Full interview: James Talarico on affordability, Paxton's AI ads and more

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: um polling has you with a slight edge at least depending on which surveys you're looking at um what is giving you a shot this year that other democrats haven't had well i think there is a [00:00:12] Talarico: bipartisan backlash growing across the state to the extremism and the corruption that we're seeing in our government and and everywhere i go across texas big cities small towns red areas blue areas everyone is struggling to survive in this economy and it's not like texans or spending their money on nice cars nice clothes nice vacations we are struggling to afford the basics groceries gas utilities health care child care the things that we need to survive and and get by in this economy and i think there's a lot of anger that instead of lowering costs our leaders are actively raising costs through these tariffs through this new disastrous war in iran this big ugly bill and they're ready for a servant leader who's going to go to washington and actually fight for them fight to lower their costs raise their pay and get this economy back [00:01:02] Speaker 1: on track so what's the one affirmative thing a senator talarico would propose day one week one to cut [00:01:11] Talarico: costs for america repeal these crazy tariffs drive down grocery prices and food prices i've proposed that we suspend the federal gas tax and the federal diesel tax which would immediately drop the price of gas by 18 cents a gallon and that would provide some necessary relief for texans and then i think we have to bring this disastrous warner on to a close we should we shouldn't be there in the first place and if we're going to provide some real relief we've got to find a solution with our regional partners to end this new [00:01:42] Speaker 1: forever what would that look like because you can't just quite pack up and leave yeah i think the president [00:01:47] Talarico: unfortunately has has hurt a lot of our long-standing alliances around the world including in the region we're going to have to rebuild those partnerships if we hope to bring iran back to the negotiating table open up the strait of hormuz and ensure that iran doesn't get a nuclear weapon this is clearly designed [00:02:04] Speaker 1: to contrast with what's going on downtown what did you call it earlier the billionaire ball uh and you're you're collecting 20 000 pounds of food giver's sake that's right um i guess you know if that is issue number one uh you talk about tariffs you talk about ending the war um you know give us an example of the kind of feedback you're getting from voters when it comes to this concern because i don't want to wait [00:02:32] Talarico: until the day after the election or the day i'm sworn in to give texans some relief there's work i can do now and we've got this network of 60 000 volunteers across the state we've got more than a million people who have given to this campaign financially and so we can utilize those networks across texas to provide working families some relief and that's what this grocery drive is all about again the tickets to the billionaire ball are 20 000 we just announced that we collected more than 20 000 pounds of groceries for working families and that is a clear contrast in this race our campaign is all about serving others loving thy neighbor the other side is all about self-enrichment and accumulating wealth and power for themselves at the expense of working people you know that they're going to spend a lot of [00:03:18] Speaker 1: time over these two days talking about you yeah sure claiming you're too extreme too far left uh too anti-god too anti-american to be a u.s senator from texas what say you well i i think texans are tired of [00:03:35] Talarico: this professional wrestling in our politics they want a serious senator who's going to bring both parties together to lower costs and get this economy back on track and i have a track record of doing that we don't have to wonder what kind of senator i'm going to be because i've served as a legislator for eight years now for four terms in the texas house and i brought democrats and republicans together to pass 60 bipartisan bills on a whole range of topics bills that lower the cost of housing bills that lower the cost of child care and prescription drugs including insulin so i'm asking texans to judge me based on my legislative record i have a legislative record ken paxton has a criminal record ken paxton has a as an entire career of using his public office to enrich himself and his donors at the expense of the people of texas and i think the contrast could not be more clear in this race you're blanketing the airwaves with [00:04:26] Speaker 1: television ads the paxton team or associated groups are starting to do so as well and he's released one that uses ai imagery of you and your past public statements what do you make of the use of ai first [00:04:40] Talarico: of all on a political land i mean this is uh this is consistent with ken paxton's record of lying to the people of texas right he's he lied to his own staff that's why they reported him to the fbi he lied to his own party that's why they impeached him for bribery uh he lied to law enforcement which is why his former director of law enforcement endorsed me yesterday and now he's lying to the people of texas using artificial intelligence to put words in my mouth and i think texans are tired their statements [00:05:10] Speaker 1: you've you've made it's just they're being personified in a different way well and not and [00:05:14] Talarico: not all of those statements i mean this is this is the issue is when you look at this ad they are they are using ai in order to mislead the people of this state and that is completely consistent with a liar like ken paxton and i am confident that democrats independents and republicans are going to reject uh ken paxton because we don't want a criminal representing us [00:05:35] Speaker 1: in the halls of power in washington would you use ai in political advertising so you have no plan [00:05:40] Talarico: to nope and every ad that we put out is made by human beings and we're very proud of that fact [00:05:44] Speaker 1: i know data centers have become an issue here in the state because they help funnel or sort of establish create ai tools and products um there have been warnings in recent days about the dangers of it someone now suggesting we could all be dead in 10 years thanks to it what specifically should the federal government be doing to regulate so ken paxton has taken nearly [00:06:06] Talarico: half a million dollars from the data center industry and it's why he ignored residents in hood county when they asked for his help as attorney general to pause data center construction in their community he just ghosted them because he has bought and paid for by the data center industry i don't take money from data centers i don't take any corporate pack money i answered the people of texas and it's why i've laid out a comprehensive plan to rein in these data centers and i've said clearly if data centers can't meet the demands of of the people in these communities if they can't pay for their own energy if they can't recycle their own water then they shouldn't be built period full stop and that's exactly the approach we have to take to ai we cannot let artificial intelligence become yet another arena where billionaires write the rules for the rest of us we have to have a government that puts in place some common sense guard rails to ensure we're developing these technologies safely and responsibly and that we're not replacing jobs but making jobs easier is a federal moratorium on ai [00:07:00] Speaker 1: construction or data center construction something you'd consider i honestly don't care what you call [00:07:05] Talarico: it but if a data center can't meet the demands of the community where they seek to operate they [00:07:09] Speaker 1: shouldn't be built finally uh you're a democrat running for statewide office in texas and you're within shooting distance and making it happen you're like charlie brown on the football what's going to be different this time what is different this time that makes you so confident you can prevail [00:07:23] Talarico: i think there is a movement growing in the state of texas people are are hungry for the old-fashioned values i was raised with honesty integrity service putting others before self doing the right thing even when no one is watching i know that those i know those values have been out of style recently over the past 10 years but i really do believe those old-fashioned values are about to make a comeback [00:07:48] Speaker 1: in this race in this there's got to be something specific that has happened or been said to you or that you've seen that says this is profoundly different than what better work went through [00:07:56] Talarico: than what others have gone through oh absolutely i mean i i go to every corner of the state we've had thousands of texans showing up we have to change venues because we have so much interest in the movement that we're building we have 60 000 volunteers who have signed up that's historic we have shattered grassroots fundraising records all without taking a dime from corporate packs so this is truly a movement unlike any other that we've seen in the state of texas and i'm confident that although big money is powerful and the billionaire mega donors that are partying at the billionaire ball they're going to spend unlimited amounts of money to try to stop us that big money is powerful but it's nothing compared to people power.