Deep in her tabs, I think I see the future, I realize this is my last chance …
I want to thank Senator John Cornyn for his years representing our state.
We don’t agree on everything, but we both still believe in public service.
To Senator Cornyn’s supporters: you have a place in our campaign.
— James Talarico (@jamestalarico) May 27, 2026
Ed: Come on, man. No one believes that the Talarico campaign will make room for Cornyn’s supporters or their policy views. Perhaps this is just a gracious outreach, but it’s really more of a shot at Paxton, whose agenda is almost identical to Cornyn’s; only the action plan differs, and even then, not much.
===
Christian Britschgi at Reason: His olive branch is also far less impressive when one considers how substanceless it really is. …
He still wants to hike taxes and the minimum wage. He still wants to make everyone eligible for Medicare. He still wants aggressive antitrust enforcement. He’s still hostile to school choice and in favor of abortion.
Talarico’s only real pitch to conservative voters then is that he is less personally corrupt than the Republican candidate who backs the policies they generally agree with. Even if he makes that pitch with a smile, it’s still a negative appeal to voters who aren’t already in his camp.
This isn’t particularly surprising coming from Talarico. Any hand he extends to conservatives always has a wagging finger on it telling them to get in line.
Ed: “Substanceless” is a very good description of Talarico. Britschgi notes that this has become de rigueur for Dems over the last few years, with Joe Biden being a particularly notable vendor of the substanceless outreach. The fact that pro-life Democrats still find themselves drummed out of the party, especially in leadership, makes the hypocrisy clear.
===
Based on this post, you might think Talarico has adopted some moderate policy positions to win over GOP voters.
But check out his website and he’s running as a party-line Democrat. https://t.co/6atn9TG1ok pic.twitter.com/i5rV2JLURd
— Dominic Pino (@DominicJPino) May 27, 2026
Ed: It’s interesting to see the Washington Post pick up on this. It’s also more true than Pino allows. Talarico is running as a progressive party-line Democrat, fully in line with the DSA. He’s not even able to explain those positions in a way that comes close to moving to the middle either, as M-SNOW discovered …
===
Mediaite: MS NOW host Lawrence O’Donnell pushed Texas state Rep. James Talarico (D) three times to respond directly to attacks on his past statements about trans and intersex kids — often mischaracterized as a belief in “six genders.”
On Wednesday night’s edition of MS NOW’s The Last Word, O’Donnell played the attacks for Talarico and asked him to respond — then hit him with two follow-ups when Talarico changed the subject. The candidate eventually said “no,” Paxton wasn’t telling the truth and that he was taking him “out of context” before turning back to attacking Paxton[.]
Ed: Talarico’s claim wasn’t “mischaracterized” at all. That’s why Talarico was unable to take O’Donnell’s softball invitation to refute it. It’s on video, too …
===
Talarico: They’re going to call me a radical leftist.
Also Talarico: Trans abortions, God is non-binary, six genders, no prisons.
So, yeah. pic.twitter.com/XlswxR1X5A
— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) March 5, 2026
Ed: How was this “mischaracterized”? Modern science obviously recognizes there are many more than two biological sexes. In fact, there are six.” I don’t think that’s a mischaracterization or a comment taken out of context. Talarico had better come up with an explanation for it, because it will come up in the next five months. A lot.
===
WashEx: Talarico made the declaration during a debate in the Texas State Legislature over a measure sponsored by GOP state Rep. Cole Hefner to ban biological men who identify as transgender from participating in female sports in K-12 schools.
“The bill seems to think there are two,” said Talarico, who has a master’s of education from Harvard University. “The one thing I want us to all be aware of, recognize, is that modern science obviously recognizes that there are many more than two biological sexes. In fact, there are six, which honestly, Rep. Hefner surprised me, too.”
Talarico claimed there are “six really common biological sexes” based on X and Y chromosomes.
“The point is that, biologically speaking, scientifically speaking, sex is a spectrum, and oftentimes can be very ambiguous,” Talarico said.
Ed: In case anyone wonders what the context for Talarico’s claim was, it was his argument against restricting access to female spaces to biological sex. That argument won’t fly well with Texans outside of Austin and Travis County either.
===
Scott Jennings: “Let’s say you voted for Cornyn. Are you really going to switch your vote to a guy who thinks there are six genders and it’s immoral to eat meat because of the climate crisis? No Texan believes that other than Talarico. And no Texas Republican is going to switch… pic.twitter.com/iNERODExmM
— RedWave Press (@RedWavePress) May 27, 2026
… And no Texas Republican is going to switch their vote from Cornyn to a Democrat because of that.”
Exactly!
Ed: Yep, exactly. Talarico is some progressive strategist’s idea of what a moderate Republican would look and sound like.
===
CBS News: Former first lady Jill Biden said she was “frightened” by her husband Joe Biden’s 2024 debate performance and thought he was having a stroke.
“I was frightened, because I had never ever seen Joe like that before or since. Never,” Jill Biden told CBS News Sunday Morning’s Rita Braver in an interview airing Sunday on CBS.
“I don’t know what happened,” she said. “As I watched it, I thought, ‘Oh, my God, he’s having a stroke.’ And it scared me to death.”
Ed: No one’s buying this, are they? Voters had seen this kind of aphasiac performance from Biden on stage for months, if not years, before the debate took place. This is some serious retconning, and it raises the question of why (a) Jill Biden proclaimed him the winner immediately afterward, and (b) why she didn’t demand Joe withdraw from the race right then and there.
===
This is hilarious… two brown guys just walked out of ICE’s Newark facility, and leftist idiots started CHEERING
They didn’t realize that they WORK THERE🤣🤣🤣
“THEY WORK HERE, DUMBASSES!” pic.twitter.com/7eijsjlWVC
— Graham Allen (@GrahamAllen) May 26, 2026
Ed: All this does is reveal the racism of the demonstrators. The reaction of the guards on the other side of the fence is hilarious.
===
Yahoo Sports: Sens. Maria Cantwell, a Washington Democrat, and Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, reached an agreement on Wednesday after more than two months of intense negotiations, adopting a comprehensive bill that would grant the NCAA its long-sought antitrust exemption related to athlete transfers, eligibility and the compensation cap.
The bill — named the Protect College Sports Act — precludes the creation of a so-called “super league”; creates an agent registry limiting fees to 5%; permits the pooling of media rights; and bars coaches from leaving their team before the season ends.
“This bipartisan bill is designed to save the part of college sports that fans actually care about,” Cruz said in an interview with Yahoo Sports announcing the legislation.
Ed: Yay … I guess? I’m struggling to understand why this is a priority for Congress, which hasn’t yet passed a bill to fully fund DHS or voting reforms like voter-ID requirements. But even beyond that, why should the federal government be involved in this at all? The NCAA shouldn’t get an antitrust exemption, and Congress shouldn’t tell college coaches that they can’t quit their jobs in the middle of a season, either.
===
Remind me, is this an FDR quote or a JFK quote? https://t.co/u91uVvN5mN
— Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank) May 27, 2026
Ed: Come on, man. It’s clearly LBJ. You can almost hear the drawl.
===
John Fund at NRO: I won’t spoil the plot of The Lives of Others, other than to note that its story of how a loyal Stasi agent tasked with spying on a playwright and his lover begins to question his mission so captivated Buckley that he “felt the impulse to rush out into the street and drag passersby in to watch the story unfold.”
His D.C. festival already has two official partners: Washington’s excellent Victims of Communism Museum and The Moving Picture Institute.
But renting a deluxe theater and paying licensing fees doesn’t come cheap, so Judge has set up a GoFundMe page. As of now, he’s only $3800 short of his final fundraising goal of $26,000.
Ed: Let’s keep the momentum going!
===
NEW AD: James Talarico is a threat to everything we hold dear.
This is Texas, and we will fight to protect it. pic.twitter.com/7bI9jti6Gz
— Attorney General Ken Paxton (@KenPaxtonTX) May 27, 2026
Ed: Get ready for a massive effort to define Talarico by his own statements. It certainly didn’t take long for Team Paxton to get started.
===
Last night’s Final Word lyric, by request: “Luckenbach, Texas (Back to the Basics of Love)” by Waylon Jennings.
Editor’s note: If we thought our job in pushing back against the Academia/media/Democrat censorship complex was over with the election, think again. This is going to be a long fight. If you’re digging these Final Word posts and want to join the conversation in the comments — and support independent platforms — why not join our VIP Membership program? Choose VIP to support Hot Air and access our premium content, VIP Gold to extend your access to all Townhall Media platforms and participate in this show, or VIP Platinum to get access to even more content and discounts on merchandise. Use the promo code FIGHT to join or to upgrade your existing membership level today, and get 60% off!
