{"id":2643,"date":"2026-05-27T04:04:50","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T04:04:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/houstonmovingjournal.com\/?p=2643"},"modified":"2026-05-27T04:04:50","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T04:04:50","slug":"talarico-calls-paxton-most-corrupt-politician-in-america-after-runoff-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/houstonmovingjournal.com\/?p=2643","title":{"rendered":"Talarico calls Paxton &#8216;most corrupt politician in America&#8217; after runoff win"},"content":{"rendered":"<div> <!-- --> <!-- --><p><span><strong>AUSTIN, Texas<\/strong> &#8211; <\/span>Shortly after Texas AG Ken Paxton was announced as the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, his Democratic opponent, state Rep. James Talarico, released a video in opposition to the nomination.\u00a0<\/p><p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/houstonmovingjournal.com\/?p=2640\">ELECTION RESULTS: Texas AG GOP, Dem candidates facing off in November<\/a><\/p> <p>Talarico used the moment to decry Paxton as &#8220;the most corrupt politician in America.&#8221;<\/p> <!-- --><h2>Talarico vs Paxton<\/h2> <!-- --><div><\/div> <!-- --><p>What they&#8217;re saying:<\/p> <!-- --><p>&#8220;Something just happened in Texas,&#8221; Talarico began the video. &#8220;The most corrupt politician in America just became the Republican nominee for the United States Senate.&#8221;<\/p> <!-- --> <!-- --><p>The Austin Democrat then called back to Paxton&#8217;s impeachment trial, when the attorney general was exonerated by the state Senate after being condemned by the House. Talarico, reflecting the House&#8217;s opinion at the time, went on to accuse Paxton of using his office to &#8220;enrich himself.&#8221;<\/p> <!-- --><p>&#8220;That kind of corruption is the rot at the core of this broken system,&#8221; Talarico continued. &#8220;It&#8217;s why we can&#8217;t afford anything. It&#8217;s why we can&#8217;t get ahead no matter how hard we work.&#8221;<\/p> <!-- --><div>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-medium_large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2642\" height=\"432\" src=\"https:\/\/houstonmovingjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/4503f64a508bfe630dc40dee54f4aad7-768x432.webp\" width=\"768\" srcset=\"https:\/\/houstonmovingjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/4503f64a508bfe630dc40dee54f4aad7-768x432.webp 768w, https:\/\/houstonmovingjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/4503f64a508bfe630dc40dee54f4aad7-300x169.webp 300w, https:\/\/houstonmovingjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/4503f64a508bfe630dc40dee54f4aad7.webp 932w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><\/figure>\n <div><p><span>Ken Paxton (left) and James Talarico (Getty Images)<\/span> <!-- --><\/p> <!-- --><\/div><\/div> <!-- --><p>He said Paxton, who he characterized as a &#8220;puppet politician,&#8221; is a stereotype of lawmakers who accept bribery in return for enriching the 1% who are alleged to influence politics with large donations. He ended the video by urging voters to come together against Paxton on Nov. 3.<\/p><p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/houstonmovingjournal.com\/?p=2637\">Texas 2026 election: Here\u2019s who\u2019s facing off in November<\/a><\/p> <!-- --><p>&#8220;If we the people can come together to defeat the most corrupt politician in America, we can defeat this entire corrupt system,&#8221; Talarico said. &#8220;We can start unrigging this economy. We can start raising our pay, cutting our taxes, lowering our costs. We can finally get ahead. It&#8217;s time to come together. The people versus Ken Paxton.&#8221;<\/p> <!-- --><h2>Paxton wins nomination<\/h2> <!-- --><p>The backstory:<\/p> <!-- --><p>Paxton&#8217;s runoff against incumbent Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tx) was called early on election night. Paxton is estimated to have won over 60% of the votes, according to the Associated Press, likely boosted by a buzzer-beater endorsement from President Donald Trump.<\/p> <!-- --><p>What they&#8217;re saying:<\/p> <!-- --><p>&#8220;We just proved that this Senate seat doesn\u2019t belong to Washington. It belongs to the hardworking men and women of Texas,&#8221; said Paxton in a post-race statement.<\/p> <!-- --><div><p>\n    Related\n  <\/p> <div><div><div><div><div>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-medium_large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Texas primary runoffs: Paxton wallops Cornyn to secure Republican Senate nomination\" class=\"wp-image-2607\" height=\"387\" src=\"https:\/\/houstonmovingjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/aec978cc811e4d6168fc164821f03a40-768x387.webp\" width=\"768\" srcset=\"https:\/\/houstonmovingjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/aec978cc811e4d6168fc164821f03a40-768x387.webp 768w, https:\/\/houstonmovingjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/aec978cc811e4d6168fc164821f03a40-300x151.webp 300w, https:\/\/houstonmovingjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/aec978cc811e4d6168fc164821f03a40.webp 932w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div> <noscript>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-medium_large\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Texas primary runoffs: Paxton wallops Cornyn to secure Republican Senate nomination\" class=\"wp-image-2609\" height=\"387\" src=\"https:\/\/houstonmovingjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/e194e11762d4885e831f5ee3cedcae20.webp\" width=\"768\" srcset=\"https:\/\/houstonmovingjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/e194e11762d4885e831f5ee3cedcae20.webp 768w, https:\/\/houstonmovingjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/e194e11762d4885e831f5ee3cedcae20-300x151.webp 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n<\/noscript><\/div> <span>article<\/span><\/div><\/div> <div><h3>Texas primary runoffs: Paxton wallops Cornyn to secure Republican Senate nomination<\/h3> <p>Voters have made their choice in one of the most contentious runoff elections in Texas.<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div> <!-- --><p>What&#8217;s next:<\/p> <!-- --><p>Paxton and Talarico will go head-to-head on Nov. 3. Paxton has largely campaigned on his alignment with Trump, while Talarico stands on a progressive populist campaign that is focused on increasing taxes on billionaires and strengthening public education.\u00a0<\/p><p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/houstonmovingjournal.com\/?p=2630\">Houston weather: Strong storms possible overnight, FOX 26 Storm Alert in effect<\/a><\/p> <!-- --> <!-- --> <!-- --> <\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Shortly after Texas AG Ken Paxton was announced as the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, his Democratic opponent, state Rep. James Talarico, released a video in opposition to the nomination.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2641,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,8,67,12,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2026-elections","category-news","category-politics","category-texas","category-texas-politics"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Talarico calls Paxton &#039;most corrupt politician in America&#039; after runoff win - Houston Moving Journal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/houstonmovingjournal.com\/?p=2643\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Talarico calls Paxton &#039;most corrupt politician in America&#039; after runoff win - Houston Moving Journal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Shortly after Texas AG Ken Paxton was announced as the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, his Democratic opponent, state Rep. 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