Kerrville, Texas \u2014 KERRVILLE, Texas \u2014 Before heading to San Antonio Wednesday afternoon, Democratic U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico sat down with FOX San Antonio’s Yami Virgin for a one-on-one interview in Kerrville.<\/p>\n
Against the backdrop of damage left by two years of flooding along the Guadalupe River, Talarico discussed federal disaster relief.<\/p>\n
Talarico said the Hill Country has personal ties for him. His paternal grandparents lived in Harper, and his sister attended Schreiner University in Kerrville.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo see the suffering in this community over the last year with these two floods, two years in a row, to see leaders in Washington not stepping up to help Kerrville, not stepping up to help the Hill Country, it makes me mad,\u201d Talarico said.<\/p>\n
Talarico said Kerrville needs federal resources to rebuild and prepare for future disasters.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will show up to Kerrville. I\u2019ll show up to the Hill Country, and I will fight to get the resources these communities need to rebuild and prepare for future disasters,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Talarico blamed cuts to the Federal Emergency Management Agency for what he described as an inadequate response.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was talking to some of the first responders here, just met with a local business owner, and FEMA has not shown up,\u201d Talarico said. \u201cThere hasn\u2019t been the same kind of resources that we\u2019ve seen in other disasters, and that disaster declaration still hasn\u2019t been signed, and that\u2019s just unacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n
At Green Grocer Deli, a small Kerrville restaurant still waiting for federal assistance after last year\u2019s flooding, Talarico said he heard how local organizations and residents stepped in to help.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe local business owner said that local churches stepped up, the local Chamber of Commerce stepped up,\u201d Talarico said. \u201cEven his own customers stepped up to help him rebuild.\u201d<\/p>\n
The community response illustrates how Texans help one another during a crisis, according to the candidate.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen the federal government doesn\u2019t step up, Texans show up,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen the federal government doesn\u2019t get us what we need, neighbors are serving each other.\u201d<\/p>\n
The conversation then turned to Friday night\u2019s storm in San Antonio, which caught children and parents at several high school football games. Strong winds overturned a trailer carrying equipment belonging to the Johnson High School band during the Johnson vs Judson game.<\/p>\n
Talarico questioned whether federal cuts affected the warnings residents received before the storm.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think there\u2019s concerns that some of the cuts made to the National Weather Service meant that folks in San Antonio didn\u2019t get the heads-up that they would normally get,\u201d Talarico said.<\/p>\n
FOX San Antonio has filed a federal records request with the National Weather Service seeking information about staffing, the timing of the warnings, upper-air\/weathe-ballon records and whether federal cuts affected the agency\u2019s operations before the storm.<\/p>\n
The former Rhodes Middle School teacher also recognized the San Antonio educators and volunteers who stepped in to help after Friday’s s storm. <\/p>\n
\u201cI want to thank those educators who are stepping up for the community,\u201d Talarico said. \u201cI want to thank the first responders who are serving their neighbors.\u201d<\/p>\n
Talarico said he believes elected officials in Washington should follow their example.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need a senator who\u2019s going to show up just like those teachers, just like first responders,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
We also questioned Talarico about two data-center projects proposed for San Antonio\u2019s growing Far West Side. One would be built near Rogers Road and State Highway 151. The other is planned near Potranco Road and State Highway 211.<\/p>\n
Residents have raised concerns about the projects\u2019 potential effects on electricity costs, water supplies, noise and surrounding neighborhoods.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got to rein in these data-center companies,\u201d Talarico said. \u201cThey\u2019re showing up in communities without any input from the folks who live there. They\u2019re jacking up utility bills all over the state. They\u2019re using up a lot of water.\u201d<\/p>\n
Talarico said data-center operators should be required to pay for the energy they consume, recycle the water used by their facilities and receive consent from the surrounding community before beginning construction.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need a senator who\u2019s going to crack down on these data-center companies, make them pay for their own energy, make them recycle their water, make them get the consent from the community before they start building,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Talarico accused his Republican opponent, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, of being influenced by campaign contributions from the data-center industry.<\/p>\n
\u201cKen Paxton has taken nearly half a million dollars from these big data-center companies,\u201d Talarico said. \u201cHe\u2019s bought and paid for by the data-center industry, and that\u2019s the last thing we need. We need a senator who\u2019s going to fight for us, not fight for these giant companies.\u201d<\/p>\n
We asked Talarico whether he has accepted money tied to the industry:<\/p>\n
\u201cI have not taken any money from the data-center industry,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t take any money from corporate PACs. That\u2019s been my policy since I first got elected eight years ago, and that\u2019s going to be my policy the entire time I\u2019m in the U.S. Senate.\u201d<\/p>\n
During a separate campaign stop in San Antonio last week, Paxton attacked Talarico\u2019s record in the Texas Legislature and his campaign contributions.<\/p>\n
\u201cEight years in Austin, Talarico did not make your life more affordable,\u201d Paxton said.<\/p>\n
Talarico acknowledged that reaching voters across Texas will be one of the biggest challenges of his campaign.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a big state, and so we\u2019re having to go everywhere,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re talking to everyone, not just Democrats, but independents and Republicans, too. I want to be a senator for all 31 million Texans.\u201d<\/p>\n
FOX San Antonio has requested a sit-down interview with Paxton or an opportunity to travel with him on the campaign trail. As of Wednesday, that request had not been granted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kerrville, Texas \u2014 KERRVILLE, Texas \u2014 Before heading to San Antonio Wednesday afternoon, Democratic U.S. Senate candidate James…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":423698,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[82,84,83],"class_list":["post-423697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423697","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=423697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423697\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/423698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=423697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=423697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=423697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}