{"id":473006,"date":"2026-10-22T04:38:16","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T04:38:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/473006\/"},"modified":"2026-10-22T04:38:16","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T04:38:16","slug":"house-dems-and-one-former-republican-stump-for-talarico-in-houston","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/473006\/","title":{"rendered":"House Dems \u2014 And One Former Republican \u2014 Stump for Talarico in Houston"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Like this article? Keep independent journalism alive. Support HuffPost<\/a>.<\/p>\n

RICHMOND, TX \u2014 Democratic Senate hopeful James Talarico delivered his closing argument to Texans in a toss-up Houston suburb Wednesday night.<\/p>\n

The state representative was joined at a rally in Fort Bend County by congressional Democrats, who urged voters to turn out and trounce state Attorney General Ken Paxton at the polls in just under two weeks.<\/p>\n

But one of the more notable moments of the night came from an ex-Republican city councilman who excoriated his former party for abandoning kitchen table issues.<\/p>\n

“I want a politics that helps your kids be able to afford a home, not one that teaches them who to hate if they can’t get one,” said Luke Orlando, who sits on the city council of Pearland, Texas. “I tried and tried to build that from inside the Republican Party, but I’m done spending election after election asking these politicians to become something they’ve shown over and over they’re not willing to be.”<\/p>\n

Orlando, who endorsed Talarico from the stage, slammed Paxton for his 2023 impeachment at the hands of the Republican Texas legislature and pointed to reports about his lavish trips abroad.<\/p>\n

“Republican leaders looked at the decent people who trusted them and decided they would swallow anything,” he fumed.<\/p>\n

Speaking alongside Orlando in a crowded banquet hall Wednesday night were Rep. Lizzie Fletcher (D-Texas) and Rep. Al Green (D-Texas), who shook his iconic gold-capped cane as he predicted a “blue tsunami” in the Lone Star State.<\/p>\n

Talarico himself took the stage to a raucous reception as he delivered his final pitch to voters.<\/p>\n

A recent addition to the Democrat’s repertoire: harsh words for trillionaire Elon Musk, who has reportedly dumped more than $150 million into the Texas Senate race to float Paxton, still polling just behind Talarico ahead of Election Day.<\/p>\n

“Elon Musk is trying to buy this Senate seat,” Talarico said from the lectern as the crowd booed. The candidate blamed Musk for recent attack ads, mailers and text messages smearing his campaign. And he pushed back against what he framed as one rich man attempting to impose his will on Texans.<\/p>\n

“Elon Musk wants our land,” he said. “He wants our water. He wants our tax dollars, and he wants his very own personal United States senator.”<\/p>\n

According to recent polling averages, Talarico holds a narrow, 48% lead over Paxton.<\/p>\n

This article<\/a> originally appeared on HuffPost. Support fearless, unflinching journalism that holds power accountable and relentlessly pursues the truth. Become a HuffPost member today<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Like this article? Keep independent journalism alive. Support HuffPost. RICHMOND, TX \u2014 Democratic Senate hopeful James Talarico delivered…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":473007,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,58,57],"class_list":["post-473006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473006","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=473006"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473006\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/473007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=473006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=473006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=473006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}