work for, calling us the worst names ever”, he recalls, before greeting him warmly in the corridor minutes later.
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he → rail → corridor
Garcia remains unconvinced by Talarico’s current presentation as a moderate.
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Garcia → remain → moderate
“He is probably one of the types that is willing to tell you exactly what you want to hear, especially if it helps him politically.
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it → tell → him
Right now he’s running as a moderate and he’s doing a very good job of it,” Garcia says.
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Garcia → run → it
But others dispute Garcia’s account.
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others → dispute → account
In a statement provided by Talarico’s campaign, Muneezeh Kabir, who was at the University of Texas with him and involved in student government, said: “James has always raised his hand to serve others.
asserted
James → provide → others
…and 101 more, not listed.
The Aporia
