{"id":425029,"date":"2026-09-03T13:14:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T13:14:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/425029\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T13:14:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T13:14:15","slug":"james-talaricos-u-s-senate-campaign-had-loteria-in-san-antonio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/425029\/","title":{"rendered":"James Talarico’s U.S. Senate campaign had Loter\u00eda in San Antonio"},"content":{"rendered":"

A campaign rally for Texas Democrats\u2019 U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico<\/a> went on for about 90 minutes without him Tuesday evening \u2014 while roughly 300 attendees listened to mariachi and played Loter\u00eda for merch prizes.<\/p>\n

The gathering was billed as a \u201ccommunity event,\u201d and Talarico told reporters afterwards that he wanted his supporters to mingle and get to know one another beyond this campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo many political events are kind of, the candidate gets up and talks at the people,\u201d Talarico said. \u201cWe wanted to do something where we bring folks together, build community, have some fun, support a great small business, and have an opportunity for folks to talk with each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Supporters of Democrat James Talarico play a game of loter\u00eda at Backyard on Broadway. Credit: Andrea Drusch \/ San Antonio Report<\/p>\n

Texas has a governor\u2019s race and many other contests on the Nov. 3 ballot \u2014 but the U.S. Senate race between Talarico and Republican Ken Paxton<\/a> is by far drawing the most attention.<\/p>\n

Who\u2019s running in the midterm elections? Meet the candidates in our 2026 Voter Guide.<\/a><\/p>\n

Talarico is raising record-breaking sums of money<\/a>, achieving a celebrity-level following on social media, and drawing out nontraditional supporters who are eager to see the 37-year-old in real life.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is probably the most eloquent person that I\u2019ve seen running at this point \u2026 with the exception of [U.S. Sen. Jon] Ossoff (R-Georgia) \u2014 and maybe [former Transportation Secretary and Democratic presidential hopeful] Pete Buttigieg \u2014 but I put him right in there with that three,\u201d said Curren Corder, a retired veterinarian from Alamo Heights, who was attending his first political rally Tuesday night.<\/p>\n

Now Talarico\u2019s campaign would like to harness that fandom to build some Democratic Party infrastructure in a state where it\u2019s been sorely lacking. <\/p>\n

Texas Democrats haven\u2019t won a statewide race in more than 30 years, and struggled to build on their gains after the party\u2019s last superstar, Beto O\u2019Rourke, was no longer on the ballot.<\/p>\n

In Talarico, however, they could soon have another opportunity. <\/p>\n

\u201cI watch all the things he does,\u201d Corder said of the candidate. \u201cBut it\u2019s the first time I\u2019ve ever come to a live one, and I can\u2019t wait to see it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tuesday\u2019s event, however, did include plenty of waiting.<\/p>\n

\"\"Democratic U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico speaks to reporters at Backyard on Broadway Tuesday night. Credit: Andrea Drusch \/ San Antonio Report<\/p>\n

On the steamy September evening, attendees lined up outside Backyard on Broadway well before the 7 p.m. start time. They passed a concert-style merch line, a bag check and a security screening with metal detection wands all before entering.<\/p>\n

Around 7:30 p.m., a speaker started warming up the crowd with ice-breakers, including a show of hands for those at their first rally, first-time voters, and single people who might like to meet a fellow Democrat.<\/p>\n

Then there was Loter\u00eda, mariachi music, and an opening speech from Councilman Jalen McKee-Rodriguez (D2), who seemed to be buying time after finishing his brief prepared remarks.<\/p>\n

When Talarico finally took the stage around 8:45 p.m., he first acknowledged Friday\u2019s deadly storm<\/a> that downed trees, ripped off roofs and left thousands without power.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know that this has been a tough week for San Antonio \u2026 with folks showing up to serve their neighbors, to serve each other,\u201d Talarico said. <\/p>\n

\u201cAs always, San Antonio has shown the world what it means to be a Texan,\u201d he continued. \u201cWe need leaders in Austin and in Washington, who are going to show up for San Antonio.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"A Talarico merch shop outside Backyard on Broadway on Tuesday night. Credit: Andrea Drusch \/ San Antonio Report<\/p>\n

He spoke for about 10 minutes, and then many attendees stuck around for a photo line, where he cut away briefly to take questions from the media.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese kind of events are, I think, indicative of the movement that we\u2019re building in Texas,\u201d Talarico said. \u201cBringing folks together, building community, so that we can take back power for each other, and that\u2019s what we\u2019re going to do in November.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A campaign rally for Texas Democrats\u2019 U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico went on for about 90 minutes without…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":425030,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[8519,37405,5133,2135,1967,147789,82,84,83,92,3028,6251],"class_list":["post-425029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-2026-election","tag-2026-texas-senate-race","tag-democrat","tag-james-talarico","tag-ken-paxton","tag-loteria","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news","tag-top-story","tag-typedaily","tag-wc-500-750"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425029","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=425029"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425029\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/425030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=425029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=425029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=425029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}