Taking the House of Representatives would be great for the Democrats, but the real prize in a very real sense is the Senate and Texas is the place that could make that a reality. If only James Taylor Rico can beat either John Cornyn or Ken Paxton. And according to the most recent poll, he has a chance of that actually happening. Because in the Texas Public Opinion [00:00:19] Research Survey, which was conducted in mid April, likely general election voters in Texas say that they would back Taylor Rico over incumbent John Cornyn. 44 % to 41%, which is just outside the polls margin of error. Another 11 % of respondents say that they're undecided. In a hypothetical [00:00:36] matchup, on the other hand, against Ken Paxton, his advantage widens to five points, 56 to 41, with just 9 % of respondents undecided. And that's kind of interesting because look, undecideds can go either way. But the political wins are not necessarily at the back of the [00:00:53] Republicans at this point. And also if you're going to be undecided about James Tallarico, who many voters will have only heard of in the last couple of weeks or months. And John Cornyn, who has been in the public eye in Texas for 85 years at this point. I feel like you probably, [00:01:10] if you're going to be convinced to support John Cornyn, you already have been. I could be wrong, but that's just my view. And so all of that sounds good. But I want you to remember that the Republicans have been trying to pitch James Tallarico. as some sort of wide-eyed liberal, a radical or whatever. So obviously more independent and moderate voters are not gonna be interested [00:01:30] in a guy like that, right? Well, ah not necessarily. Here's the sort of thing that they're spreading about him to lead you to believe he's too radical. Libs of TikTok said, this is James Tellerico who just won the Texas Democratic primary for US Senate. Quote, trans children are God's children made in God's own image. There's nothing wrong with them, nothing at all. That's the [00:01:50] whole tweet. that Chaya Reichach or whatever thinks is disqualifying. That this guy who's super religious, more than all the fake Christians of the right combined, believes that there's nothing wrong with them and that God loves all of his children. Which I'm pretty sure is just [00:02:06] like what the Bible says. But anyway, let's check in with the strategy because they're trying to do the uh she's for they then thing. Well, In both hypothetical matchups, Tallerico leads among independent voters by more than 20 percentage points. That's 51-29 against [00:02:23] Cornyn, 53-28 against Paxton. So independents are not buying the trans stuff. Similar trans is seen among moderate voters who back him by more than 40 percentage points. Tallerico leads Cornyn 62 to 19 and Paxton 65 to 16. So I don't know, if your whole thing is that you're [00:02:44] trying to make him seem like he's I don't know Zoran Mamdani combined with AOC, moderates seem pretty comfortable James Tallarico at this point. And I will also just let you know, he has far out out raised both of the Republicans at least as of so far so he's got some money [00:03:00] to run on as well. What do think Sharon? Yeah, and honestly, because I believe money should be out of politics that part scares me but he has to. I mean, it's super important and shows just how many people are excited about him which we've had an issue with. we've had an issue [00:03:16] with. He's saying, and I hope will do the right things to energize people. So look, they can muddy him up all they want. He's pretty good at speaking to camera and speaking directly to people to define himself. And he's got the money to put out ads and define himself further [00:03:35] and combat what they're trying to do. Yeah, 100%. I mean, I need to check in on the sort of ads that he's running. I hope that- He's got good advisors and all that. I hope that they've tapped into people who know how to run these Texas campaigns. But at least as of right now, he's doing pretty well. And there's every reason to believe, knock on acrylic, [00:03:54] that the next few months are going to be even harder for the Republicans as gas prices continue to go up. As Donald Trump continues to talk only about ballroom at every opportunity he can. So really hoping that Tala Rico can make it through. Because if he does, that makes the path to Democrats retaking the Senate significantly easier.