CNN report: Talarico's 2020 "defund the police" remarks resurface; campaign denies backing it

Right · 2A CNN KFile report published Monday 5 October 2026 said James Talarico, the Democratic U.S. Senate candidate in Texas, told progressive activists in 2020 that it was "rich" that "defund the police" was treated as off-limits in political debate. 1 2 Right · 2Talarico, then a state representative, made the remarks on a virtual call with Texas Rising, a progressive youth activist group, during the protests that followed the death of George Floyd. 1 2 Right · 1He said: "As an educator, it's always rich to me that 'defund the police' is considered off-limits in our political debate, when defunding health services, defunding public education has been the stated policy of our state government for decades now." 1

Right · 2He also acknowledged that the slogan was getting people "all riled up" in his swing district, but argued voters were receptive when asked whether armed officers should respond to minor traffic accidents or mental-health crises. 1 2 Right · 2Campaign spokesperson JT Ennis said: "James did not call for and does not support defunding the police, and he strongly supports Texas law enforcement and first responders." Breitbart reported the campaign called it a "flat-out lie" that he ever backed defunding. 1 2 Right · 2The campaign said Talarico was calling out hypocrisy among politicians who condemn the slogan while backing cuts to other public services, not endorsing the movement. It pointed to votes sending billions of dollars to local law enforcement and to his advocacy for mental health resources. 2 1

Right · 1CNN, as relayed by Breitbart, said his record from 2019 through at least 2022 is more complicated than the denial suggests, citing repeated calls to limit police power and invest in community-based alternatives. 1 Right · 2In a September 2020 interview with the local outlet Honest Austin, and again after footage of the death of Javier Ambler II in Austin emerged, Talarico said: "Our system of policing is deeply broken. We must replace it with something new and something better." His campaign told CNN the quote was taken out of context and referred to reality television shows on policing. 2 1 Right · 1At a 2022 graduation ceremony for incarcerated students, he said: "If we took just half of what we spent on wars, prisons, and policing, and spent it on education, health care, and jobs, we could make prisons obsolete." 1

Right · 1Ennis also accused Republican opponent Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general, and his allies of "lying about James' comments" to distract from Paxton's own record on crime, including a plea deal in the Adam Dean Hoffman sexual abuse case that the campaign has called an "Epstein style sweetheart deal." 2 Right · 1Breitbart said the report follows Talarico moderating his image, saying many of his 2020 comments "missed the mark", and described the race against Paxton as polling at a dead heat. 1