Texas – Texas Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico said he believes recent changes to voting rights protections and Texas’ redistricting efforts represent a serious threat to Black political power, while revisiting the decision by Democratic lawmakers to leave the state last year to block a Republican-backed congressional map.
Talarico made the comments during an Aug. 5 appearance on The Breakfast Club, where he discussed his Senate campaign, voting rights, redistricting and his record in the Texas House. The interview was published by iHeart and included a transcript of the conversation.
Asked about protecting voting rights, Talarico described the current political environment as “the most aggressive attack on Black political power since Jim Crow.” He pointed to Supreme Court decisions over the previous year and Texas’ redistricting efforts as part of what he characterized as a broader effort to reduce the political influence of Black and Brown voters.
Talarico specifically criticized the way he said the districts are drawn, arguing that white voters have greater political influence under the new boundaries.
“When you look at now how the districts are drawn, a white Texan has a lot more political power,” Talarico said during the interview. “Their vote matters more than the vote of our Black and brown neighbors.”
His comments were later highlighted by Team Talarico in a post shared Aug. 7. The campaign account reposted portions of the interview, including his criticism of the redistricting map and his description of it as systematically diluting the voting power of Black and Brown Texans.
Talarico then connected the issue to the Texas House Democrats’ decision to break quorum in August 2025. He recalled that he and other Democratic lawmakers left Texas and traveled to Illinois in an effort to prevent the House from having enough members present to conduct business and vote on the proposed congressional maps.
The decision came after Texas Republicans advanced a redistricting proposal that could have altered several congressional districts. Reuters reported at the time that Democrats left the state specifically to deny Republicans the quorum needed to redraw Texas’ 38 congressional districts. The effort was supported by former President Donald Trump, who had pushed Texas Republicans to pursue the mid-decade redistricting plan.
Talarico said the walkout was intended to prevent the Legislature from taking up the maps while also drawing national attention to the issue.
He acknowledged during the interview that breaking quorum was not necessarily a sustainable legislative strategy. Texas lawmakers have families, jobs and other responsibilities, he said, making an extended absence from the state difficult.
But he argued that the tactic accomplished its broader objective by turning the Texas redistricting fight into a national political story.
Reporting from The Texas Tribune at the time showed the walkout quickly became a major political confrontation. More than 50 Democratic lawmakers left Texas, leaving the House without the number of members needed to advance legislation. Republican leaders subsequently moved to issue civil warrants for absent lawmakers and sought ways to compel them to return.
The proposed map was not simply a routine redrawing of district boundaries. The Texas Tribune reported that the map approved by the House redistricting committee could have flipped five U.S. House seats from Democratic to Republican control. The proposed boundaries targeted Democratic-held districts in the Austin, Dallas and Houston areas as well as South Texas.
Republican lawmakers acknowledged that political considerations played a role in the proposal. State Rep. Todd Hunter, the Republican carrying the bill, said the proposed districts were based on political performance.
The walkout also produced a confrontation between Texas Democrats and Republican state leaders. Gov. Greg Abbott demanded that absent lawmakers return to Austin and threatened removal proceedings. Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows also sought authority to issue civil warrants allowing law enforcement to return the lawmakers to the Capitol.
The situation escalated further after Texas Democrats reported that a bomb threat had been made at the hotel outside Chicago where some of the lawmakers were staying. The Texas Tribune reported that the hotel was evacuated and that Democratic lawmakers said they remained determined to continue their opposition to the maps.
Talarico said during the recent interview that the goal of leaving Texas was ultimately to put the redistricting fight under a national spotlight. He argued that when the maps were first introduced, they were receiving little attention, but the quorum break changed that.
He also pointed to efforts in other states, including California and Virginia, as part of what he described as a broader response to the Texas redistricting effort.
The remarks come as Talarico campaigns for the U.S. Senate after winning the Democratic nomination earlier this year. Reuters reported in March that Talarico narrowly defeated U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett in the Democratic primary, setting up a general election campaign for the seat currently held by Republican Sen. John Cornyn.
His latest comments show that voting rights and redistricting remain central themes of his campaign, while also allowing him to revisit one of the most consequential episodes of his tenure in the Texas Legislature.
The full Breakfast Club interview was published Aug. 5 and ran for about an hour. According to iHeart, the discussion also covered Talarico’s Senate campaign, Ken Paxton, Jasmine Crockett, support for Black voters and businesses, differences between Democrats and Republicans, and his faith.
