‘Texas Needs a Winner’: James Talarico Addresses Packed Crowd in Plano Town Hall

After spending decades as an educator, it would be impossible for Jill Balzer to keep up with each of the hundreds of students who have passed through her classrooms.

But in early 2025, while scrolling through Instagram, a video recommended to her by her algorithm caught her eye. The video featured state Representative James Talarico, a Democrat from San Antonio, delivering an impassioned speech on the Texas House floor. It was one of the many Talarico clips that went viral during last year’s legislative session, shooting the young representative to state political stardom.

“I was like, ‘Is this the same Jimmy Talarico who was in my freshman class at McNeil High School?'” Balzer told the Observer about a message she sent Talarico. “He messaged me right away, and he said, ‘Coach, you’re one of the reasons I went into politics.’ And of course, that’s every teacher’s dream.”

Balzer was one of the nearly 2,000 North Texans who filed into the Plano Event Center on Monday evening for a town hall hosted by Talarico, his first campaign event in the area since launching a bid for U.S. Senate. Talarico faces Dallas Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett for the Democratic nomination. The winner of that primary will attempt to break the losing streak that has haunted Democrats in Texas’ state-wide races since 1994.

Talarico, 36, took questions from the North Texas crowd for more than an hour. He addressed his concerns about unregulated artificial intelligence — “We are about to fall off the cliff”; his desire to pursue stronger legal protections for teachers — “a profession in crisis”; and his favorite food — “breakfast tacos”.

“What kind of breakfast tacos?” Yelled a member of the crowd.

“Ah. A follow-up question. I’d say bacon, egg and cheese,” responded Talarico.

Throughout the town hall, Talarico teetered between the talking points that have helped spur his political celebrity, such as his belief that the interests of billionaires are interfering with governance that is most beneficial for average Americans, and new policy proposals. One, which received a standing ovation from the crowd, came when a 9-year-old boy named Ryan asked what should be done to stop federal immigration raids.

Talarico emphasized his support for immigrant communities and called for laws that would bar ICE agents from wearing masks and would strip away some of the legal protections that have shrouded the agency under President Donald Trump’s administration.

Talarico also previewed a policy proposal that would repeal tax cuts offered to the wealthy under Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill and redistribute the money to bring teacher salaries to $100,000 annually across the United States. Talarico declined to share more details of the proposal with reporters after the town hall, stating that more details would be released by the campaign in the next month. He even cited a former president from Texas, known for increasing federal funding for public schools, to illustrate his point.

“I know it sounds ambitious,” Talarico said. “We have to live up to Lyndon B. Johnson’s ambition … you have a champion in me, and you will have a champion in the United States Senate.”

Talarico, a former teacher himself, said he believes having an educator in the U.S. Senate “will make a difference” for conversations about protections for public school systems and educators. He railed against book banning and school vouchers — topics that Balzer said are important to her as an educator. Her admiration for Talarico doesn’t just stem from their student-teacher background; she said she believes in many of the policies he advocates for.

“The way I taught, you can’t teach like that today. I’d lose my job, just for teaching the truth,” said Balzer, who taught ninth-grade World Geography and encouraged conversations about religion, political values and world conflicts. “So it means everything that we get someone in [the Senate] like James, who will fight for public education. It’s the foundation of our democracy.”

Despite his social media following and stints on shows like the Joe Rogan Experience and the YouTube show Surrounded, some early polling suggests that Talarico still lags behind Crockett in the race to be the Democrats’ Senate nominee. The December survey by Texas Southern University found that Crockett has an 8-point lead over Talarico, thanks, in large part, to name recognition. When asked how he plans to overcome that deficit, Talarico said, “through events like tonight’s” that encourage dialogue with real Texans.

Talarico and Crockett are expected to debate later this month in Georgetown.