Laura Rodriguez

.@JamesTalarico: The richest man in the world is dumping hundreds of millions of dollars into this state to try to defame me, so I'm doing everything I can to stand up against those lies. I am tired of us being divided into teams because the truth is we're all on the same team. We are far more the same than we are different, but those big money interests, those social media platforms, and those cable news networks want to divide us. Imagine what we could do if we did it together as one team—we are unstoppable.

.@JamesTalarico: My decision to stay home for a week sent my opponent and his conspiracy theorists spiraling. I opened up social media and learned I had apparently dropped out of the race, had flown to a mental hospital in Ohio — that I had died. False claims got millions of views online — and this is an example of what I call the ‘rage economy.’ Billionaires who own these platforms get rich, we all get angry, and nobody’s life gets any better. Conspiracy theories don’t put food on the table, put gas in the tank, or improve our communities. I’m going to stay focused on the very real problems facing Texans.

.@JamesTalarico: The cost of healthcare is driving this affordability crisis. When I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, my first supply of insulin cost $684 because Big Pharma has a monopoly. In the state house, I brought Democrats and Republicans together to cap insulin co-pays at $25. In the U.S. Senate, I want to cap more life-saving drugs, roll back ACA cuts, and build a public option to guarantee healthcare as a human right.

.@JamesTalarico: Texas is one of the hardest places to vote in the country, and those in power are doing everything they can to hold on to power—from redrawing political districts mid-decade to suspending over a million voter registrations and closing dozens of polling locations. Voter suppression is powerful, but it is nothing compared to people power.

.@JamesTalarico: I don't take corporate PAC money. I'm running to ban super PACs and corporate PACs so billionaires aren't spending unlimited secret money on our political campaigns. I'm running to ban members of Congress in both parties from trading stocks, ban gerrymandering in red states and blue states alike, and pass term limits to clean up government so we can have a government of, by, and for the people again.

.@JamesTalarico: Before I was a politician, I was a 6th grade language arts teacher in San Antonio. We rank 43rd in the nation in per-student funding, and we are nickel-and-diming the most important professionals in our communities. We need to fully fund the Department of Education, guarantee universal high-quality early childhood education, and pass a long-overdue pay raise for our educators. Sending a teacher to the United States Senate from Texas will go a long way toward achieving that goal.

.@JamesTalarico: We need immigration and customs enforcement in this country — but that’s not what we’re seeing. What we’ve seen over the last year is a secret police force. We don’t want masked men in unmarked vehicles terrorizing our communities. We don’t want federal agents murdering our neighbors before our very eyes. Lorenzo Salgado lived in Houston for 35 years as a construction worker. He sent his three boys to college. Lorenzo Salgado embodies the American dream. He is exactly the kind of person we want in this country. Lorenzo Salgado was a child of God, endowed with infinite worth. Lorenzo, our fellow Texan, deserves justice, and that’s exactly what I’ll fight for in the U.S. Senate.