Texas Democrat U.S. Senate nominee James Talarico described capitalism as one of three interconnected “oppressive systems” during a 2020 climate forum and spoke of beginning the process of “dismantling” them, employing rhetoric similar to language used at the time by Democratic Socialists of America and other progressive climate activists.
CNN reported Tuesday that Talarico, then a 31-year-old state representative seeking reelection to a second term in the Texas House, made the remarks during a September 2020 virtual climate candidate forum hosted by the Austin chapter of the Sierra Club alongside four other Texas House candidates.
“I’m so thankful that you asked this question and also thankful that young activists have really drawn the link between climate change and White supremacy and capitalism in our country,” Talarico said after being asked what lawmakers could do to address the disproportionate effects of climate change on communities of color.
“And I think only ending the ways that all three of those oppressive systems work together are we gonna be able to begin the process of dismantling them,” he continued.
Talarico also criticized the future of Texas’s oil and gas industry during the Sierra Club forum.
“We all know that Texas has been a leader in oil and gas, but in many ways that’s like being the leader in cassette tapes in the 1980s,” Talarico said. “That industry is not gonna last.”
“And if we wanna ensure we have an economy that’s gonna work for our children and our children’s children, we gotta be ahead of the curve and Texas has to lead instead of follow on this issue,” he added.
The language closely echoed rhetoric circulating among socialist and progressive climate organizations in the period leading up to Talarico’s remarks.
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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) had introduced their Green New Deal resolutions in February 2019. Later that month, Democratic Socialists of America released its own Green New Deal principles, declaring that creating “a fully ecological society” would require “a revolutionary transformation to replace the capitalist social order based on exploitation and oppression.”
“A Green New Deal must serve as a bridge toward this future,” the DSA principles stated.
DSA further said it viewed “the fight for the climate as a struggle against capitalism itself” and against the various “forms of oppression” that it said sustain capitalism.
Talarico participated in the September 20, 2019, Youth Climate Strike at the Texas State Capitol in Austin. Isra Hirsi, the daughter of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), co-founded and served as co-executive director of the U.S. Youth Climate Strike.
The Sunrise Movement similarly tied climate activism to dismantling broader societal systems in a May 29, 2020, update.
“As a movement for climate justice, we know that it is necessary to dismantle the underlying systems of extraction, segregation, and racist inequality that have allowed for the exploitation of people and the environment they live in,” the organization stated.
The update also argued that “the fight against climate change exists alongside the fight against white supremacy and colonialism.”
On July 7, 2020, Omar used similar rhetoric while discussing environmental racism and other political issues.
“We know that environmental racism is real,” Omar said, adding that “these systems of oppression are linked.”
“As long as our economy and political systems prioritize profit without considering who is profiting, who is being shut out, we will perpetuate this inequality,” she said. “So, we cannot stop at criminal justice system. We must begin the work of dismantling the whole system of oppression, wherever we find it.”
The rhetoric continued at an August 17, 2020, Democratic National Committee Youth Council Climate Change Panel, where Ashley Nicole McCray said the future activists wanted to build was about “the destruction of colonization, white supremacy and capitalism.”
“We must really move away from these systems and frameworks,” McCray said, adding, “Our dream is that we do push forward Green New Deal.”
Talarico’s involvement in climate activism extends back to his college years.
As a University of Texas at Austin student in 2009, Talarico participated as a student government representative in an effort urging the city of Austin to divest from a coal-powered power plant.
At a press conference, Talarico said student government had passed a resolution supporting divestment.
“It was a great success for environmentalists on campus, and also students who want to pay less for their energy bills and who want a sustainable economy and a green-collar economy when they come out of college,” he said.
In 2012, while working as a sixth-grade language arts teacher, Talarico tweeted about teaching his students about global warming and included the hashtag “#liberalpropaganda.” He also tweeted that former Vice President Al Gore was his favorite vice presidential pick.
Following Texas’s massive 2021 power-grid failure, which killed hundreds of Texans, Talarico introduced a “Climate Action Plan” requiring the state to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50 percent below 1990 levels by 2030 and at least 90 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.
Talarico cited Ocasio-Cortez as an inspiration for the proposal. Republicans have compared the measure to the Green New Deal, although Talarico’s campaign has denied that characterization. The legislation died in committee.
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Clayton Tucker, now the Democratic candidate for Texas agriculture commissioner, praised Talarico’s proposal during a Zoom event with Sen. Bernie Sanders’s Our Revolution organization, describing it as “the closest to the Green New Deal we’re going to be getting in Texas for a while.”
In 2024, Talarico praised a left-wing climate activist organization that had worked to eliminate Texas’s oil and gas industry.
“This is the frontline in the fight to save democracy and save our planet, and so your arrival couldn’t come at a better time,” Talarico, then serving his third term as a state representative, told the group in prerecorded remarks. “I look forward to working alongside all of you in this important work, and I just want to thank you for coming to Texas.”
Later, Talarico described the activists’ efforts as “the most important work in the most important time in the most important place.”
The resurfaced Sierra Club remarks come as Lone Star Liberty PAC released two television advertisements Tuesday in the Texas Senate race.
One advertisement touts Attorney General Ken Paxton’s record challenging large corporations, including a $1.4 billion privacy settlement with Google. The ad alleges Google secretly tracked users’ locations and captured facial and voice information without permission or warning and says Paxton “fought back and made Google pay.”
The ad also credits Paxton with taking on food companies over toxic dyes in cereal marketed to children and says he is fighting to remove toxic chemicals from products used by women.
“Ken Paxton, when they come after Texans, he comes after them,” the ad concludes.
A second Lone Star Liberty PAC ad targets Talarico over votes that the PAC says benefited Communist China, alleging that he voted to allow China to have 162,000 acres of Texas land near military bases and voted to direct tax dollars to Chinese-owned businesses. The ad further claims Chinese-owned businesses are purchasing homes and “making everything unaffordable” before concluding, “China’s got Talarico. Texas needs Ken Paxton.”
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