James Talarico Is Disappointed He Couldn’t Put A Million Texans Out Of Work

James Talarico wants to be a senator from Texas, of all places, and he's out there mourning a bill that would have gutted the oil and gas industry that keeps the lights on in half the state's counties. Not exactly a winning pitch to the guy running a rig outside Midland or the welder in Odessa who just bought a truck on the strength of his paycheck. He called it a "shame" the bill never got a hearing. We'd call it a mercy.

What's telling is how he handled the follow-up. Ask a candidate how many jobs his own legislation would cost and watch him dodge, and you learn everything you need to know. If you're confident the number is small or the tradeoff is worth it, you say so. You don't get cute with a CBS anchor. Talarico's refusal to put a figure on the table isn't an oversight, it's a tell. He knows the number is bad, and he knows Texans would remember it in November.

There's a bigger pattern here that Texas voters have seen before, coastal-inspired climate ambitions landing on a state that actually produces the energy the rest of the country burns without thinking twice about it. It works fine in a think piece. It works less fine when it's your neighbor's job on the line. Talarico can call his bill visionary if he wants. Most people in the Permian Basin are going to call it a threat, and they'll vote accordingly.

None of this means the oil and gas industry gets a free pass on emissions or safety, and nobody serious is arguing that. But there's a difference between reasonable regulation and a bill designed to strangle an industry that employs, by some estimates, close to a million Texans directly and indirectly. Talarico picked the second option and now seems annoyed he didn't get to see it through. Voters can take that disappointment and decide what to do with it themselves.