# OPINION: A Republican case for voting for James Talarico

**By:** Tom Phillips, Contributing Writer  
**Published:** 2026-10-25T14:19:00Z  
**Source:** [Beaumont Enterprise](https://www.beaumontenterprise.com/opinions/article/republican-case-voting-james-talarico-22487906.php)

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A Republican case for voting for James Talarico

I am a Republican who won four contested elections on the Republican ticket for chief justice of the Texas Supreme Court. But this year, I will vote for Democrat James Talarico for U.S. senator.

Three reasons for my decision stand out.

First, Ken Paxton would do nothing to reassert Congress' constitutional responsibility to make laws. PPresident Trump has exploited Congress' inaction in unprecedented and dangerous ways. Without even a nod to lawmakers, he has made war on two foreign countries at vast cost with no consistent rationale for the attacks. He has levied across-the-board and targeted tariffs that hurt Americans with little or no offsetting benefit. He and his appointees have ignored congressional appropriations and other laws with which he disagreed, and they have used federal departments and agencies to pursue personal retribution against perceived political enemies. Even the President’s good ideas, and there have indeed been some, are undermined by the means he has used to implement them.

President Trump insists that Ken Paxton has been “at my side more than anybody,” and Paxton pledges to be a “MAGA warrior” in the Senate. A Sen. Paxton would no doubt be more assertive if and when a Democrat becomes president, but probably not in any constructive way. Paxton has consistently dismissed the very idea of bipartisan cooperation, as exemplified by his attacks on Sen. Cornyn for working across the aisle on important and pressing challenges.

Mindless congressional obstruction merely perpetuates the political gridlock that keeps government from meeting the people’s real needs.

A Senator Talarico would surely take a more constructive view of his constitutional role. As a Texas legislator, he knows firsthand how a legislative body can function in a bipartisan spirit. Ken Paxton has legislative experience, too, but if he ever worked across the aisle when he was in the Texas House and Senate, he certainly has not bragged about it.

Second, the Republican Party needs to restore its traditional beliefs to succeed in 2028 and beyond, and Senator Paxton would be more likely to obstruct those efforts than to facilitate them. In the last decade, core Republican principles like limited government, free enterprise, debt reduction and support for emerging democracies across the globe have been jettisoned in favor of government ownership in private companies, record deficit spending, endless vanity projects and cozying up to foreign strongmen instead of strengthening our alliances with friendly nations. The president has supported policies that obscenely enhanced his and his family’s wealth, and he has cultivated a pay-to-play aura surrounding his administration’s initiatives that is unprecedented in American history.

Those Republican officeholders who have stood against these policies, or those whose duties are unrelated to the president’s policies, should not be punished for a mere party label – the country needs good Republican officials to maintain a strong two-party system. But unwavering Trump cheerleaders such as Ken Paxton should be returned to private life, allowing the remaining Republican officials to reclaim their party’s proud and principled heritage.

Third, and perhaps most importantly, voters must decide which candidate in this race, parties and policies aside, would best represent our state to the rest of the nation and the world. Ken Paxton’s public career in Texas has been marred almost since its inception by charges of impropriety, and his high-profile Senate race has exposed these controversies to tens of millions of Americans. However exemplary his future conduct might be, Paxton’s longstanding reputation will embarrass Texas in ways our state simply cannot afford. While I, like many Republicans, do not agree with all of Talarico’s past statements or current positions, I am confident that he would serve this great state with dignity and honor.

In this election, straight-ticket voting would be mindless. After voting for himself in 1964, Republican presidential nominee Barry Goldwater told reporters: “I split my vote. I always split it. I never voted a straight ticket in my life.”

Whether one agrees with Goldwater’s habitual aversion to party loyalty or not, even the most fervent Republican would do well this year to remember President John Kennedy’s warning that “sometimes, party loyalty demands too much.”

But this is no ordinary year.

Thus, while I enthusiastically support the statewide Republican judicial candidates and many Republican candidates for other statewide offices, my choice for United States Senator must be James Talarico.