Republican leaders in Texas are turning up the heat on Democrat U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico. With the divisive May 26 runoff between TX Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) and incumbent Republican Sen. John Cornyn just around the corner, Talarico is being hailed by Democrats as the Great White Hope who could flip the Texas Senate seat blue. A Democrat has not held a U.S. Senate seat in the Lone Star State for 32 years.
Their most recent attacks: the state representative’s stance on crime and border security. Despite claims that he supports border security and the arrest of cartels and violent criminals, Talarico’s words and votes tell a different story. On the stump, Talarico’s speeches on this are the usual touchy-feely squishiness about “neighbors,” coupled with “ICE BAD,” and “masked agents disappearing people” rhetoric.
WATCH:
ICE should be cracking down on the cartels, not our communities.
ICE should be deporting gang members, not small business owners.
ICE should be hunting down human traffickers, not moms and babies. pic.twitter.com/zOSbfusNAj
— James Talarico (@jamestalarico) November 17, 2025
Now the Republicans are going back to 2025, when Talarico missed the key vote in the state House on “Jocelyn’s Law.” This bill would have added an amendment to the Texas constitution to deny bail to violent illegal immigrants who are charged with a felony. Because it lacked bipartisan support, the bill failed.
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico is being ripped by critics accusing him of making a “disgusting” decision to be absent during a vote on a Texas bill to automatically deny bail to illegal immigrants charged with violent felonies after a local preteen was strangled to death.
As a member of the Texas House of Representatives in 2025, Talarico was absent during the final voting on a bill dubbed by state lawmakers “Jocelyn’s Law,” in honor of slain Houston preteen Jocelyn Nungaray. The measure, which would have added a Texas constitutional amendment to deny bail to illegal immigrants charged with violent felonies, ended up failing due to lack of bipartisan support.
Twelve-year-old Nungaray was kidnapped, raped, and murdered by two illegal aliens in June 2024, and along with the murder and rape of 22-year-old Georgia nursing student Laken Riley in February 2024, these tragic deaths were flashpoints in the 2024 presidential campaign and brought greater attention to the criminal illegals flooding across our Southern border.
Talarico’s actions before the final vote were telling. Talarico managed to be available to vote down Republicans who wanted to kill amendments to the bill which favored giving exemptions to illegal aliens under certain circumstances — even the violent ones.
But Talarico didn’t bother to be there for the vote on the full bill, giving credence to the criticisms currently being lodged against him.
Before being absent for the final vote, Talarico voted against killing two amendments to the bill that would have exempted immigrants present in the country on humanitarian parole,