Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico is campaigning openly on raising taxes on wealthy Americans and large corporations as part of his bid for the U.S. Senate seat in Texas.
“I’ve told every wealthy person I’ve come across in this race: If you are ok with getting taxed more, if you’re ok with me limiting your influence in politics, you are welcome to join this movement that we are building,” Talarico said, crediting billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban as a supporter.
Talarico’s campaign platform calls for what he describes as a “fairer” tax system. “Make giant corporations and the wealthiest Americans pay their fair share of taxes. (That way, we can cut taxes for working families and small businesses,)” his platform states.
His campaign website says he wants to make “billionaires pay their fair share in taxes,” including “by imposing a higher tax on their income and capital gains and ending the dubious ‘buy, borrow, die’ loopholes that billionaires use to grow untaxed wealth.” He also proposes raising the corporate tax rate and has spoken out against changes to SNAP and WIC programs.
Talarico opposed the tax and spending package known as the “big, beautiful bill,” which extended tax cuts enacted in 2017 and added provisions eliminating taxes on tips and overtime pay. Without the bill’s passage, tax brackets would have reverted to pre-2018 levels.
“In that big ugly bill, they gutted our health care, they defunded schools, and they did all that to cut taxes for their donors. So, when you’re doing the people’s business instead of your donors’ business, you fight for things like I’ve fought for at the state capitol,” Talarico said.
Talarico, who has spoken publicly about stepping away from completing his ordination through a seminary program to run for Senate, has described his campaign in spiritual terms.
“And when we’re out here and we’re giving hope to people who have been starved of hope, when we bring people together who normally wouldn’t be together, it does feel like we’re doing some kind of ministry,” Talarico said.
Talarico has previously referred to God in nonbinary terms. In an invocation he delivered on the floor of the Texas House of Representatives, he closed the prayer by invoking “all your many names” rather than a specific religious figure.
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