Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is disgusted by new corruption charges against his Democrat Senate race opponent, James Talarico.
Talarico has been making charges of corruption against Paxton throughout this contentious and high-stakes race, but as often happens with Democrat politicians, Talarico was throwing stones while living in a glass house. Or, put less metaphorically, he now faces charges of “blatant corruption” for allegedly receiving money for consulting work from an entity that, in turn, received substantial state funding while Talarico was a state lawmaker on the committee that oversaw the funding distribution.
BREAKING: James Talarico abused his office to enrich himself and his employer. He needs to answer for his corruption and explain to taxpayers why he used their tax dollars to benefit himself and the woke DEI firm paying him tens of thousands of dollars. https://t.co/TdX67eCec1
— Attorney General Ken Paxton (@KenPaxtonTX) September 17, 2026
It is altogether too common for politicians at both the state and national levels to funnel taxpayer money to organizations that they expect to provide kickbacks or other benefits. In this case, it seems Talarico was partly responsible for determining where Texas education funding went, and one of the recipients was MAYA Consulting, which also hired him.
A 2019 Facebook post from Talarico says, "Being a state legislator is a part time job. That's why I'm thrilled to announce that I'm joining MAYA, an education consulting firm in Austin. As a consultant for MAYA, I'll be working with districts, nonprofits and communities to build excellent and equitable educational opportunities for all our students." MAYA Consulting has since rebranded as VIDA Collaborative.
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But, as Fox News explained, while Talarico was bringing in paychecks from MAYA, he was also sitting on the Public Education Committee that oversaw state contracts from the Texas Education Agency (TEA), like the one that MAYA received. Talarico was a voting member of the committee between 2019 and 2025.
TEA registers from 2021 and 2022 show that the agency awarded MAYA two contracts worth $3.578 million and $1.635 million, respectively. The contracts were related to priorities Talarico was pushing in the Texas House at the time, including addressing learning loss due to COVID-19.
Meanwhile, Talarico’s disclosure shows that he earned $83,333.40 from the nonprofit in 2025, in addition to his $13,904.92 part-time salary as a member of the Texas House of Representatives.
Based on these facts, Talarico was giving money to the consulting firm in his role as a legislator and receiving money from the firm in his role as a consultant. Kassi Longoria, CEO of VIDA Collaborative, told Fox that Talarico did indeed work with the firm between 2019 and 2025. She also denied, however, that he was involved in obtaining any state contracts for the firm. Talarico’s campaign has also denied any wrongdoing.
Then again, this is also the guy who said there are six biological sexes, that white skin is “immunity” from the “virus” of racism, and that God is non-binary. Talarico also admitted to an inappropriate relationship with a staffer. He’s not exactly a reliable source.