2026-05-27T12:35:00-0400 / 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻（CBS News）
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埃德·奥基夫 白宫与政治高级通讯员
埃德·奥基夫是哥伦比亚广播公司新闻的白宫与政治高级通讯员，为所有CBS新闻平台供稿。他是报道特朗普总统的团队成员之一，也曾全程报道乔·拜登的四年总统任期。从白宫到竞选活动现场，奥基夫的报道涵盖当下政治以及华盛顿制定的政策如何影响美国乃至世界。
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加布里埃尔·艾克 | 2026年5月27日下午1:35 美国东部夏令时 更新 | CBS News
得克萨斯州联邦众议员、该州联邦参议院民主党候选人詹姆斯·塔拉里科周三承认，自己此前在跨性别政策辩论中发表的一些言论“没切中要害”，但同时指责共和党对手肯·帕克斯顿“故意剪辑我令人尴尬的言论，以转移人们对其腐败生涯的注意力”。
塔拉里科在共和党压倒性推举州总检察长帕克斯顿作为参议院候选人几小时后表示：“共和党人‘担心我们在得州掀起的这场运动’。”
“我认为全国共和党人都看到了这场运动背后的势头，他们担心我们会在11月拿下得州，”塔拉里科在周二 runoff 结束后首次接受全国性电视新闻采访时对CBS新闻的埃德·奥基夫说道。
他告诉奥基夫，他的竞选团队在全州吸引了大量民众到场，他相信自己的支持基础已经超出了民主党选民群体。
“已有数万名得州民众到场与我们一同集会。我数不清有多少人在活动结束后走上前来，低声对我说‘我不是民主党人’，仿佛他们身处证人保护计划之中，”塔拉里科说道，“我认为我们正在争取那些通常不会投票给民主党候选人的民众。我们还吸引了大量首次投票的选民，以及不少年轻人——他们踊跃参加我们的活动，报名当志愿者并捐款。”
帕克斯顿周二晚以压倒性优势赢得共和党参议院提名初选中的 runoff，击败了自2002年起代表得州的现任参议员约翰·康林。
参议院共和党领导层此前曾全力支持康林——这位筹款能力出众的议员已为共和党参议院候选人筹集超过4亿美元资金——并认为他是大选中击败塔拉里科的更佳人选。如今帕克斯顿成为候选人，共和党将不得不在这场竞选中投入巨额资金，以支撑他低迷的筹款表现，并回击左翼针对其多起道德丑闻的猛烈抨击。
塔拉里科同样展现了出色的筹款能力，第一季度筹款额达2700万美元。今年3月，他在民主党初选中击败众议员贾斯敏·克罗克特。
塔拉里科称“得州民众正水深火热”。
“我们连基本生活必需品都负担不起，买不起食品杂货、汽油、保险、住房、 childcare 或是处方药，而肯·帕克斯顿显然拿不出任何解决方案，”他说道，“因此，当他用这些老掉牙的文化战争议题分裂我们时，我将继续团结得州民众，对抗他的腐败行为，并降低我们的生活成本。”
为降低得州民众的生活成本，塔拉里科提议取消关税、暂停联邦汽油和柴油税，并为处方药价格设定上限。他表示，住房、儿童保育和保险成本“所有这些因素加在一起，正阻碍着得州民众前进的脚步”。
塔拉里科重申了他自竞选开始以来一直传递的信息：这场斗争并非左翼对右翼，而是“顶层对底层”。
“我们所有人都被榨干了。无论我们工作多么努力，都负担不起任何东西，都无法出人头地，这是因为这个政治体系和经济体系都被操纵来对抗我们，”他说道，“50年来，亿万富翁巨型捐赠者及其傀儡政客——比如肯·帕克斯顿——一直在操纵这套体系。”
这位民主党候选人认为，腐败是“当下我国的核心问题”。
“我认为我们正生活在一个腐败的时代，我不只是指非法活动，当然，考虑到肯·帕克斯顿成为候选人，我们肯定会听到很多相关指控。但我所说的是更深层次的腐败，即我们的体系从内部开始腐烂，长期以来的价值观和制度逐渐瓦解，我们随处都能看到这种情况，”他说道。
塔拉里科表示，“这场竞选的核心就是直面这种腐败”。
大选预计将成为全美成本最高的参议院竞选之一。这场竞选还将决定参议院的控制权，民主党正努力拿下参议院多数席位。目前共和党拥有53个参议院席位，这意味着民主党需要净增4个席位才能夺回多数控制权。尽管选区地图对民主党不利，但他们将帕克斯顿获得提名视为朝着长期以来期待的得州胜利又迈进了一步。自1988年劳埃德·本特森连任参议员以来，还没有民主党人在得州参议院选举中获胜。在帕克斯顿获胜后，库克政治报告将该选区评级从“大概率共和党”调整为“倾向共和党”。
塔拉里科希望通过将康林的支持者纳入民主党选民基础来击败帕克斯顿。他周三呼吁康林的支持者，感谢康林“多年来为我们州所做的服务”，并指出尽管他们并非在所有议题上都持相同立场，但“我们都仍然相信公共服务”。
“我们都仍然认为，这些公共信任职位的意义在于服务邻居，而非服务自身，”塔拉里科说道，“因此，对于任何仍秉持这种老式服务理念的康林参议员的支持者，我想让他们知道，他们在我们的竞选活动中占有一席之地。”
随着大选之战拉开帷幕，塔拉里科遭到了帕克斯顿和其他共和党人的猛烈批评，比如得州共和党参议员特德·克鲁兹，他在昨晚的播客中称塔拉里科“极其极端”，并补充道：“让塔拉里科变得危险——这也是我担心的一点——是他用这种非常‘谦逊朴实’的态度包装自己，听起来像个传教士。”
作为一名长老会神学院学生、自称进步派基督徒的塔拉里科，此前因涉及素食主义和性别议题的言论遭到右翼攻击。
当被问及他曾说过上帝是非二元性的言论时，塔拉里科表示他当时是“故意引发争议”，但补充道“这句话的意思是，上帝无法用人类的分类来定义”。在谈到性别议题时，塔拉里科表示：“我知道有两种性别，男性和女性。我也知道有极少数人存在染色体异常，我相信他们应该得到尊严和尊重。”
当被奥基夫问及围绕其饮食的批评时，塔拉里科表示自己并非素食主义者，并指出他是第八代得州人，“早在肯·帕克斯顿首次被起诉之前就一直在吃烧烤”。
“如果他们所能做的只是撒谎说我是素食主义者，那我对我们11月的胜算感到非常乐观，”他说道。
Talarico says Paxton is “clipping my cringey comments to distract from his career of corruption”
2026-05-27T12:35:00-0400 / CBS News
By
Ed O’Keefe Senior White House and Political Correspondent
Ed O’Keefe is CBS News’ senior White House and political correspondent reporting for all CBS News platforms. He’s part of the team covering President Trump and covered all four years of Joe Biden’s presidency. From the White House to the campaign trail, O’Keefe’s reports stretch from the politics of the moment to how policy enacted in Washington affects the nation and the world.
Read Full Bio
Gabrielle Ake,
Updated on: May 27, 2026 / 1:35 PM EDT / CBS News
Texas state Rep. James Talarico, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in the Lone Star State, conceded Wednesday that some past statements during debates over transgender policy “missed the mark,” but accused his Republican opponent Ken Paxton of “intentionally clipping my cringey comments to distract from his career of corruption.”
Republicans are “worried about the movement that we’re building here in Texas,” Talarico said, hours after Republicans overwhelmingly chose Paxton, the state attorney general, as their Senate nominee.
“I think national Republicans see the momentum behind this movement, and they’re worried we’re going to win Texas in November,” Talarico told CBS News’ Ed O’Keefe in his first network news interview since Tuesday’s runoff.
He told O’Keefe that his campaign has been attracting huge crowds across the state, and he believes his support is expanding beyond the Democratic voter base.
“We’ve had tens of thousands of Texans showing up to rally with us. And I can’t tell you the number of people who’ve come up to me at the end of these events and whisper, ‘I’m not a Democrat,’ like they’re in the witness protection program,” Talarico said. “I think we’re reaching people who don’t normally vote for Democratic candidates. We’re also reaching a lot of first-time voters, a number of young people, who’ve been showing up at our events, who’ve been signing up to volunteer and donate.”
Paxton won the Senate primary runoff for the GOP nomination on Tuesday night in a landslide, defeating Sen. John Cornyn, the incumbent senator who has represented Texas since 2002.
Senate GOP leadership had thrown its support behind Cornyn — a prolific fundraiser who has brought in more than $400 million for Republican Senate candidates — and viewed him as a better candidate to take on Talarico in the general election. Now, with Paxton as the nominee, Republicans will have to dump large sums of money into the race to support his lackluster fundraising and combat an onslaught of attacks from the left over a number of ethics scandals.
For his part, Talarico has also flexed his fundraising chops, bringing in $27 million in the first quarter. He defeated Rep. Jasmine Crockett in March for the Democratic nomination.
Talarico said “Texans are drowning.”
“We can’t afford the basics, we can’t afford groceries or gas or insurance or housing or childcare or prescription drugs, and Ken Paxton clearly has no solutions to offer us,” he said. “So, while he divides us with these same tired culture war fights, I’m going to keep bringing Texans together to take on his corruption and lower our costs.”
To drive down costs in Texas, Talarico proposes ending tariffs, suspending the federal gas and diesel taxes and capping prescription drug prices. He said along with the cost of housing, childcare and insurance, “all of these things are conspiring to hold Texans back.”
Talarico echoed a message he’s shared since the beginning of the campaign — that the fight isn’t left versus right, it’s “top versus bottom.”
“We’re all getting screwed. None of us can afford anything. None of us can get ahead, no matter how hard we work, and that’s because the system, this political system and economic system, are rigged against us,” he said. “It’s been rigged for 50 years by billionaire megadonors and their puppet politicians — like Ken Paxton.”
The Democratic nominee argued that corruption is the “central problem in our country right now.”
“I think we’re living in an era of corruption, and I don’t just mean illegal activity, although we’re certainly going to hear a lot about that, given that Ken Paxton is the nominee. But I’m talking about corruption in the deeper sense, the rotting of our systems from the inside out, the decaying of long-held values and institutions, and we see it everywhere,” he said.
Talarico said “this campaign is really about taking on that corruption head-on.”
The general election is expected to be among the most expensive Senate races in the country. The race could also determine control of the Senate, as Democrats look to flip the chamber. Republicans currently have 53 seats in the Senate, meaning Democrats would need to net four to retake the majority. And despite a difficult map, Democrats see Paxton’s nomination as bringing them one step closer to a long-sought victory in Texas. No Democrat has prevailed in a Senate race in Texas since 1988, when Sen. Lloyd Bentsen won reelection. The Cook Political Report shifted its rating from Likely Republican to Lean Republican after Paxton’s victory.
Talarico hopes to defeat Paxton by adding Cornyn supporters to his base of Democratic voters. He appealed to them Wednesday, thanking Cornyn for his “many years of service to our state” and noting that while they don’t agree on every issue, “we both still believe in public service.”
“We both still believe that these positions of public trust should be about serving our neighbors, not serving ourselves,” Talarico said. “And so to any of Senator Cornyn’s supporters who still believe in that old-fashioned idea of service, I want them to know they have a place in our campaign.”
As the general election fight gets underway, Talarico has faced intense criticism from Paxton and other Republicans, like GOP Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who called Talarico “absolutely extreme” on his podcast overnight, adding, “What makes Talarico dangerous — and that worries me — is he packages it in this very nice ‘aw, shucks’ demeanor, and he sounds like a preacher.”
Talarico, a Presbyterian seminarian who calls himself a progressive Christian, has faced attacks from the right over previous comments, including on veganism and gender.
Pressed on a comment he made that God is nonbinary, Talarico said he was being “intentionally provocative,” but added that “what it means is that God can’t be defined by human categories.” On his comments about gender, Talarico said “I know there are two sexes, men and women. I also know there’s a very small percentage of people who have these chromosomal abnormalities, and I believe they deserve to be treated with dignity and respect.”
Asked by O’Keefe about the criticism surrounding his diet, Talarico said he is not a vegan, noting that he’s an eighth-generation Texan who’s “been eating barbecue since before Ken Paxton’s first indictment.”
“If all they have is lying about me being a vegan, I feel pretty good about our chances this November,” he said.