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A wide range of Democratic voices are in the process of shaping new political language to move their party and the country forward. James Talarico is one of those new voices. On Friday, June 26, he delivered his official acceptance speech for the Democratic nomination for U.S. senator from Texas at the Texas Democratic Convention held in Corpus Christi. He began by invoking Barbara Jordan, a lawyer who in 1972 became the first black woman elected to Congress from Texas. A brilliant orator, Jordan delivered a statement on July 24, 1974, from her seat on the House Judiciary Committee during President Richard Nixon's impeachment that is considered one of the most powerful speeches in US History. My faith in the Constitution is whole, it is complete, it is total, she said. And I am not going to sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the destruction of the Constitution. After tying himself to both the state's multicultural history and its defense of democracy through Jordan, Talarico used a different vision from Jordan to make his case for the future. He recalled that Jordan said the soil and spirit of Texas made her feel that she could accomplish whatever she wanted, that there are no limits. Talarico used Jordan's embrace of the American dream to anchor his own new political vision for the 21st century. It is a vision that resonates with beyond Texas. Talarico rooted himself firmly in Texas's past and present. He emphasized that he is an 8th generation Texan whose family arrived in the region when it was still Mexican. We may not always have been wealthy or well educated, he said, but we always served our state. His ancestor, Elijah Stapp signed the Texas Declaration of Independence that declared the region free from Mexican President Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana, risking everything, Talarico said, to defy a tyrant. That independence cost Stapp dearly. Four months after he signed the document, Santa Anna's army destroyed his home, leaving him, his wife and their six children destitute. But Stapp was undeterred. He wrote to his neighbors, any duty that my bodily strength would enable me to perform, either in public or private, that would advance the cause of Texas, I feel anxious and ever ready to perform. Texans don't like tyrants, talarico said, and we don't surrender easily. Bringing that theme to the modern era, Talarico told the story of his mother, a seventh generation Texan from Laredo who left an abusive relationship to make a life with her infant son. That's what it means to be a Texan, he said. We are strivers and builders and dreamers of all colors and creeds of all backgrounds and beliefs. It's in our blood. Texas is big, talarico said. Big hair, big hearts and big dreams. Our athletes are beloved across the globe. Cowboys, Astros, Spurs. Our musicians. Our musicians are so iconic they only need one Willie Selena. Beyonce. But the current political landscape is too small for Texas, he said. Texas used to be known for our hospitality. Friendship across tribes, friendship across divides. That's what makes Texas so great. We're this big mash up of all these different people, all these different cultures, all these different friends. Think about Tejano music. If you're listening to a Salina song, you're hearing Spanish vocal styles from northern Mexico, but you're also hearing polka dance rhythms from Czech and German immigrants. This uniquely Texan ability to welcome new friends and new ideas has made us one of the most exciting and innovative states in the country. We're the state that put a man on the moon, talarico said. We're the state that pioneered ranching and energy and computers. We're the state that gave this country Barbara Jordan, Ann Richards, LBJ and the Great Society. We're the state that put breakfast in a taco. Then Talarico turned to the present. Today, we face a new threat, he said. Our state is being taken over by a new kind of tyrant, billionaire megadonors. They're not invading with an army. They're just buying the system. The billionaires who own the social media algorithms, who own the cable news networks, who own the politicians fighting on our screens, they are turning neighbor against neighbor, weakening that spirit of friendship that makes Texas so great. They divide us by party, by race, by gender, by religion, so we don't notice that they're picking our pockets. It's the oldest strategy in the world, divide and conquer. But, he said, Texas will not be conquered. Talarico accused these new tyrants of looking out of his state to find puppet politicians who were willing to do their bidding. He said they picked his opponent, Ken Paxton, the most corrupt politician in America, who was born in North Dakota, raised in California and has a place in Hawaii. Listen, talarico said. I believe anyone can be a Texan. That identity lives not in the boots or in the truck, but in people's hearts. But the billionaires and their puppets have the wrong state of mind. Their hearts and their dreams are just not big enough. We let these small men get their hands on our big state. You know the kind of people I'm talking about, the kind who make themselves feel big by making everyone else feel small. These men, they took all the money and power they could grab and they set out to shrink Texas down to their size. They're shrinking our Texas economy with job killing tariffs. They're shrinking our Texas public schools with private school voucher scams. They're shrinking our health care so it covers less and less. They're shrinking our paychecks and how much those paychecks can buy. And they're shrinking our power by attacking our God given rights at the ballot box and redrawing our districts to keep themselves in power. They have been shrinking Texas for three decades now. But that ends this year in this election in November. We can make Texas big again, talarico said. We can make Texas friendly again. We can make Texas Texas again. We have the chance to take back our state from those billionaire mega donors and their puppet politicians who stole it from us. This isn't a partisan thing, tallarico said as he pointed out that Republicans and Democrats came together to impeach Paxton. And he reminded people that Sam Houston, the first president of the Texas Republic, told people to do right and risk the consequences. What would Sam Houston think about the small men who are shrinking Texas? Talarico asked. What would Sam Houston, who puts Texas before himself, say about Ken Paxton, who puts himself before Texas? What would Sam Houston say to all of us at this critical moment in Texas history? I think he would say do right and risk the consequences. There's an old country song by Gary P. Nunn called what I Like About Texas. In the song, he lists the rivers and the bluebonnets, the music and the food. But ultimately he settles on one answer. He says it's the spirit of the people who share this land, the spirit of Barbara Jordan, the spirit of my mom, the spirit that's in this room, the feeling that we can accomplish whatever we want to. This election shouldn't be about the Democratic Party or the Republican Party, talarico said. It should be about chasing a vision of what our state can be. Texas schools that are the envy of the nation, a Texas economy that is second to none, and Texas families that are stronger and healthier than ever before. It won't happen overnight, but a giant state deserves giant dreams. We are bigger than extremism. We're bigger than partisanship. We're bigger than corruption. Texas is bigger than all of those things because it's not just a state, it's a state of mind. Texans don't like tyrants and we don't surrender easily. Tonight, standing before you to accept your nomination for the United States Senate, I make the same commitment to you that my ancestor made 200 years ago. Any duty that my bodily strength would enable me to perform, either in public or private, that would advance the cause of Texas. I feel anxious and ever ready to perform.
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Letters from an American was written and read by Heather Cox Richardson. It was produced at Soundscape Productions, Dedham, Massachusetts, Recorded with music composed by Michael Moss.