Texas state Rep. James Talarico, a candidate for United States Senate, makes his pitch to Texas voters at the 2026 TribFest in Austin, Texas (Photo Credit: @JonGuevara/@OurVoces)
Every year, politicians, business leaders and everyday Americans, especially those from The Lone Star State, gather in Austin, Texas for the Texas Tribune Festival (TribFest) to fellowship, congregate and discuss problems that the nation faces and solutions to those issues.
Political candidates laid out their vision for their constituents, educators discussed limitations placed on academia by political figures, while entrepreneurs and CEOs discussed the pros and cons of artificial intelligence.
For the second consecutive year, RegalMag.com covered the three-day festival, which began with discussions with Texas state Rep. Gina Hinojosa, the Democratic nominee for Texas governor, Texas state Rep. James Talarico, the Democratic nominee for United States Senator, as well as a discussion on democracy in the age of artificial intelligence.
To no one’s surprise, Texas is still a red state.
Although many political pundits believe that the state is turning purple, a Democrat has not won a statewide election since former Lt. Gov. Bob Bullock and a handful of down-ballot Democrats won in 1994.
That year, former Republican President George W. Bush defeated incumbent Democratic Gov. Ann Richards to assume the highest office in the Lone Star State.
With that history, Rep. Hinojosa has focused her campaign on kitchen table topics that all Texans can relate to instead of the culture war issues like transgender athletes in female sports that often lead to defeat for many Democratic candidates.
She said that Texans are struggling like never before.
Therefore, many are not focused on divisive culture issues that would have resonated with them more in past elections.
A few years ago, the pronoun debate divided many Americans, with many people from the LGBTQ+ community wanting to be referred to as they/them instead of him or her.
But Hinojosa said the pronouns she wants to be referred to are mom/Texan/soon-to-be-governor.
Hinojosa said that she has been able to win over many right-leaning voters because of her opposition to the state private school voucher system, which allows parents of private school students to use taxpayer money to help pay for their children’s elite education.
Furthermore, many Republicans have labeled their Democratic foes as socialists.
Hinojosa is not a socialist but refers to herself as an economic populist.
Therefore, her focus is mainly on financial issues like making sure Texas educators are amongst the highest paid in the nation.
She wants Texas teachers to have more academic freedom instead of having to focus so much on standardized tests like the STARR test.
Hinojosa said that if she produced “F The STARR test” bumper stickers, Gov. Greg Abbott would not have such a big fundraising edge over her.
Her campaign has spent $3 million so far.
She has raised $20 million thus, far, while she says Gov. Abbott has $20 million in donations from data services companies alone.
While politics always plays a major role at TribFest, recently so has artificial intelligence (A.I.).
Many journalists and journalism students flocked to the sessions on A.I. to learn ways to make their jobs or studies easier.
Generative A.I. can outsource journalistic duties when a media outlet does not have the money or manpower to physically cover every important event in their community.
For instance, if a publication or podcast wants to cover pending legislation, and they do not have the time or energy to read and study a pending bill, which may be hundreds of pages or more, A.I. can read the bill and take out things that are important to the company’s readers, viewers or listeners.
For instance, A.I. could determine how much money of a potential bill would go to the African-American community or Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), and then a publication like RegalMag.com could give that information to one of its reporters.
From there, the RegalMag.com reporter could do a deep dive into that specific portion of the pending bill and seek out interviews from politicians and the public.
Using A.I. in this matter can be especially useful for small local communities that no longer have small newspapers and radio shows to keep them informed about things affecting their small towns or neighborhoods.
Many publications already use A.I. for proofreading and editing purposes.
Lastly, Texas Tribune Editor-in-Chief Matthew Watson interviewed Rep. Talarico on Sept. 24 during a one-on-one session at the First Baptist Church in Austin, Texas.
Talarico made headlines for being willingly to debate his opponent Texas state Attorney General Ken Paxton on conservative television network Fox News.
Talarico is riding a wave of good news with many polls having him in the lead against his Republican opponent for a United States Senate seat.
He said that many Republican voters have told him that he has their support even though many have never supported a Democrat in the past.
Talarico said, “Paxton is the most corrupt politician in Texas and shouldn’t be near the Senate.”
The Democratic politician added, “Paxton has taken money from Chinese communists.”
Talarico said that Paxton is using deepfakes of him in commercials to mislead Texas voters.
Nevertheless, Talarico said that his real focus is on protecting children, jobs and American democracy.
To do this, Talarico is determined to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, among other things if he wins in November.
He also talked about the importance of supporting Black small business owners, saying, “When Black businesses are successful, the Black community is successful.”
Many political pundits have said that Talarico has a chance to make history as a Democratic senator from Texas because of his faith and his past as a seminary student.
While, many people believe that religion should not play a role in politics because of the separation of church and state, Talarico said, “Separation of church of state is not the same as separation of faith and politics,” because it is impossible to not bring one’s faith into the voting booth.
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