James Dell Talarico ( , born May 17, 1989) is an American politician, Presbyterian seminarian, and educator serving since 2018 as a member of the Texas House of Representatives. He is the Democratic Party's nominee in the 2026 U.S. Senate election in Texas.
Born in Round Rock, Texas, Talarico graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a Bachelor of Arts in government in 2011, and from Harvard University with a Master of Education degree in education policy in 2016. Before entering politics, Talarico was a middle school English teacher and an executive director for an education nonprofit. He is serving his fourth term in the Texas House of Representatives, having first been elected in 2018. While serving in the Texas House, Talarico started to pursue a Master of Divinity at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary.
In 2025, he announced his candidacy for the United States Senate in 2026. He defeated U.S. representative Jasmine Crockett in the Democratic primary and will face the Republican nominee, Texas attorney general Ken Paxton, in the general election.
Early life and education James Talarico was born James Dell Collins in Round Rock, Texas, on May 17, 1989, to Tamara Causey and Steve Collins. A few months later she married Mark Talarico, who adopted James and gave him his surname. Talarico attended Round Rock Independent School District schools and graduated from McNeil High School in Williamson County, Texas, where he competed in speech and debate. He also acted in the school's drama productions, including playing Danny Zuko in Grease. Talarico's maternal grandfather, Jimmy Causey, was a Baptist preacher at several churches in South Texas.
Before earning his Bachelor of Arts degree in government from the University of Texas at Austin, he organized students for tuition relief. Talarico later earned a Master of Education degree in education policy from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and went on to receive a Master of Arts in theological studies at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary but as of June 2026 had not yet completed his Master of Divinity there.
Early career
In 2011, Talarico joined Teach For America and taught sixth-grade English language arts at Rhodes Middle School on the west side of San Antonio. Talarico has said his experience teaching at-risk and low-income students shaped his understanding of Texas's socioeconomic disparities and his advocacy for increased school funding and student well-being. After two years of teaching, he became Central Texas executive director for Reasoning Mind, a nonprofit that implements computer-based math lessons in classrooms.
Texas House of Representatives Talarico was first elected to the Texas House of Representatives in 2018 at age 29, becoming the legislature's youngest member during the 2019 session. During his four terms in the Republican-majority legislature, Talarico served as lead author of nearly 200 bills, 16 of which became law. Eight of the enacted bills addressed education, childcare, or youth workforce development.
First term (20182019) Talarico launched his campaign for the Texas House shortly after incumbent state legislator Larry Gonzales chose not to run for reelection. He won the concurrent special and general elections against Republican nominee Cynthia Flores, garnering media attention for walking the full length of the district. He was sworn into the Texas House of Representatives on November 20, 2018, and appointed to the Public Education and Juvenile Justice Committees.
In the 86th Texas Legislature, Talarico filed the Whole Student Agenda, a 24-bill public education policy legislative package. The legislature passed two bills from this list. The first, HB 3012, required that students suspended from school have an alternative means to receive coursework. HB 455, also sponsored by Talarico, was written to provide a standardized school recess policy. Governor Greg Abbott vetoed the bill.
Talarico was a coauthor of House Bill 3, the school-finance legislation enacted in 2019. The law increased pre-student funding provided funding for teacher pay increases, and funded full-day prekindergarten for eligible four-year-olds.
Second term (2020–2021) Talarico defeated former Hutto city council member Lucio Valdez with 51.5% of the vote. In the 87th Texas Legislature, he was reappointed to the Public Education and Juvenile Justice Committees and appointed to the Calendars Committee. During the 87th legislative session, Talarico filed HB 54, also known as Javier Ambler's Law, and the legislature passed it. It prohibits state law enforcement agencies, except game wardens, from entering into contracts with reality TV shows that film them in the line of duty. This was in response to the role Live PD is alleged to have played in the killing of Javier Ambler by Williamson County, Texas, police. Talarico had previously criticized Sheriff Robert Chody's handling of the incident, calling for his resignation.
Talarico was the primary author of HB 30, which provides a path for minors in the criminal justice system who have been adjudicated as adults or who are eligible under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act to earn a high school diploma instead of pursuing a high school equivalency.
Talarico introduced House Bill 41 to establish class-size limits for public school prekindergarten programs. Similar legislation, Senate Bill 2081, became law in 2021, establishing a maximum of 22 students in covered prekindergarten classes, subject to exceptions and waivers.
In 2018, Talarico was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes during a five-day stint in the ICU after a campaign event where he walked across his district. After his diagnosis, he paid $684 for his first 30-day supply of insulin. Talarico later helped pass House Bill 82, capping insulin costs at $25 per month. In 2021, Talarico was a joint author of House Bill 82 and one of the House sponsors of its Senate companion, Senate Bill 827. SB 827 became law, capping out-of-pocket copays for a 30-day supply of insulin at $25 for people covered by state-regulated health plans.
In the summer of 2021, Democrats in the Texas House of Representatives, including Talarico, organized a quorum break in an attempt to stop the passage of the Election Integrity Protection Act of 2021. They flew to Washington, D.C., to lobby the Senate to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act and the For the People Act, which would have superseded parts of the state legislation. Talarico was one of the first Democrats to return to Texas as the quorum break progressed, arguing that the effort had achieved its goals, that Democrats needed to reduce the harm of Republican legislation, and that an indefinite quorum break was unsustainable. Some representatives who remained in D.C. strongly criticized him for this. Quorum was eventually reestablished and the legislation passed. At the end of the legislative session, Texas Monthly magazine named Talarico one of the Top 10 Best Legislators.
Third term (20222023) After his district was made significantly more Republican during the 2020 redistricting process, Talarico announced he would run in neighboring House District 50, a safe Democratic seat being vacated by Celia Israel. His previous district was a swing district. Talarico won the primary election with 78.5% of the vote and the general election with 76.8%. During the 88th Texas Legislature, he was the primary author of House Bill 25, which would create the Texas Wholesale Prescription Drug Importation Program and allow Texas to import lower-cost Canadian medications approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Talarico was an outspoken critic of legislation that would have required the display of the Ten Commandments in all elementary and secondary classrooms, on the constitutional grounds of separation of church and state. He called the measure "un-American" and "un-Christian". The bill was not signed into law.
Talarico was a House sponsor of Senate Bill 1145, which allowed cities and counties to offer property-tax exemptions to qualifying childcare facilities. The measure was intended to reduce providers' operating costs amid concerns about the high cost of daycare. Eligible facilities must participate in the Texas Rising Star quality-rating program and have at least 20% of enrolled children receiving state childcare subsidies.
On July 13, 2023, Talarico voted for Senate Bill 2, which provided for increasing the school district residence homestead exemption from $40,000 to $100,000, subject to voter approval of a constitutional amendment.
Talarico was a coauthor of House Bill 9, which established the Texas Broadband Infrastructure Fund in 2023. Following voter approval of the related constitutional amendment, the fund received $1.5 billion for broadband development and other telecommunications infrastructure.
Fourth term (20242025) Talarico defeated Nathan Boynton in the Democratic primary and was unopposed in the general election. In 2025, he continued to oppose placing the Ten Commandments in Texas public schools. The specific legislation, SB 10, required every classroom to visibly display a poster containing the Ten Commandments, sized at least 16 by 20 inches. When the bill was first brought to the floor of the Texas House, Talarico called a point of order that delayed its passage. The bill ultimately passed the legislature, but videos of his remarks against it went viral and led to an appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience.
During the legislative debate over private school vouchers, Talarico, who opposed the legislation, attempted to amend the bill to have a statewide referendum determine whether the program would go into effect. The legislation passed and was signed into law without the amendment. In August 2025, Talarico was one of 51 Democratic Texas House members who broke quorum to delay the passage of mid-decade new congressional maps. While he was absent from the state, Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit to expel Talarico and 12 other representatives from the House by declaring their seats vacant. Talarico and the others named in the suit returned to the state before the Texas Supreme Court ruled in the case. In May 2026, the court determined it did not have jurisdiction to resolve a legislative dispute and dismissed the case.
On May 21, 2025, Talarico voted for Senate Bill 4, which provided for increasing the school district residence homestead exemption from $100,000 to $140,000, subject to voter approval of a constitutional amendment.
Talarico was a joint author of House Bill 3133, enacted in 2025, which established reporting and removal requirements for explicit deepfake material on social media platforms. The law required platforms to acknowledge reports, remove reported material and known identical copies, and take measures to prevent material determined to be explicit deepfake content from being reposted.
On April 24, 2025, Talarico voted for House Bill 18, the Rural Health Stabilization and Innovation Act. The legislation established a State Office of Rural Hospital Finance to provide technical assistance to rural hospitals and created programs to assess their financial vulnerability and expand access to pediatric mental healthcare.
Committee assignments For the 89th legislative session: Committee on Trade, Workforce & Economic Development (vice chair) Committee on Public Education Subcommittee on Academic & Career-Oriented Education (vice chair) Committee on House Administration
2026 U.S. Senate campaign