Texans head to the polls in a little under four months, with Republican John Cornyn’s U.S. Senate seat up for grabs. The incumbent lost his runoff to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who will face off with democratic state lawmaker James Talarico. State Rep. Talarico spent Monday in Dallas, volunteering at a food pantry and speaking with needy North Texans about affordability. Talarico blames Pres. Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” which passed about a year ago. “That bill spent most of its money on the top one percent. Which, by the way, now owns more wealth than the entire middle class in this country. So it was a transfer of wealth from working people to the richest Americans,” Talarico said. Talarico also visited a coffee shop to talk to a few people who lost government health insurance after new rules kicked in as part of that Trump tax cut and spending bill. The Ken Paxton campaign responded with a statement: “Talarico’s claiming to care about ‘affordability’ is laughable; Texans won’t be so easily convinced that he stands with them when he has opposed every tax-cutting measure that would have put money back in their pockets.” The Paxton campaign pointed to several state laws Talarico voted against – including another ban on income tax, a ban on the inheritance tax, wealth tax, and capital gains tax as well. Talarico said those tax breaks are giveaways to Texans who are already wealthy. “All of those were going to be tax cuts for the wealthiest Texans at the expense of working people. That’s exactly what I’ve done in my career in the legislature. I have fought for working families,” Talarico said. Several recent polls show this race within the margin of error between Talarico and Paxton. In the next couple of weeks, the campaigns should begin announcing their finance reports, so we’ll get a good idea of how much money each candidate has raised in donations. Talarico also dismissed the GOP convention coming to Dallas as an effort to blunt what he called a growing “bipartisan backlash” against “extremism and corruption.” Talarico said President Trump and GOP leaders picked Texas because they fear losing political ground, including in his closely watched Senate race. “They are concerned about what it could mean in November of this year,” Talarico said of Republicans. “That’s why they’re choosing Texas.” He said Republicans could have held the convention in “North Carolina, Georgia or Ohio.” Read more from our media partners, The Dallas Morning News. ...read more read less