Texas Senate hopeful James Talarico released an ad blaming Joe Biden for border failures, after years of pushing to slash security funding and dismantle ICE.
Fox News Digital reported that Democrat James Talarico’s campaign dropped a new spot this week in which the candidate declares he “called out Joe Biden for failing us on the border.”
The ad landed Monday as Talarico tries to present himself as a “border security” Democrat in a deep-red state. He is running against Republican Ken Paxton for a U.S. Senate seat that remains competitive as the midterms near.
That message collides with his own record. In a 2019 interview with The Austin Chronicle, then-state lawmaker Talarico called for redirecting Texas’ entire border-security budget into public schools and dismissed physical enforcement as empty politics.
Voters in Texas have watched illegal crossings surge and then crash. They can judge which version of Talarico matches the state’s reality.
In the Austin Chronicle interview more than seven years ago, Talarico laid out a clear priority. He said Texas was sending roughly $800 million every two years, about $400 million a year, to the border with Mexico for increased security.
He wanted that money elsewhere.
"I'd rather take that money and put it back into public education and help increase the basic allotment, for instance."
Talarico went further on the tools of enforcement themselves.
"Putting a bunch of boats, planes and border patrol agents on the physical border is expensive and also does not solve the problem."
He called the spending political theater.
"Everyone will admit it's just political grandstanding. Certain lawmakers want to appease extreme parts of their base. And they do it by pumping money we don't have down to the border."
That was the full border-security pot as it stood at the time. Talarico wanted it gone.
Fast-forward to the Senate race. Talarico’s team is working hard to sound moderate on immigration. Spokesperson JT Ennis told Fox News Digital the candidate is proud of his border agenda.
"James is proud to be the only candidate in this race who has unveiled a border security agenda endorsed by Republican and Democratic border county sheriffs."
Ennis added that Talarico backs stronger security and enforcement, wants more Border Patrol agents, and supports arresting and deporting violent criminals and human traffickers, “not moms and babies.”
The same candidate has also called to dismantle Immigration and Customs Enforcement, labeling ICE a “secret police force.” He has referred to illegal immigrants as his “constituents.” He branded Gov. Greg Abbott’s border policies “atrocities” and accused the governor of “hunting” illegal immigrants. He said he taught many undocumented students and claimed those illegal immigrants were more patriotic than Americans.
Fox News Digital asked the campaign for any example of Talarico publicly criticizing Biden on the border while Biden was president. The campaign could not provide one.
The new ad therefore arrives as a late conversion. Progressive Democrats spent years treating the border as a secondary concern. Now a Texas candidate needs the issue to look like a priority.
Talarico is trying to flip a Senate seat in a state that has absorbed the highest rates of illegal immigration. The contest against Paxton has stayed close as November’s midterms approach. One recent snapshot showed Paxton holding a half-point edge in the matchup.
Meanwhile, the numbers under the current administration tell a different story from the Biden years. The Department of Homeland Security reported that border crossings fell to a new record low in 55 years during 2025.
Series of enforcement measures produced that drop. Texas voters who lived through the earlier chaos can compare results.
Talarico’s own campaign trail has not been smooth. He went briefly missing this month, sparking viral rumors. He reappeared Friday and said he had been recovering from the flu. Coverage of that stretch included Paxton pressing for proof of life after the extended absence.
His team also pushed back on separate audio claims tied to the disappearance, a dispute tracked when the campaign rejected facility rumors.
Republican voices kept the pressure on. Both the president and Paxton publicly noted the vanishing act, a point raised when Trump and Paxton called out the trail gap.
Talarico has ramped up efforts to appear more centrist precisely because critics say he is too progressive to win statewide in Texas. The border ad is part of that repositioning. Earlier coverage of the same spot noted how Talarico hit Biden while chasing the seat.
Yet the 2019 quotes remain on tape. So do the later attacks on ICE, the “constituents” language, and the charges against Abbott’s enforcement. A candidate can air a polished commercial. He cannot erase the record that came before it.
Texas has spent real money and political capital trying to secure its southern line while federal policy shifted from lax to strict. Residents who paid the price for open-border incentives now hear a progressive Senate hopeful discover border failure only after Biden left office.
The ad quotes Talarico saying he called out the former president. The campaign still could not point to any such public criticism during the actual Biden years. Timing matters. So does consistency.
In a state that prizes lawful order and secure borders, voters will decide whether a last-minute conversion outweighs years of treating enforcement as grandstanding and ICE as a force to tear down.
Texas does not need another politician who discovers the border only when the polls get tight.
