Dems in disarray: James Talarico goes vegan in Texas? Squad loses big in Illinois.

Bad news for progressive Democrats all over the country.  

Let’s first turn to Texas, where Dem Senate candidate James Talarico just can’t shake the impression that he’s a woke leftist in sheep’s clothing. Weren’t we promised this was a sane, moderate, electable Democrat? I’ve started to suspect that the media was too unfair to Jasmine Crockett, and there’s no real reason to believe Talarico is the better alternative. Social media users dug up a video of Talarico from his 2022 campaign in which he vows that his team is going vegan. In Texas. The biggest cattle rancher state there is. Huh. Take a look.  

I hope you noted that he was wearing a COVID mask as well. This was in 2022. In case anyone has forgotten the timeline, COVID hit us in March of 2020, we had vaccines and the end of most social controls in red states, at the very least, by spring of 2021. Talarico is still masked up in 2022. OK. 

Look, I just don’t think this is the kind of Democrat that Texas is going to go for. Voters don’t want to be lectured about going vegan, or why racism is a disease that white people must work against — he’s answering for those comments too. 

Meanwhile, Republicans bashed Talarico for what he said. 

Pennsylvania Sen. Dave McCormick wrote on X: “Cattlemen and ranchers from Texas to Pennsylvania feed America. The last thing they need is a sermon from the vegan campaign trail.”

And Texas Sen. John Cornyn said: “Vote Republican this November. The steaks couldn’t be higher.”

Meanwhile, in Illinois, progressive Democrats got slaughtered in Tuesday’s primaries. The squad lost every single race in which they had made endorsements, while AIPAC — the much hated pro-Israel lobbying group — had fairly satisfactory results. 

My takeaway from all this is that Democratic Party is still, yes, in disarray. It’s still going through an identity crisis and has no idea whether it wants to appeal to leftists or moderates. It can’t appeal to both. And it can’t just complain endlessly about Donald Trump. Eventually, Democrats are going to have to say what they’re for, not merely what they’re against. 

There are some Democrats out there with ideas. I was pleasantly surprised to hear this from San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, who is actually a centrist Democrat, as far as I can tell, and is running for governor of California. Here he was with Jon Stewart.  

Nice to see a Dem concede that those backward hick Republicans in Mississippi may have  actually figured out how to educate kids, and do it more cheaply, than the eggheads running blue states. I also love to hear a Democrat admit that more government spending is not always the answer. You don’t hear that every day. 

But are Democrats receptive to this message? Well, according to Politico, Mahan is polling at just 3 percent. 

Robby Soave is co-host of The Hill’s commentary show “Rising” and a senior editor for Reason Magazine. This column is an edited transcription of his daily commentary. 

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