WATCH: Dem Senate nominee Talarico speaks after Ken Paxton win in Texas

Hinzugefügt: 2026-05-28

[00:00:00]take back our country. We We are uniting all Texans on one team to take on this broken, corrupt political system. We have recruited more than 45,000 volunteers who are doing the organizing work all over our communities.

[00:00:23]We have shattered grassroots fundraising records all without taking a dime from corporate packs.

[00:00:35]And on November 3rd, we're going to do something extraordinary. We're going to end 30 years of one party rule in Texas and elect a senator who's going to serve all of us.

[00:00:53]We we have forgotten that that's what politics is supposed to be about.

[00:00:59]Service. Elected officials are not supposed to serve themselves or their donors. They're supposed to serve us. I I first learned the meaning of service from my great-grandfather, my poppy. He was a barber in Port Okconor, Texas, who served this country in World War II in the Pacific Theater. He was a member of the greatest generation, a group of Americans who asked not what their country could do for them, but what they could do for their country. Whether whether he was cutting his neighbor's hair or fighting fascism on the other side of the world, Poppy was always serving others. He was a faithful man.

[00:01:48]He tried to live like Jesus who in the words of scripture came not to be served but to serve. Poppy's Poppy's favorite Bible story was in the Gospel of Matthew when Jesus's disciples are all jockeying for position and he tells them the rulers of this world lord their power over the people but among you it will be different. The greatest among you will be a servant.

[00:02:21]The greatest among you will be a servant. That is a that is a countercultural idea. In a world that's obsessed with power and wealth and status, Jesus is saying that real greatness is serving other people.

[00:02:41]My My dad taught me the same thing quietly every Saturday morning. Many of you know that I was born to a single mom who worked overtime at a hotel to provide for me. But the luckiest day in both of our lives was the day that we met my adoptive dad, Mark Talerico. The man the man who gave me his last name, the man who raised me as his own. In a time when there's so much debate about what it means to be a man, my dad showed me.

[00:03:22]Every Saturday morning, he would mow our lawn. And then without telling anyone, without anyone asking him, he would go next door and mow our neighbor's lawn.

[00:03:34]She was elderly. She was a widow. He never talked about it. He just did it because that's what a man does.

[00:03:44]He serves those around him. He takes responsibility and he does what's right even when no one is watching.

[00:03:54]Nowadays, nowadays our culture tells young men that greatness is tearing other people down, is trolling and owning and dominating. But my dad showed me what real greatness looks like. My poppy and my dad, they inspired me to serve. And so when I graduated from the University of Texas, I drove all my stuff down to the west side of San Antonio to teach middle school in one of the poorest zip codes in the entire state of Texas. And and in my in my first year of teaching, I noticed something really strange. All of my students were eating the exact same snack. off-brand strawberry Pop-Tarts.

[00:04:44]And I couldn't figure out what was going on. I didn't know if there was like a a new Pop-Tart craze sweeping the nation.

[00:04:50]I couldn't couldn't figure it out. But I I kept noticing these rappers in the trash can in my classroom. And so after class one day, I cornered one of the kids and I was like, "Where did you get that Pop-Tart?" And he said, "Miss Rivas gave it to me." And I said, "Miss Rivas, the custodian?"

[00:05:12]And he said, 'Y yeah, she carries them in her purse. So after school, I found Miss Rivas and I asked her about it. She said she buys them in bulk over the weekend and then she brings them to school every morning. And I asked her why on earth she would spend her hard-earned money on off-brand strawberry Pop-Tarts.

[00:05:35]And she looked at me kind of confused and she said, "Because they don't get breakfast at home."

[00:05:43]That's all she said. They don't get breakfast at home. Someone was in need.

[00:05:49]And that was all Miss Rivas needed to know. The greatest among you will be a servant.

[00:05:57]in in my in my four terms in the Texas House of Representatives, I have tried to be like Miss Rivas. I have tried to serve my constituents. I've tried to serve the people of this state. I've brought Democrats and Republicans together to pass 60 bipartisan bills to raise to raise teacher pay, to cut property taxes, to lower the cost of housing, child care, and prescription drugs, including insulin.

[00:06:39]I ran for office not to be served, but to serve.

[00:06:45]And then there's Ken Paxton.

[00:06:49]I I have a legislative record. Ken Paxton has a criminal record.

[00:06:59]Ken Paxton Ken Paxton is the most corrupt politician in America and he belongs nowhere close to the United States Senate.

[00:07:15]As Dan mentioned, three years ago today, Ken Paxton was impeached by his own party for using his public office, his position of public trust to enrich himself and his donors at our expense.

[00:07:33]>> Ken Paxton is morally unfit for office.

[00:07:37]He >> He has failed the character test. He'll lie to you with a straight face. He's the most corrupt attorney general in our lifetimes. And he has put his own interests above the laws of Texas. Those are not my words. Those are the words of Ken Paxton's fellow Republicans.

[00:07:58]Ken Paxton is everything that's wrong with politics. He doesn't serve us. He serves himself and his billionaire donors. Since taking office, Ken Paxton's net worth has increased 7,000%.

[00:08:15]While our while our wages have remained stagnant, he now owns 11 homes when most Texans can't afford one. He's taken bribes from wealthy donors, all while blocking overtime pay for Texas workers and gutting our healthcare.

[00:08:34]This this is the rot at the core of our broken political system. It's why we can't afford anything. It's why we can't get ahead no matter how hard we work.

[00:08:48]For 50 years, billionaire mega donors and their puppet politicians like Ken Paxton have stolen from us. Trickle down economics is not a theory. It's theft.

[00:09:01]>> They They have been stealing from the American people with their bribes, their bailouts, and their billionaire tax breaks. They are stealing the wealth that we created. It's why everything sucks right now. It's why It's why everyone is so angry. The American people aren't asking for a lot. a job we don't hate.

[00:09:32]>> A house big enough to raise a family in >> and a little leftover so we can go on vacation every once in a while. That is that is harder than it should be. Harder than it should be in America.

[00:09:46]We have an affordability crisis because we have a corruption crisis.

[00:09:52]>> We We don't have a government of, by, and for the people. We have a government of, by, and for the billionaires. They have they have bought puppet politicians like Ken Paxton. And then those puppets turn around and rig the rules of this economy in favor of those billionaires at our expense.

[00:10:13]Everywhere I go across this state, people are drowning. We can't afford the basics. gas, groceries, utilities, child care, prescription drugs, the things that we need to survive. No matter how hard we work, no matter how much we save, those ends never seem to meet.

[00:10:36]There is something broken in this country. A few weeks ago, an Amazon worker died in one of Amazon's warehouses. And as he lay dying, management told the other workers, "Don't look. Turn around and get back to work.

[00:10:57]Get back to work." That was a human being.

[00:11:04]That was a child of God. That was our sibling sacrificed on the altar of corporate greed. This is not just a political battle. This is a spiritual battle between between selfishness and service, between greed and greatness. It's been 50 years of being told that greed is good, selfishness being celebrated.

[00:11:36]I think after five decades of corruption, we are on the cusp of a return to those old-fashioned values of my great-grandfather, of the greatest generation, service, taking responsibility, and doing what's right even when no one is watching.

[00:12:04]Ken Paxton has sold us out for years and he's gotten away with it. They've all gotten away with it. But that ends this year in this state in this race.

[00:12:21]If if we the people can come together and defeat the most corrupt politician in America, we can come together and defeat this entire corrupt system. After we win this race, the first bill that I'm going to file is a comprehensive anti-corruption package. getting getting big money out of our politics and overturning Citizens United.

[00:13:00]banning banning corporate packs and super PACs so billionaires can't make unlimited donations to our campaigns and banning members of Congress from trading stocks and enriching themselves while they're in public office.

[00:13:22]But we're also going to go after the forms of corruption that don't involve money. We must pass term limits so people aren't making a career out of public service.

[00:13:37]We must overhaul the Supreme Court so we can have confidence in our judicial branch.

[00:13:47]And we must finally pass a national ban to end gerrymandering once and for all in every state in the union.

[00:14:00]Once we once we transform this broken corrupt system, we can start to unrig this economy. We can start to raise our pay.

[00:14:10]We can start to lower our costs. We can finally start to get ahead. This is not going to be easy. We're going up against those billionaire mega donors and their top puppet. They are afraid of this movement that we are building here in Texas. They're going to throw everything they've got at us. They've already called me a radical leftist. They've already called me a fake Christian.

[00:14:35]>> They've even called me a vegan. And those are those are fighting words in the state of Texas.

[00:14:44]You know, I'm an eighth generation Texan. I've been eating barbecue since before Ken Paxton's first indictment.

[00:14:55]They're going to call our movement unexan, unamerican. They're going to call us a threat. The only truth out of all of those lies is that we are a threat. We're a threat to their corrupt system.

[00:15:14]Uh, I also saw that Ken Ken Paxton uh started calling me Talaf Freco and I am I am proud to announce that we have I'm a Talafrico t-shirt on our website.

[00:15:32]So when you go home tonight, make sure you grab one.

[00:15:40]This is not this is not going to be easy. But there is something happening in Texas. There is something in the air.

[00:15:50]I am confident. I feel it in my bones that we are going to win this election and elect a senator who's going to serve and not be served.

[00:16:04]And on November 3rd, the greatest among us will be the servants. Thank you for being here, Houston. God bless you. Let's go win this thing. Thank you.