James Talarico

Wednesday

Neal Pollack

The Democrats’ Texas blowout was inevitable

No one who paid even five minutes of attention to Texas politics this fall should be surprised by tonight’s results. James Talarico conducted a normal, respectable campaign with good voter outreach, and focused heavily on affordability issues. He ran it slickly, but it was nothing special. More than anything, he was fortunate in his choice of opponents.  Ken Paxton, in addition to being personally unappealing, was the most overtly self-dealing political candidate for major national office in a generation, and couldn't hide his paper trail. He also ran the most incompetent campaign imaginable, attempting to paint Talarico as a weirdo sex-freak pervert, when Talarico is actually just a mildly woke run-of-the-mill liberal.

texas talarico

Tuesday

Roger Kimball

And my final prediction for the midterms is…

I’ll be weighing in again on the midterms early Wednesday. But since this is the season of prediction, prophecy, punditry and prognostication, I thought I would take my cards, which I have grasped here in my hand, and lay them on this virtual table. The only thing certain is uncertainty – except when we are talking about the experts I see that the latest New York Times/Siena poll has the following numbers for the Senate race: Alaska: D+2, Iowa: D+1, Michigan: D+11, Ohio: D+5, Maine: D+6, Texas: D+7. Amazing! The people who would respond to a pollster that uttered the name “New York Times” report their preferences in such a way that the Democrats are ahead in not one, not two, but all these tightly contested races. “Tightly contested?

Friday

Neal Pollack

Where is James Talarico? 

In the midst of the most contentious Texas US Senate race in a generation, Democratic nominee James Talarico suddenly and mysteriously dropped off the campaign trail on September 29, and has yet to return, though his campaign claims a resurrection is coming tomorrow.  ​Talarico last appeared in public at a fundraiser alongside Robert DeNiro in New York City, which isn’t in Texas. On September 30, he showed his face on Zoom at a forum for the Hispanic Business Council, and said he had the flu. “I was ready to eat my favorite quesadilla tacos, but I was starting to feel kind of under the weather a few days ago, and last night it got so bad that I went to the urgent care here in Dallas,” he said.

Talarico
mudslinging
Charles Lipson

The mudslinging midterms

This is not an edifying election. That’s putting it delicately. Any honest survey of the quality of the candidates and the arguments they are making will leave you deeply depressed. All across the country, voters are being asked to choose among truly dreadful candidates, whose main argument is that “the other guy is much worse.” Both parties do it. They do it because it works.   Unfortunately, the candidates don’t have to exaggerate to underscore how bad their opponents are. That doesn’t stop them from making it their battle cry. “My opponent is more corrupt than Tony Soprano.” “My opponent believes transgenders should play in your kid’s sport. After he’s rammed that outrage down your throat, he’ll force your kid to marry one.

Thursday

Damian Thompson

Why Democrats can’t close the God gap

We’ve heard a lot about a “God gap” between Republican and Democratic voters in the United States – and for good reason. The gap between churchgoing conservatives and secular progressives, when measured by voting habits, has become conspicuously wide. In 1980, 40 percent of Democrats attended church regularly, with GOP voters a couple of points higher. Today, Republican church attendance is still in the low to mid-40s, while less than a quarter of Democrat voters are regular worshippers; only 17 percent of Harris voters in 2024 reported weekly attendance. Meanwhile, according to the Pew Research Center, roughly 40 percent of Democrat or Democrat-leaning voters are religiously unaffiliated (atheists, agnostics or “nones”) compared to only 21 percent of Republican voters.

Friday

Cockburn

James Fishback’s OnlyFans parley

Underdog candidate for Florida governor James Fishback went face-to-camera to pitch his 50 percent income tax for OnlyFans creators last month. It would be called a “sin tax” meant to discourage “certain behaviors.” This came at around the time he got into an X spat with Sophie Rain, a Florida resident believed to be one of the site’s top earners. This week, he joined a Kick stream hosted by Myron Gaines* to discuss the policy with some OnlyFans creators. “It’s not a war against women,” Fishback explains, “it’s a war against a platform that exploits, commodifies, and objectifies women.

james fishback onlyfans

Tuesday

Cockburn

Elon *does* have friends… in high places

Where are you going, Elon? Where have you been? The 87-year-old novelist Joyce Carol Oates unleashed her X account to excoriate the app’s owner Elon Musk this weekend. “So curious that such a wealthy man never posts anything that indicates that he enjoys or is even aware of what virtually everyone appreciates – scenes from nature, pet dog or cat, praise for a movie, music, a book (but doubt that he reads); pride in a friend’s or relative’s accomplishment; condolences for someone who has died... In fact he seems totally uneducated, uncultured. The poorest persons on Twitter may have access to more beauty & meaning in life than the ‘most wealthy person in the world.’” OK, Joyce.

Elon Musk