A new report alleges that Democrat U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico used his mother’s address when he ran for the Texas House in 2022, raising questions about whether he met Texas’ residency requirements for office.
According to records obtained by The Federalist, Talarico used his mother’s home address within Texas House District 50 when he filed to run for the seat in 2022.
Talarico was first elected to the Texas House in 2018, representing House District 52. Following the 2020 Census, the Legislature redrew the state’s political maps, making HD 52 more favorable for Republicans. Talarico subsequently announced he would run in HD 50 after former state Rep. Celia Israel declined to seek reelection.
According to The Federalist’s report, Talarico initially lived at 5657 Porano Circle in Round Rock. Eight days before filing to run in HD 50, he changed his voter registration to his mother’s address. The report states there is no evidence showing Talarico lived at that address when he filed for office.
Records cited by The Federalist also show that after winning the Democrat primary, Talarico purchased a home at 1402 Manford Hill Drive in Austin.
Talarico’s address situation may have ran afoul of Texas election law, which requires that a member of the Texas House must “be a citizen of the United States, and, at the time of his election, a qualified voter of this State, and shall have been a resident of this State two years next preceding his election, the last year thereof a resident of the district for which he shall be chosen, and shall have attained the age of twenty-one years.”
The allegations come after Talarico and publications including ProPublica and The Texas Tribune reported on allegations that Attorney General Ken Paxton voted from an address where he did not reside following his divorce from State Sen. Angela Paxton.
In that report, ProPublica and The Texas Tribune wrote that records they obtained appeared to show Paxton “used an address where he did not live while voting in six elections in the past two years, including in May’s runoff that made him the Republican nominee for U.S. senator.”
During a campaign event in Houston, Talarico referenced those allegations.
“As our state’s attorney general, Ken Paxton has gone on a voter fraud witch hunt,” Talarico said. “Turns out, he was committing voter fraud the whole time, voting illegally in six elections in a row from the wrong address.”
Talarico’s own residency history raises similar questions about compliance with Texas election law.
Paxton campaign spokeswoman Madison Cercy told The Federalist the report reflects a double standard.
“It is absolutely disgusting that James Talarico used his mother’s address to not only commit voter fraud, but also to defraud his entire constituency, all so he could run in a safe Democrat seat,” Cercy said. “He is a lying politician who has been deceiving voters throughout his time in office, so it should come as no shock that he continues his flip-flop tour across the state of Texas.”
