From the beginning, Talarico wanted to change culture as well as policy. The seeds of his campaign were planted in the spring of 2025, when he was in a dark place. As a state representative, he had, along with his Texas House colleague Gina Hinojosa, led the opposition to Gov. Greg Abbott’s plan to use vouchers to divert public money to private schools. In the previous session, a group of Republicans, many from rural areas where public schools are at the center of community life, had joined Democrats to thwart the measure. But after Abbott backed successful primary campaigns against some of the Republican holdouts, school vouchers became law.
“When we lost, he was kind of going through a big psychological crisis,” said Talarico’s chief of staff in the legislature, also, confusingly, named Gina Hinojosa. “Like, how could this possibly happen? It was so obvious that this was bad for Texas voters.”
Talarico began to think about running for higher office to do something about it. Around that time, he was invited on Joe Rogan’s podcast, and the buzz generated by that interview also seemed to be pushing him toward a new campaign. But he was still unsure, so Hinojosa, the chief of staff, bought some easel paper and markers to make a pros and cons list.
Chief among the cons, she said, was Talarico’s desire to spare his parents and girlfriend the spotlight. Talarico was also in seminary school and didn’t want to put it on hold. He spoke about neighbors of his who were at odds over politics, accusing each other of stealing their yard signs. As a pastor, he told Hinojosa, he could work on healing his community.
Then they turned to the pro side. “If you do this, you could do that ‘love thy neighbor’ message for the entire country,” Hinojosa remembered telling him. “You can start that healing process for the entire country.”
