Story by MATEUS FERREIRA/Head Writer
Photos by KARLEIGH YANCY/ Editor in Chief
In the week before the March primary elections, Republican and Democratic candidates have been stepping up their bids by holding a flurry of rallies.
Democratic Senate candidate Rep. James Talarico and candidate for Governor Rep. Gina Hinojosa held a “Talarico for Texas” event only a couple of minutes from the UT Tyler campus.
The event was followed only a day later by a “get the Vote out” rally for Gov. Greg Abbott in Longview as he tries to maintain his role as Texas governor.
The March primaries and November elections are set to be the most heated in the history of Texas. Here are the key takeaways from the candidates’ respective events.
Talarico for Texas Rally
Talarico’s rally was held two miles away from UT Tyler, at Eagles Event Center. Inside, a small platform at the center of the vast room was quickly surrounded, while speakers blared Spanish and country music.
Hispanos Y Chicanos and Indivisible of Smith County hosted the event and touted turnout on their social media.
Gina Hinojosa
Hinojosa spared no time in attacking Abbott. According to her, Abbott had received thousands of dollars from private prison companies that run detention centers. She claimed he created a “special type of licensing” to lock up children and parents in these centers.
Hinojosa may have been referring to a series of Bills signed by Abbott in 2023 to crack down on illegal immigration.
“Any other state in the Union, this would be prosecuted as child abuse,” she said. “It happens nowhere else, but that is the corrupt reality.”
She also claimed Abbott artificially inflated electricity prices by, holding the fuel needed to power the grid after the January snowstorm. Hinojosa said the governor received a million dollars from the industry for doing so.
The former top manager of Texas’s electric grid claimed Abbott directed him to keep electricity prices high to stabilize the grid. Abbott’s office has denied these allegations.
In 2021, The Texas Tribune noted Abbott received $4.6 million from the energy industry following a legislative session that was focused on fixing the Texas power grid.
She also attacked Abbott’s voucher program, which uses tax money to fund private school education. Hinojosa claimed this takes away resources from already underfunded public schools. She warned that this could be the end of the teacher’s retirement program.
Calling Texas an “economic powerhouse,” she promised to bring down health insurance costs, make homes more affordable and bring better pay for teachers.
“Are you ready to take back Texas?” She said as the room erupted in applause.
James Talarico
Talarico rode on recent national attention from his unaired interview with Late-Night host Stephen Colbert.
On Jan. 17, Colbert said the interview was pulled by corporate executives to avoid regulatory guidance from the Trump administration. CBS lawyers cited the “Equal Time Rule,” saying the interview could not be aired without giving screen time to Rep. Jasmine Crockett. The rule has not been traditionally applied to talk shows.
The AP reported Talarico’s campaign raised 2.5 million dollars in 24 hours following the interview being used.
Asserting his brand of “top vs bottom” politics, he claimed freedom of speech is being sold out for corrupt politicians.
“These are the same people who ran against canceled culture,” said Talarico.
“Now they’re trying to control what we say, what we watch, what we read and this is the most dangerous kind of cancer culture: the kind that comes from the very top.”
He claimed a “handful of billionaires” took over social media algorithms and news cycles to sow artificial division in America.
“We all keep scrolling,” he said. “We all keep fighting and they keep getting richer. They divide us on an hourly basis by party, by race, by gender, by religion.”
He cited the Super Bowl as an example of this division.
“Two different halftime shows for 2 different Americans living in 2 different realities,” he said.
Calling Bad Bunny’s performance “the best,” he described Turning Point USA’s “counter concert” as motivated by fear. Quoting both Bad Bunny and Jesus, he explained love overcomes hate and fear.
The former Presbyterian minister often injects faith into politics. He has capitalized on using religion to unify both conservatives and progressives in Texas.
Talarico has simultaneously tried to appeal to a Democratic base and frustrated former Trump supporters. Critics say his willingness to reach across the aisle makes him a candidate who is too weak to face the current administration.
In his speech, he tried to distance himself from this image. Responding to remarks that his “politics of love” are too weak for the moment, he declared that “love is the strongest force in the universe.”
He listed job security, funding for public schools and health care access as ways to “love all my neighbors.” Conversely, he blamed billionaires for closing schools and gutting healthcare, while cutting taxes for themselves.
He described his campaign as a “people-powered movement” against a “corrupt political system” which sows artificial division across the political spectrum.
He also took a strong stance on I.C.E., referencing the immigration crackdown in Minneapolis.
“There is a secret police force terrorizing our neighbors all over Texas, all over America,” he said. “I.C.E shot a mother in the face. I.C.E kidnapped a five-year-old boy. I.C.E executed a man in broad daylight on our streets before our very eyes. It is time to tear down the secret police force and replace it with an agency that’s actually gonna focus on public safety.”
Along with completely dismantling ICE, he said that Department of Homeland Security Secretary, Kristi Noem, should be impeached.
Speaking on Immigration officers who “abused their power,” he also vowed to “haul these masked men before Congress” to be prosecuted and unmasked.
The Talon’s full interview with Hinojosa and Talarico can be found on our website.
“Get the Vote Out” With Gov. Greg Abbott
Abbott spoke to a crowd at Leon’s Steakhouse Saloon in Longview.
Before the event, the audience sat chatting at tables in the dim room lit by neon sign-covered walls. Waiters balanced trays of sandwiches and beers as they navigated the increasingly cramped space.
This scene was interrupted when Ryan Taylor Nicholas, a former Jan. 6 rioter who was then pardoned by Trump, was escorted out by police before the rally began.
Outside, he told the Talon he was there to ask about Rep. Jay Dean’s alleged support for Judge Leward Lefleur who has been accused of assaulting a minor.
“I’m not gonna run up to the Capitol again,” he said “It’s all non-violent for me, but I believe we can still have a peaceful confrontation and say, wrong is wrong, and you don’t get to rape and assault little girls.”
Before Abbott spoke, Dean, Agriculture Commissioner candidate Nate Sheets, and incumbent Comptroller Kelly Hancock pledged their support for the governor and Trump.
Hancock spoke on working with Abbott on using money from the Big Beautiful Bill to enforce border security, and blocking “Muslim schools linked to terrorist organizations” from using funds from the school voucher program.
Sheets warned against “radical Islamists,” buying up land from ranchers. Citing a decrease in Texan farms, he asserted there was a need “to make agriculture great again.”
Gov. Greg Abbott
The governor said state representatives from large cities were threatening “East Texas values.” Describing them as socialists “masquerading as democrats,” he warned that they need to be stopped from “taking over” Texas.
He claimed large cities were producing judges who were freeing “dangerous criminals.” According to him, murders released by “socialist judges” killed over 200 Texans.
In response, Abbott said he passed a law to reduce the judge’s authority.
In his triad against big cities, he remarked that “like a lot of bad things” the “defund of the police movement” began in Minneapolis. He touted the creation of a law designed to counteract the movement by cutting off money to cities that defund the police.
He also warned against the rise of “radical Islamic sharia” in cities like Dallas. He lauded his work with Dean to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as terrorists and proposed a new law to “ban Sharia law” in America.
Pointing to his immigration crackdown, he declared that he had the potential to keep the border secure for the next several decades.
Abbott also highlighted the need to combat election fraud, by ensuring only U.S. citizens can vote.
The governor presented the private school voucher program as a victory for “school choice.” Speaking on school reform, he lauded his work in removing DEI from public education and a $4 billion pay raise for public school teachers.
“There are core values to who we are as Texans,” he said towards the end of his speech. “We believe in God over government. We believe in freedom, over fear. We believe in the unique, inherent greatness in what it means to be a Texan.”
He also focused on affordability by proposing to slash insurance costs, provide property tax breaks for small businesses, and reduce property tax rates.
“We’re elderly on fixed income, and when you’re talking about property taxes, that eats into our fixed income,” said Hermin Word who sat in the back of the room with his wife. “We’re in our 70s. I think he is for the working man, trying to help people make it, survive.”
Word also said he was concerned about the influence of “radical Islam in East Texas,” and explained Abbott had made Texas safer through border control.
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