This essay is the second installment in a series on the thinkers, upstarts and ideologues battling for control of the Democratic Party.
James Talarico, a Texas Democratic lawmaker running for Senate, was supposed to hold the second rally of his nascent campaign on Sept. 10, the day Charlie Kirk was shot. The horror of the killing shook him deeply, and he thought about canceling. Instead, Talarico retooled his speech to make it all about Kirk’s murder and the algorithmically fueled rancor and contempt deforming American life.
That evening, almost 2,000 people crammed into the sprawling patio of a San Antonio pizza and burger joint called Backyard on Broadway. It was so crowded that before Talarico arrived, the kitchen announced that it had sold out of all its food. There were none of the windup speeches so common at political rallies. Instead, standing inches from the throng, Talarico spoke about Kirk’s death and the atmosphere of hatred suffocating the nation.
“I disagree with Charlie Kirk on almost every political issue, but Charlie Kirk was a child of God,” he said. “There is something broken in this country. Our politics are broken. Our media are broken. Even our relationships with each other feel broken.”
Until he began his Senate campaign, Talarico was a part-time seminary student; he still plans, eventually, to become a minister. That evening in San Antonio, he told me, “I really wanted to show up not as the politician, but as the pastor.” In truth, he was a bit of both. People are hungry, he told the crowd, “for a different kind of politics. Not a politics of fear, not a politics of hate, not a politics of violence, but a politics of love.”
Afterward, he announced that he’d stay long enough to speak one-on-one with anyone who wanted to, and a snaking line formed. Some, including a couple of families with young kids, asked him to pray with them.
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The post He’s Young, Talented and Openly Religious. Is He the Savior Democrats Have Been Waiting for? appeared first on New York Times.
