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Reproductive Freedom for All Celebrates as James Talarico Defeats Ken Paxton in Upset Win in Texas Senate Race
Washington, DC — Today, Reproductive Freedom for All-endorsed candidate James Talarico defeated anti-abortion extremist Ken Paxton in the race for Texas’ U.S. Senate seat, becoming the first Democrat Texas voters have elected to the U.S. Senate since 1988.
Reproductive Freedom for All President and CEO Mini Timmaraju released the following statement:
“James Talarico is the first Democrat to win a statewide race in Texas in 32 years – and he won while unapologetically supporting reproductive freedom. Ken Paxton is public enemy number one on abortion, and despite millions of dollars in outside spending spent to save his flailing campaign, his record proved too toxic for Texas voters. Talarico heads to the Senate as a true champion for Texans and their reproductive freedom.”
Reproductive Freedom for All endorsed Talarico in July as part of My Body. My Ballot., a $23.5 million campaign and the organization’s largest-ever midterm investment. The campaign mobilizes the 8 in 10 Americans who support legal abortion and helped sound the alarm on Ken Paxton’s alarming anti-abortion extremism.
Since joining the Texas House in 2019, Talarico has voted against the state’s extreme abortion restrictions. Those include SB 8, the 2021 law that encourages private citizens to sue anyone who helps a patient access abortion care. He introduced legislation to let Texans vote on a constitutional amendment protecting abortion rights, repeal Texas’ pre-Roe abortion laws, and guarantee paid family leave. Talarico ran on a promise to restore federal protections for abortion access.
As attorney general, now-defeated Paxton defended and enforced one of the cruelest abortion bans in the country. He sued to block federal emergency abortion protections from applying in Texas, threatened a hospital with legal action to block a patient, Kate Cox, from getting the care her doctors and a court had approved, and targeted providers in other states for providing legal medication abortion care.
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For over 55 years, Reproductive Freedom for All (formerly NARAL Pro-Choice America) has fought to protect and advance reproductive freedom at the federal and state levels—including access to abortion care, birth control, pregnancy and post-partum care, and paid family leave—for everybody. Reproductive Freedom for All is powered by its more than 4.5 million members from every state and congressional district in the country, representing the 8 in 10 Americans who support legal abortion.
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