Support ad for James Talarico

What the record shows. The ad names no bill. Two enacted measures fit the description. (1) SB 3 (88th Legislature, Second Called Session, 2023) raised the franchise tax no-tax-due revenue threshold from $1 million to $2.47 million and stopped the comptroller from requiring an information report from entities under it¹². The House passed SB 3 on July 13, 2023 by 131 yeas, 5 nays, 1 present not voting (Record 30), and Talarico is listed among the yeas⁵. (2) HB 9 (89th Legislature, 2025) raised the exemption on income-producing business personal property from $2,500 to $125,000 of appraised value¹⁵. On May 19, 2025 the House concurred in the Senate amendments to HB 9 by 110 yeas, 15 nays, 1 present not voting (Record 2999), and Talarico is listed among the yeas¹³. The Texas Senate's release on the signing lists $2,500 a year in savings for small business owners¹⁶. Both measures were authored by others: SB 3 by Sen. Bettencourt, with Rep. Geren listed first among its House sponsors¹¹; HB 9 by Rep. Meyer¹⁶. The journal prints no party labels, so no party split is stated.

What the ad leaves out. Talarico voted yes on both, but he did not author or sponsor either, and both passed by lopsided margins, so his vote was one of well over 100. Neither measure is limited to small businesses: the franchise tax change applies to every entity under the revenue threshold and the HB 9 exemption applies to all owners of income-producing business property¹²¹⁵. We did not find a small business tax bill that he authored and that became law. His own bill to exempt child-care facility property from property tax (HB 1801, 2023) was referred to committee and went no further¹⁸. A related measure he did carry in the House was SB 1145 (2023, Sen. West), a local option property tax exemption for qualifying child-care facilities, on which he is the first-listed House sponsor and which the Governor signed on May 29, 2023²⁶²⁷; it covers child-care facilities, not small businesses generally.

What the record shows. The law is SB 827 (87th Legislature, 2021), authored in the Senate by Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham. It bars a covered health plan from charging more than $25 per prescription for a 30-day supply of insulin on its formulary, and applies to plans issued or renewed on or after January 1, 2022². The House sponsors listed are Eddie Lucio III and Talarico¹. It passed the Senate 27 to 3 (March 25, 2021), the House 140 to 5 with one present not voting (May 24, 2021), the Senate concurred 28 to 3, and the governor signed it June 14, 2021, effective September 1, 2021²¹. A local news report described the bill as bipartisan, naming Kolkhorst (R) and Rep. Four Price (R) among its sponsors alongside Talarico and Lucio³. Talarico's own bill, HB 40, which proposed a $100 cap per 30-day supply in its introduced form, was left pending in committee on April 6, 2021; the news report called SB 827 identical to HB 40⁴³. The Statesman likewise reported that the bill that passed was authored by a Republican senator¹⁷. His campaign page says he capped insulin at $25 a month²⁵.

What the ad leaves out. The cap is on what a health plan can charge an insured patient (a cost-sharing limit), not on the price of insulin. The statute covers state-regulated plans, children's health and Medicaid; it exempts several plan types such as Medicare supplement policies², and the Texas Department of Insurance said self-funded employer plans may not be protected³. Uninsured Texans get no price cap from it. Talarico was one of two House sponsors listed and one of many; the lead author was a Republican senator, and his own HB 40 did not advance¹⁴. We found no source showing that drug makers opposed the bill, so 'take on Big Pharma' is a characterization we did not check.

What the record shows. The ad names no bill. The phrase is Gov. Greg Abbott's label for the 2023 package: at the August 9, 2023 signing of SB 2 and SB 3 he called it $18 billion, 'the largest property tax cut in Texas history'⁷. SB 2 (88th Legislature, Second Called Session) is captioned as property tax relief through school finance, exemptions, and limits on appraisals and taxes; the Tribune describes it as lowering school district tax rates, with a $100,000 homestead exemption put to voters and a temporary appraisal cap⁸; the House passed it July 13, 2023 by 133 yeas, 4 nays (Record 31), and Talarico is listed among the yeas⁵⁶. He is also listed among the yeas on SB 3 (131 to 5, Record 30)⁵. In 2025 he is listed among the yeas on SB 4 (143 yeas, 0 nays, 1 present not voting, Record 3116), SB 23 (141 yeas, 0 nays, 1 present not voting, Record 3117) and HB 9 (110 to 15, Record 2999), which the Senate described as a $10 billion package building on the 2023 cut¹⁴¹³¹⁶. His campaign page says he voted to raise the homestead and business property exemptions²⁵.

What the ad leaves out. 'Largest in history' is the governor's wording, not a finding by a neutral source. The Texas Tribune's explainer put the 2023 package at $12.7 billion in property tax cuts plus $600 million in franchise tax cuts, and said $5.3 billion budgeted in 2019 would be added to reach $18.6 billion; it did not call the package the largest⁸. An advocacy group, Texans for Fiscal Responsibility, argues that a 2006 special session cut of $14.2 billion was larger than the $12.7 billion of new relief in 2023⁹; the 2006 bill's own fiscal note shows state costs of about $8.7 billion in fiscal 2008 and $10.1 billion in fiscal 2009¹⁰. We found no neutral ranking that settles which cut was biggest, and the answer depends on how new relief is measured. Talarico did not author these bills (SB 2 was by Sen. Bettencourt, with Rep. Meyer sponsoring in the House), and the House votes were near-unanimous, with 5 or fewer nays on the 2023 bills⁶⁵. The Senate's 2025 release quotes Sen. Bettencourt calling the 2023 cut 'the largest property tax cut in U.S. history' and 'a record-breaking $22.7 billion', a larger figure than the Governor's $18 billion, so the dollar amounts attached to the same package also differ by source¹⁶.

What the record shows. The Texas Legislature Online member reports for Talarico (code A3685) let us reproduce 60 under one inclusive definition. We counted only House and Senate bills (HB and SB) whose last recorded action in Texas Legislature Online is an 'Effective' date (that is, enacted), and left out two vetoed bills (HB 455 and SB 474). Across the 86th through 89th Legislatures, including called sessions: 29 bills he authored or joint authored (10 as first-listed author, 19 as a joint author), plus 10 Senate bills where he was a House sponsor or joint sponsor (6 as first-listed), plus 21 Senate bills where he was a House cosponsor. That is 60: 29 + 10 + 21¹⁸¹⁹²⁰. By session: 11 (2019), 16 (2021 regular), 2 (2021 second called), 19 (2023 regular), 11 (2025 regular), 1 (2025 second called). Only 16 of the 60 list him first (the author of 10 House bills, the lead House sponsor of 6 Senate bills). The Statesman reported that he says he 'brought both parties together' to pass 60 bills and that many were sure-to-pass measures with broad support¹⁷.

What the ad leaves out. The 60 includes 21 Senate bills where he was one of many House cosponsors and 19 where he was a joint author among several. If bills where he was only a coauthor were also counted, the total would be 96¹⁸; if only bills he led were counted, it would be 16. The count also leaves out 6 adopted joint resolutions. Texas Legislature Online does not print party labels, so we did not tally how many bills had a Republican author or sponsor; the one example we confirmed is the insulin law, with Sen. Kolkhorst, R, as author³. The ad's 'with both parties' is plausible, but we confirmed it only for that example.

What the record shows. The wording matches the headline of a page on expressnews.com exactly. That page is in the Opinion section, filed under Letters to the Editor, bylined 'Letters to the Editor', with the summary 'A reader defends Texas Democratic Senate candidate and Texas state Rep. James Talarico for his effort to reduce insulin costs for Texans.' Its date is July 7, 2026, not July 16, 2026²¹. It is a reader's letter responding to an earlier reader piece titled 'Talarico ads lack honesty'. The page's code carries a different headline, 'Opinion: Talarico knows success in Texas requires bipartisanship'²¹.

What the ad leaves out. The mailer sets the line in a news-clipping style and credits the newspaper, but it is a reader's opinion letter, not an editorial by the paper's board or a news report; a fair reader would not take it as the Express-News's own view. The printed date (7/16/2026) does not match the page date we found (July 7, 2026); we could not find any July 16 version. The letter also says his HB 40 proposed a $50 cap, while the introduced text of HB 40 says $100 per 30-day supply²¹⁴.