James Talarico is taking aim at Donald Trump, billionaires and what he calls a broken economic system. Speaking to supporters in Kerrville, Texas, Talarico unveiled his vision for a “New American Dream”, focused on affordability, economic opportunity, rebuilding the middle class and taking on billionaire influence in politics.
Talarico argued that working Americans are struggling with the rising costs of housing, groceries, healthcare, education and childcare while wealth continues to concentrate among the richest Americans. He also attacked what he described as “trickle-down economics” and called for stronger worker protections, higher wages, affordable housing, debt relief and greater investment in families.
Watch the full speech and Talarico’s fiery message on Trump, billionaires, corruption, the economy and his vision for America.
#JamesTalarico #Talarico #Trump #DonaldTrump #TrumpNews #NewAmericanDream #Billionaires #AmericanEconomy #Economy #AffordabilityCrisis #MiddleClass #TexasPolitics #TexasSenate #USPolitics #Democrats #Republicans #BreakingNews #PoliticalNews #2026Midterms #Midterms2026
~PR.462~HT.408~ED.532~VG.HM~
Talarico argued that working Americans are struggling with the rising costs of housing, groceries, healthcare, education and childcare while wealth continues to concentrate among the richest Americans. He also attacked what he described as “trickle-down economics” and called for stronger worker protections, higher wages, affordable housing, debt relief and greater investment in families.
Watch the full speech and Talarico’s fiery message on Trump, billionaires, corruption, the economy and his vision for America.
#JamesTalarico #Talarico #Trump #DonaldTrump #TrumpNews #NewAmericanDream #Billionaires #AmericanEconomy #Economy #AffordabilityCrisis #MiddleClass #TexasPolitics #TexasSenate #USPolitics #Democrats #Republicans #BreakingNews #PoliticalNews #2026Midterms #Midterms2026
~PR.462~HT.408~ED.532~VG.HM~
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00To unrig this economy, I will fight to raise our pay. I will fight to lower our costs. I will
00:06fight for this new American dream. And unlike Ken Paxton, I will fight to keep your far-earned money where
00:14it belongs in your pocket.
00:17Thank you all so much for being here. Thank you. Thank you, Chairwoman, for those kind words and for your
00:24service to this community. And I'm not just saying this because I'm in Kerrville, Texas, but my favorite tacos are
00:31at Tacos to Go, which is not too far from here.
00:37I am so, so happy to be here in the Hill Country. Thank you to the volunteers in the vests
00:43who made this event possible. Thank you to all of you for showing up here.
00:52The Texas Hill Country means so much to me. My paternal grandparents lived on a little piece of land in
00:59Harper, Texas, not too far from here.
01:03And my grandpa Tallarico's ashes are buried in his favorite Texas live oak on that property. I have so many
01:13memories of this place, of this land, of these people.
01:18The Hill Country means so much to my family. In fact, my little sister, Madeline, decided to go to school
01:23out here, and she graduated from Shriner University right here in Kerrville, Texas.
01:31I told you. I'm not joking about tacos to go. I know Kerrville, and it is so good to be
01:37back here, and thank you for such a warm welcome.
01:41I am grateful that all of you are here. I know that this has been a difficult year for our
01:47Hill Country, and I know that Kerrville has endured more pain than any community should have to endure.
01:55But you've also shown the world what it means to be a Texan. You have taken care of each other.
02:02You've taken care of your neighbors.
02:05Even when the people in power stopped showing up, politicians in Austin and in Washington have let this community down.
02:13I will always show up for the Texas Hill Country. And as your senator, as your senator, I will fight
02:26to get you the resources that you need to rebuild and prepare for future disasters.
02:31That is the solemn commitment that I can make to you tonight. I am so thankful for the work that
02:38y'all have done over the past year.
02:40I'm so thankful for the courage and compassion and commitment that this community has shown the world.
02:46And I'm grateful that you're here, even as you rebuild, even as you grieve. I don't take that lightly.
02:52We are on our new American dream tour. We are traveling to 10 cities across Texas talking about a new
03:00vision for our economy.
03:03One thing is true across the state, in big cities and small towns, in red areas and blue areas alike,
03:10all of us are struggling to survive in this economy.
03:14Texans, no matter how hard they work, no matter how much they save and stretch and sacrifice, those ends never
03:24seem to meet.
03:25A few days before America's 250th birthday, I met a grandmother in Houston, Texas. Her name is Augusta.
03:34Augusta cares for her five-year-old grandson who has autism, and she works at the airport, clocking 10-hour
03:42shifts.
03:42But her wages don't cover her basic living expenses, including rent for her small apartment, which is now $1,500
03:52a month.
03:53She and her grandson are now facing eviction.
03:58Augusta is working hard. She's playing by the rules. She's taking responsibility. She's caring for those around her.
04:07What kind of country are we if we let a good woman like that go down?
04:12In the U.S. Senate, we are going to have Augusta's back.
04:17We're going to have the backs of every Texan who is working hard and playing by the rules.
04:22We know it doesn't have to be this way because it wasn't always this way.
04:28The young people here may not remember this, but those of you who are a little older might.
04:33You used to be able to afford to live a good life in America.
04:37You used to be able to buy a home in your 20s.
04:40You used to be able to go to college for cheap or free.
04:44You used to be able to support a whole family with one paycheck.
04:49You used to be able to afford to raise a family and have kids and retire comfortably.
04:54You used to be able to afford to fulfill your God-given potential.
04:58We called it the American dream.
05:02In the middle of the 20th century, we invested in health care and education.
05:07We built homes and highways.
05:10We protected workers' rights and workers' paychecks.
05:13We blocked consolidation and we encouraged competition.
05:18And in the process, we built the largest, strongest middle class that the world has ever seen.
05:29But today, that middle class is disappearing.
05:35For too many of our neighbors, for too many Texans like Augusta, the American dream has become an American nightmare.
05:45It is too expensive to buy a home.
05:47It's too expensive to get married and to have kids.
05:51It's too expensive to retire comfortably.
05:53People are working hard.
05:55They're playing by the rules.
05:56But those rules of today weren't written for us.
06:00Those rules were written for billionaires.
06:03We can't afford a home, but Jeff Bezos has at least a dozen.
06:08We can't afford to fill up our tanks, but Mark Zuckerberg is launching helicopters off his mega-yacht.
06:15One in five Texas children live in poverty, but one of our own residents became the world's first trillionaire.
06:25Those three guys, those three men, now own more wealth than the entire middle class in this country.
06:33The top 1% has put the American dream behind a paywall.
06:39That is the sad reality in our nation today.
06:43For 50 years, billionaire mega-donors have been buying puppet politicians, and then those puppets have turned around and rigged
06:53this economy against us.
06:54They have been stealing from the American people, stealing the wealth that we created with their bribes, their bailouts, and
07:04their billionaire tax breaks.
07:06Trickle-down economics is not a theory.
07:09It is theft.
07:19For five decades now, Republicans and too many Democrats have been preaching the false gospel of trickle-down economics.
07:29The idea that the best way to grow the economy is to let the rich get richer and forget about
07:34the rest of us.
07:35This affordability crisis is not something that happened in the last five years.
07:41This affordability crisis has been 50 years in the making.
07:46Since the late 70s, corporate special interests and mega-donors have rigged the system against us through their puppets that
07:55serve their donors instead of serving us.
07:58That is the problem that we face in this country, and it's why we can't afford anything.
08:03We have an affordability crisis because we have a corruption crisis.
08:09We are getting screwed.
08:19Whether you're a little more conservative or a little more progressive, we're all getting screwed.
08:26None of us can afford groceries.
08:29None of us can afford gas.
08:31None of us can afford healthcare.
08:33The billionaires buying the system, they don't care who you are.
08:38They don't care about your politics.
08:41They only care about their profits.
08:43They don't see us as Democrats or Republicans.
08:48They don't see red or blue.
08:51They only see green.
08:52They see us as one group of people.
08:59One group of people they can rip off.
09:01They see us as one opposing team.
09:06So we might as well start acting like one.
09:15It is time for us to come together across these manufactured divisions to take on the people at the top
09:26who have been screwing us over for far too long now.
09:28Because the real fight in this country is not left versus right.
09:36It's top versus bottom.
09:38That is the real divide in America.
09:44That is the movement that we are building in Texas.
09:47We are not practicing a politics of division.
09:51We are not practicing a politics of fear or anger or hatred.
09:55We are practicing a politics of unity.
09:59A politics of friendship.
10:01A politics of love.
10:03That new kind of politics can change this state.
10:08It can change this country.
10:10That new kind of politics can build a new American dream.
10:15We need a new American dream for today's economy.
10:19Because today we have an economy that doesn't reward work.
10:23It rewards wealth.
10:25You can't tell me that the market is working like it should when you have billionaires becoming trillionaires all while
10:33the people who do the actual work in this economy can't afford the basics.
10:43The system only serves those who can afford to pay politicians for access and for control.
10:53This is not capitalism.
10:55This is crony capitalism.
10:57As Dr. King once said, we have socialism for the rich and rugged individualism for the rest of us.
11:06It is time to raise the minimum wage in this country and expand overtime pay so workers benefit from the
11:16wealth they create.
11:17It is time to repeal the tax cuts for the top 1% in that big ugly bill and give
11:25that $1 trillion to the middle class.
11:28It is time to cut taxes for small local businesses, not giant multinational corporations.
11:39And it is time to rebuild labor unions in this country so employees can negotiate with better working conditions, better
11:49pay and better benefits.
11:51Working Texans are drowning and we are drowning in debt.
11:57Household debt reached an all time high in the first quarter of this year.
12:03It is time to cancel medical debt in this country and stop hospitals from overcharging patients.
12:11It is time to cap sky high credit card interest rates and go after the credit card companies that are
12:19ripping us off.
12:21It is time to invest in college and career education like we did with the GI Bill so that we
12:30can educate an entire new generation of Americans without saddling them for the lifetime of student debt.
12:39And it is not just personal debt.
12:43We must also get serious about tackling the national debt, which is at the highest point it has ever been.
12:52We are stealing from future generations.
12:55We are always told that the only way to balance the budget is to do it on the backs of
13:00working people.
13:01But that is not true.
13:03We can close the deficit and we can do it by closing billionaire tax loopholes, cracking down on tax sheets
13:10and ending a war in Iran that is costing us a billion dollars a day.
13:23We need a new American dream for today's families.
13:31I am running for LBJ's Senate seat, the Hill Country's own Lyndon Johnson.
13:41And like LBJ, I was a Texas teacher before I ever ran for office.
13:49When he was in office, LBJ passed the largest investment in America's children and families this country has ever seen.
14:00Head Start, Title I, Medicare, Medicaid, Public Television, the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act.
14:09When we take back LBJ's Senate seat, we can pass an LBJ-sized investment in America's public schools.
14:25We can give every Texas teacher a long overdue and well-deserved pay raise.
14:36We can pass universal childcare and paid family leave so no one in this country has to choose between earning
14:44a living and raising a family.
14:51We can expand the child tax credit and make it permanent so no child living in the wealthiest country on
14:59earth is growing up in poverty.
15:01We can do that when we win back LBJ's Senate seat.
15:06We can finally slash the red tape that is preventing this nation from building millions of new homes.
15:13And we can provide down payment assistance to first-time home buyers so every American has a place they can
15:20call home.
15:20This is possible.
15:24And we can fight tooth and nail against every and all attacks on Medicare.
15:30And we can force the wealthiest in this country to pay their fair share into Social Security so we can
15:36all afford to retire with dignity.
15:41And lastly, we need a new American dream for today's technology.
15:49We cannot let artificial intelligence become yet another arena where the billionaires write the rules for the rest of us.
15:59Working people deserve a say and a share in this AI future.
16:06We can start by cracking down on the AI data centers that are jacking up utility bills and using up
16:13all our water.
16:15And we can prevent new ones from being built if they don't meet the demands of the communities where they
16:23seek to operate.
16:24We can establish an AI dividend so every American citizen can own a piece of these American AI companies.
16:31If they're going to use our collective intellectual property, then we want to see our checks.
16:43We can double down.
16:45We can double down on human creativity.
16:48We can invest in entrepreneurship grants for every Texan who has a great idea for a new business, for an
16:57invention, for a piece of art.
16:59And maybe they don't know the big, wealthy investors that you need to start that kind of project.
17:05This would be startup funding for the little guy.
17:08And it will pay off just like it did when our federal government invested in companies like Tesla and in
17:15innovations like the Internet.
17:17It will end up making us richer and stronger as a nation.
17:20And while we're on the topic of invasive technologies, FLOC cameras have no place in Texas.
17:37These aren't ordinary security cameras.
17:41They're connected to a database of more than 100,000 other cameras, license plate readers, and drones watching our every
17:51move.
17:51They can recognize you by your license plate, by your face, even how you walk.
17:57They can piece together an exact map of your behavior.
18:01The places you went and how long you were there.
18:04FLOC cameras call this a pattern of life mapping.
18:10Texans call it something else.
18:12Government overreach.
18:17Collecting this level of information endangers more people than it protects.
18:24It leaves all of us vulnerable to hackers and bad apples with database access.
18:29This kind of constant, warrantless surveillance has no place in a free society.
18:44The people at the top are afraid of this new American dream.
18:49They're afraid of crowds like this in Kerrville, Texas.
18:55They're afraid of Texans coming together across party, across race, across gender, across religion to dream a little bigger.
19:04They're going to claim that this new dream is radical.
19:08They're going to claim this new dream is extreme.
19:11They're going to claim we are socialists or communists or whatever sounds scariest in a headline.
19:18And we'll say back to them, is that the best you can do?
19:25These are the same old scare tactics.
19:29This is the same old politics of the past.
19:33The names they'll call us only reveal how dreams that they once had for this country are no longer within
19:42reach for most of the people who live in this country.
19:45The people at the top want this to be a contest of names because they know that they'll lose a
19:53contest of ideas.
19:59I am confident in this dream because the past and the math make it very clear that a country that
20:09invests in its people grows faster and stronger than a country that abandons them.
20:14In 1914, when someone asked Henry Ford, a titan of industry, why he doubled the daily wage for all of
20:24his workers, legend says he gave them a simple answer.
20:27So they can afford to buy my cars.
20:32When you give the top 1% money, they save it.
20:36But when you give working people money, we spend it.
20:40We stimulate the economy.
20:42We grow the economy.
20:43Despite what that false gospel of trickle-down economics tells us, pro-people policy is pro-growth policy.
20:53It is not an either-or choice.
20:55We can and must do both.
20:58If you hate politics, I get it.
21:04If you don't have time or energy for politics, I get it.
21:09If you don't believe anything good can come from the political process, I get that too.
21:15Let me explain why this moment, in this state, in this race, matters so much to you and your family.
21:26If you are struggling to afford groceries, if you're struggling to afford gas, if you're struggling to afford utilities or
21:34childcare or healthcare, it's not because you are lazy.
21:39It's not because you made bad choices.
21:42It is because the system has been rigged against you by billionaire mega-donors and corrupt politicians like Ken Paxton.
21:58I don't take corporate PAC money, and I never will.
22:07And in this election, if I can earn your trust, and if you send me to the U.S. Senate,
22:14I will be your senator.
22:16I will be a senator for every Texan who can't afford one.
22:29I will fight to unrig this economy.
22:35I will fight to raise our pay.
22:38I will fight to lower our costs.
22:40I will fight for this new American dream.
22:43And unlike Ken Paxton, I will fight to keep your hard-earned money where it belongs, in your pocket.
22:50And I am more hopeful than I've ever been that this new American dream is possible, that we can build
22:59it together.
23:01And let me just outline what this new American dream would mean for everyone in this state.
23:07It means that if you're working hard and playing by the rules, you should be able to afford a house
23:12big enough to raise a family in.
23:14You should be able to afford a quality education for yourself and your kids.
23:19You should be able to afford a retirement that is secure and comfortable.
23:24And most importantly, you should be able to afford time.
23:28Time doing the things you love with the people you love.
23:34A new American dream means you can start getting ahead instead of falling behind.
23:42A new American dream means that you can lay your head on your pillow at night knowing your bank account
23:48is going up and not down.
23:49And then you can wake up in the morning with full faith that your kids and their kids will also
23:57be able to live their own new American dream.
24:00Before I was a politician, I was a public school teacher in room 112 at Rhodes Middle School on the
24:07west side of San Antonio.
24:09I always say that teaching middle school is the best preparation for politics.
24:17It's already come in handy in this race.
24:22Subscribe to One India and never miss an update.
24:27Download the One India app now.
24:30Hey friends, what do you want?
24:31We're lots of other things, what do you want to do.
24:32How's your education being an episode?