The trolling stunt was among a series of counterprogramming attacks led by the governor as Democrats convened at a bayfront event center for their biennial meeting<\/a>, armed with loads of optimism. As delegates geared up to pick their party leadership and policy priorities and hear from their statewide nominees, a van circled downtown Corpus Christi displaying ads blasting James Talarico<\/a>, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, and national party leaders like Kamala Harris. <\/p>\n The governor\u2019s campaign was behind the van, which also spent part of the day camped out on a street in front of the convention center, near where an Abbott-sponsored food truck distributed free tacos labeled with names that mocked Talarico.<\/p>\n However tongue-in-cheek, the Abbott-led antics are the latest sign Texas Republicans, despite three straight cycles of electoral dominance, see the midterms as a serious threat. Democrats, inspired by a favorable political climate with President Donald Trump\u2019s lackluster approval ratings, are looking to seize what they see as their best opportunity since 2018 for a statewide victory. Similar conditions that year helped propel then-El Paso Congressman Beto O\u2019Rourke to within three points<\/a> of unseating U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz<\/a>.<\/p>\n This time, Republicans are mobilizing far earlier, returning to Abbott\u2019s playbook of 2022<\/a>, when he easily warded off a challenge from O\u2019Rourke, in part by accusing him early and often of supporting \u201copen borders,\u201d \u201cdefunding the police\u201d and other left-wing stances based on past comments. <\/p>\n The key difference is that the governor is training his fire on Talarico rather than his actual opponent, state Rep. Gina Hinojosa<\/a> of Austin, who remains much less known to voters. <\/p>\n As busloads of convention-bound Democratic delegates dispatched Thursday morning from across the state, Abbott\u2019s campaign unveiled a website called \u201cRadicalTexas\u201d \u2014 with the URL promoted on the longhorn\u2019s towel and elsewhere \u2014 to blast Democrats for stances on property taxes, education, immigration and public safety. <\/p>\n In one of the featured quotes, Talarico says, \u201cWe should treat our southern border like our front porch. We should have a giant welcome mat out front.\u201d<\/p>\n The quote has become popular with Republicans moving to cast Talarico as weak on immigration. However, Democrats and Talarico\u2019s campaign<\/a> have noted that a second part of the quote, when Talarico says the door behind the mat should have a lock, has been omitted. <\/p>\n Hinojosa went unmentioned on the site, and while Talarico\u2019s past quotes were featured more than any other Democrat \u2014 accounting for seven of the site\u2019s 35 quotes \u2014 the effort to tie him to more progressive members of the party, like U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, in some instances appeared to hinge on tenuous connections. <\/p>\n A section on public safety labeled \u201cLaw and Order vs. Left-Wing Lunacy\u201d does not mention Talarico, for example, and none of the quotes featured are from Democrats currently running for statewide office in Texas. Over half the quotes on the website are from Democrats and political figures outside the state, and of those mentioned, just three \u2014 Talarico and U.S. Reps. Greg Casar<\/a> and Joaquin Castro<\/a> \u2014 will be on the November ballot in Texas.<\/p>\n Abbott campaign manager Kim Snyder said Democrats are attempting to rebrand and hide that they\u2019ve \u201cembraced a radical, socialist agenda that is dangerous for Texas,\u201d and the \u201cRadicalTexas\u201d site \u201cexposes the fraud, highlights their own words, and shows Texans exactly what\u2019s at stake this November.\u201d<\/p>\n No Democrat has won a statewide election in Texas since 1994 and no Democrat has won an election in the state for U.S. Senate since 1988. But Democrats have faith that Talarico, a state representative from the Austin area, will snap the losing streak.<\/p>\n Texas Democratic Party Chair Kendall Scudder called the gimmicks \u201cpathetic.\u201d The party posted<\/a> on social media that \u201cyou can always count on Greg Abbott to bring the bullshit.\u201d<\/p>\n Talarico\u2019s opponent, Attorney General Ken Paxton<\/a>, has been largely absent from the capers in Corpus Christi. The most visible sign of his presence was an ad he aired in the area spotlighting some of Talarico\u2019s votes opposing restrictions on transgender athletes and accusing him of supporting unnamed policies \u201cthat\u2019ll raise prices on families.\u201d<\/p>\n To be sure, not all of Abbott\u2019s counterprogramming amounted to hijinks. <\/p>\n GOP state Reps. Todd Hunter<\/a> of Corpus Christi, A.J. Louderback<\/a> of Victoria, J.M. Lozano<\/a> of Kingsville and Katrina Pierson<\/a> of Rockwall held a press conference Friday afternoon at a hotel conference room near the convention where many Democrats were staying. <\/p>\n Between railing against Democrats\u2019 policies, the lawmakers also made the proactive case for the GOP blueprint, which Louderback said has made Texas \u201csafer and more prosperous.\u201d Hunter, who carried the GOP\u2019s redistricting bill last summer, praised the governor, whose campaign had promoted the event, for working with the Legislature to cut property taxes, boost the state\u2019s economy and help coastal areas recover from hurricanes.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the Abbott campaign\u2019s tacos had names like \u201cVeggie Talarico,\u201d as Republicans try to define the Democrat as a vegan based on an old clip from a previous campaign in which Talarico, who eats meat, said he would run a meat-less campaign. The attacks grew sharper after the Austin lawmaker ordered a potato, egg and cheese breakfast taco when former President Barack Obama swung by an Austin taco joint with him and Hinojosa. <\/p>\n Other tacos included \u201cOpen Border Brisket\u201d and \u201cDemocrat Promises\u201d \u2014 an empty tortilla.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CORPUS CHRISTI \u2014 As thousands gathered Friday for the first full day of the Texas Democratic Convention, a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":352180,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[6505,155,2133,3496,392,1724,2135,16852,1967,2063,2424,7883,27,2963,29,28],"class_list":["post-352179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-beto-orourke","tag-corpus-christi","tag-democrats","tag-gina-hinojosa","tag-greg-abbott","tag-immigration","tag-james-talarico","tag-kamala-harris","tag-ken-paxton","tag-property-taxes","tag-republicans","tag-ted-cruz","tag-texas","tag-texas-democratic-party","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=352179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352179\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/352180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=352179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=352179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=352179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Volunteers](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/20260626-Talarico-Taco-PG.jpg\")
Volunteers with the Republican group Radical Texas pushed their message outside the convention by handing out free \u201cTalarico Tacos.\u201d Pete Garcia for The Texas Tribune<\/p>\n![\"State](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/20260626-GOP-Counter-programming-BY-01.jpg\")
State Rep J. M. Lozano, R-Kingsville, speaks at a Keep Texas Red press conference in Corpus Christi during the Texas Democratic Convention on Thursday. Behind him, L-R: State Reps. Todd Hunter, R-Corpus Christi, A.J. Louderback, R-Victoria, and Katrina Pierson, R-Rockwall. Blaine Young for The Texas Tribune<\/p>\n