Texas state Rep. James Talarico (D) told MS NOW host Lawrence O’Donnell that Trump voters come up to him at rallies and whisper support “like they’re in the witness protection program.”

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s (R) primary victory over Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) on Tuesday night sets up a much closer race  for U.S. Senate against Talarico than many foresaw. President Donald Trump endorsed Paxton in a move that angered Republicans by aiding a much weaker opponent for Talarico.

On Wednesday night’s edition of MS NOW’s The Last Word, O’Donnell asked Talarico how he’ll overcome the Trump barrage, and the candidate claimed he has Trump voters coming up to him at rallies quietly expressing support:

O’DONNELL: It’s very clear that he’s going to follow the Donald Trump model in so many ways, including, by the way, his own ethical behavior, according to the public record. But you’re going to be subjected to a number of nasty names. And we just heard a couple of them there that he tried out tonight.

He’ll be trying out more of those. And I’m sure people out there around the country are wondering, how are you going to counter that? How are you going to fight back against that?

Because they’ve seen Donald Trump use that kind of technique successfully, especially in states with a lot of Republican voters. And as we know, Texas is one of those states with a lot of Republican voters who apparently respond to that kind of name-calling and insult.

TALARICO: Well, you know, I’ve gone to every corner of Texas already over the course of this campaign, from Beaumont to El Paso, from Amarillo to Brownsville, and everywhere in between.

And I can’t tell you the number of — of people who come up to me at the end of these events and whisper, I’m not a Democrat, like they’re in the witness protection program, including a lot of people who voted for President Trump in 2024.

They voted for him because they thought he was going to lower costs. They thought he was going to — he was going to drain the swamp.

They thought he was going to end the forever wars. They thought he was going to release the Epstein files. But just one year into this administration, they’ve seen him do the exact opposite.

They’ve seen him raise prices through his crazy tariffs. They’ve seen him grow the swamp with unprecedented corruption. They’ve seen him start new forever wars, including the latest war in Iran. And they saw him do everything to prevent the release of the Epstein files.

And so a lot of — of the president’s supporters in Texas are feeling disillusioned. They’re feeling disillusioned with this extremism and this corruption that is embodied by politicians like Ken Paxton.

And so we have a real opportunity to build a coalition of Democrats, independents, and Republicans who are fed up with this extremism and this corruption.

That’s exactly how I flipped a Trump district in Williamson County, Texas, when I first got elected to the state house, it was by building that big coalition, that big tent.

And this politics of name-calling, of trolling, and owning, that politics has a record low approval rating in this country, including in Texas. Those nicknames don’t lower your grocery bills. They don’t lower the — the price of gas. They don’t lower the cost of housing and child care and prescription drugs and insurance.

It doesn’t actually improve people’s lives.

And so I think in this election what you’re going to see is a — a deep hunger for servant leaders who are actually going to deliver for working Texans, going to make their lives easier and better and less stressful, rather than enriching themselves and their billionaire megadonors.

Watch above via MS NOW’s The Last Word.

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