James Talarico, a Democrat running for a US Senate seat in Texas, met with voters Wednesday night during a town-hall event hosted by CNN and Jubilee.
He repeatedly sought to reach out to skeptical Republicans and independents, insisting he is willing to break with his own party if doing so benefits the state.
“I’m a proud Texas Democrat, but I already have a religion and I already have a sports team,” he said. “So, I have no problem sharing hard truths with my party if it’s what’s best for Texas.”
Talarico, a former seminary student, peppered his remarks with references to his “spiritual heroes” and made references to the last three popes. He said he felt he could find common ground with conservatives — in part by looking to solutions to the problems that fuel cultural divides, rather than treating those divides as a political hammer with which to “beat each other over the head.”
He will face Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton in November’s midterm elections. Paxton — who has refused to debate Talarico and has not responded to an invitation to hold his own town hall — was absent from nearly all of Wednesday night’s discussions in Fort Worth.
Democrats need a net gain of four seats to claim the Senate majority, and flipping a GOP-held seat in Texas would be a significant boost to that effort.
Here are some of the stories that made headlines over the past week, as well as some photos that caught our eye.
