Did James Talarico Meet Texas’ Residency Requirements? New Report Raises Questions
A new report by The Federalist alleges that Democrat U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico used his mother’s address when he ran for the Texas House in 2022, raising questions about whether he met Texas’ residency requirements for office.
According to records obtained by The Federalist, Talarico used his mother’s home address within Texas House District 50 when he filed to run for the seat.
Talarico was first elected to the Texas House in 2018, representing House District 52. Following the 2020 consensus, the Legislature redrew the state’s political maps, making that district more favorable for Republicans. Talarico subsequently announced he would run in House District 50 after former state Rep. Celia Israel declined to seek reelection.
According to The Federalist’s report, Talarico initially lived at 5657 Porano Circle in Round Rock. Eight days before filing to run in District 50, he changed his voter registration to his mother’s address. The report states there is no evidence showing Talarico lived at that address when he filed for office.
Records cited by The Federalist also show that after winning the Democrat primary, Talarico purchased a home at 1402 Manford Hill Drive in Austin.
The allegations center on Texas election law governing eligibility for members of the Texas House, which requires that a representative must “be a citizen of the United States, and, at the time of his election, a qualified voter of this State, and shall have been a resident of this State two years next preceding his election, the last year thereof a resident of the district for which he shall be chosen, and shall have attained the age of twenty-one years.”
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The report comes after Talarico and publications including ProPublica and The Texas Tribune reported allegations that Attorney General Ken Paxton voted from an address where he did not reside following his divorce from state Sen. Angela Paxton.
In that report, ProPublica and The Texas Tribune wrote that records they obtained appeared to show Paxton “used an address where he did not live while voting in six elections in the past two years, including in May’s runoff that made him the Republican nominee for U.S. senator.”
During a campaign event in Houston, Talarico referenced those allegations.
“As our state’s attorney general, Ken Paxton has gone on a voter fraud witch hunt,” Talarico said. “Turns out, he was committing voter fraud the whole time, voting illegally in six elections in a row from the wrong address.”
Talarico’s own residency history raises similar questions about compliance with Texas election law.
Josh Findlay, director of the National Election Protection Project at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, told the Daily Signal that Talarico’s actions appear to violate Texas election law.
“Under Texas law, you have to inhabit a place that is your legal residency, and there is no evidence that Talarico ever inhabited his mom’s house after he used it to file to run,” Findlay said. “It looks like that is a violation of Texas election law, and this matters a lot.”
Findlay said Talarico appears to have knowingly violated Texas election law because he did not move back to the address where he filed to run and instead purchased a home within the district after the election.
“He knew what he was doing when he filed to run in that district,” Findlay said. “What happened after that was to correct a problem that he clearly knew about. The question is, should he ever been elected in the first place?”
“It looks like, no, he was not duly elected under Texas law, where you have to live for one year in a district before running,” Findlay added.
Paxton campaign spokeswoman Madison Cercy told the Daily Signal the report reflects a double standard.
“It is absolutely disgusting that James Talarico used his mother’s address to not only commit voter fraud, but also to defraud his entire constituency, all so he could run in a safe Democrat seat,” Cercy said. “He is a lying politician who has been deceiving voters throughout his time in office, so it should come as no shock that he continues his flip-flop tour across the state of Texas.”
Talarico’s campaign did not respond to the Daily Signal’s request for comment.
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