In Texas, Democrats discover the power of the ‘nice guy’ candidate

When Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico declared victory in Texas, last week, he promised voters a clean break from the era of Trumpian political toxicity. Instead, Talarico offered the hope that “a new politics is being born,” where the “real fight … is not left versus right, it’s top versus bottom.”

Behind him, a wall of supporters held signs referencing the teaching of Jesus to “Love thy neighbor.”

At first glance, the centrist Talarico may have little in common with Democrats’ other breakout political celebrities of late, including the democratic socialist mayor of New York City, Zohran Mamdani, and Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger. But Talarico, Mamdani and Spanberger represent the key to booting President Trump’s vengeful MAGA movement from Congress in 2026 and the White House in 2028: Democrats have rediscovered the power of being nice.  

In a political era defined by nasty personal insults and a race to emulate the worst elements of Trump’s broken character, the Democrats performing best are doing so by focusing on the values that unite Americans. They are upfront about how polarization and personal invective hate have broken our government and disillusioned millions of regular people. Talarico, Mamdani and Spanberger are bringing empathy back to the political mainstream — and voters can’t get enough.

As it turns out, being a well-meaning and earnest person still matters. Spanberger’s historic win in Virginia last year was in part because of Republicans who supported her despite disagreeing with some of her policy ideas. While Spanberger’s opponent spent the campaign bashing transgender Virginians and calling unemployed people complainers, Spanberger visited Republican strongholds to host honest conversations about how she’d improve a state economy ravaged by Trump’s mass federal layoffs.

Republicans may have agreed with her opponent on plenty of social issues, but they ultimately believed Spanberger actually cared about them.  

The same was true for Mamdani, who won a historic upset victory against former Gov. Andrew Cuomo last year, despite a primary campaign soaked in Cuomo’s negativity. In response, Mamdani mounted an optimistic campaign that leveraged both his magnetic charisma and a fix-the-potholes approach to governing. Mamdani’s happy warrior model led political commentator Ezra Klein to write, “My real lesson from Mamdani: Be yourself, but be nice.”  

Mamdani’s campaign purposefully avoided the doom-and-gloom anti-Trump messaging that has become common in the Democratic Party. He also avoided trying to emulate Trump’s nastiness — a tactic California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) recently adopted in his own bid for the presidency. The result for Mamdani was record turnout and a sweeping victory. In a nation full of unpopular Democrats, Mamdani is now one of the party’s most popular politicians. A Siena poll conducted in January found his local approval rating at an unbelievable 68 percent.  

Even Trump isn’t immune to Mamdani’s infectious friendliness. At his State of the Union address last month, Trump shocked many Republican insiders by referring to Mamdani by name as a “nice guy.” Two days later, a beaming Trump hosted Mamdani in the Oval Office, and seemed eager to work with the mayor on a major investment in public housing. Chalk up another win for nice-guy politics.  

Talarico’s victory in Texas is further proof that character and kindness matter regardless of political ideology. That’s especially true when facing opponents who are famous for their lack of decency and obsession with hyperpartisan political brawling, like Texas’s controversial attorney general, Ken Paxton. Where Paxton has framed his campaign as a scorched-earth battle to be Trump’s most loyal servant, Talarico has spent his time talking to voters about what’s gone wrong with our politics and how, together, we can mend those deep divides.  

In response, the Texas Republican Party has decided to attack Talarico’s Christian faith and his calls to reject divisive Christian nationalism in favor of the everyday compassion modeled by Jesus. It’s a bizarre decision for a party that claims to represent Christian values, especially when plenty of conservative voters say they admire Talarico’s willingness to share his faith in public. Texas’s Republicans think that mocking the nice guy is a path to victory. For most voters, it’s nothing but a reminder of the poisonous politics Talarico wants to move beyond. 

Texas Republican insiders know they are in trouble. The latest Texas survey released by Public Policy Polling shows Talarico leading both Paxton and incumbent Sen. John Cornyn by narrow margins. More telling is how Texas voters view the candidates as people. Talarico boasts a favorability of plus-6, compared to minus-24 for Paxton and minus-28 for Cornyn. Historically, voters are far less likely to turn out on Election Day for candidates they dislike. Call it the nasty guy tax.

Trump and the MAGA movement may think that being nice is uncool and listening to voters who disagree with you is a tactic only adopted by losers. Yet Democrats are showing just how powerful a little bit of understanding can be among voters who feel left behind by the Republican politics of nastiness. From New York to Virginia to Texas and beyond, the nice guys are finishing first.

Max Burns is a veteran Democratic strategist and founder of Third Degree Strategies.

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