Mike Garcia
@MikeGarciaFWTX
I've known @jamestalarico for nearly 20 years. When we were at @UTAustin in 2009, he ran the University Democrats and I ran the College Republicans. Although we disagreed, I once considered him a friend. But then he betrayed the entire student body for his own political gain.
8:40 PM · Oct 15, 2026
Mike Garcia
@MikeGarciaFWTX
In 2009, the UT College Republicans and University Democrats teamed up to create "TUITION RELIEF NOW," an organization whose goal was to lower the rising tuition costs for UT system students. We had a huge rally on campus in support of the cause. @DanPatrick was even
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there (although he was still a state senator at the time). To our knowledge it was the first joint-event between our two groups. After, we planned to have an additional rally in support of tuition relief a few weeks later at the Texas Capitol as the Legislature was in session
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debating the issue. We were excited and all felt the momentum. Everything was working just as it should. At least on the issue of addressing rising tuition costs—one of the few issues we could actually agree upon—everyone was rowing in the same direction. But that didn't last.
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Just days before the Capitol rally, we received word that the University Democrats had changed their position on the issue of rising tuition and would no longer be participating in the rally. This was, to say the least, strange, surprising, and terribly disheartening to us.
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But he hadn't heard why, and James didn't communicate with us. So we began to investigate.
What we found out (through many angry and confused members of the University Democrats) was that Talarico himself had unilaterally reversed course without consulting his club or even
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the club's officers. He betrayed not only the student body, but the organization he led as well.
Why would he do this? We were baffled. What we heard was that he pulled support so that he, himself, could stay in the good graces of the university's leadership, who opposed
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tuition cuts. And lo and behold, he was rewarded the next year with the cushy position of executive director of UT's student government, who had close ties to university leadership.
A few years went by. I was serving as the general counsel for the Texas House Freedom Caucus,
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and James had been elected to the House. He started fine. He seemed sincere. But quickly, he devolved to routinely spending hours on the House floor avoiding genuine discussions, favoring instead to accuse us of racism. Then, when the cameras stopped
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rolling, I'd run into him in the Capitol hallway, and he'd see me and go off about how good it is to see me and wishing me well, all with a smile on his face, knowing full well who I worked for.
Every interaction I had with him after that reinforced to me how fake he actually
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is, and how willing he is to lie to satisfy his political ambitions.
Now, he's lying again, claiming he has a moderate voting record. But this time there's an abundance of evidence showing that isn't the case. But worse than that, in my opinion, is his consistent betrayal.
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None of us will be immune to Talarico's habit of betrayal if he wins. He betrayed his own people for political gain, and you should know that he will not hesitate to do the same to all of us for his own political ambitions (which I guarantee you do not stop at the U.S. Senate).
@MikeGarciaFWTX
Please believe me when I say that James Talarico has planned for this campaign for his entire life. He will not let the truth get in the way of his political career.
What's important to James Talarico is himself. Not you, not me, and not Texas. He threw his own
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University Democrats to the wolves in the past and you can rest assured that he will do the same to all of us, regardless of our political affiliations.
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And he'll do it all with a smile on his face, telling you that he's preaching the Gospel.
"Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves." – Matthew 7:15
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