Talarico to face candidate he calls nation's 'most corrupt politician' in U.S. Senate race in TX

The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell

Lawrence O'Donnell, MS NOW

Politics, Washington, Congress, News, Ms Now, President, Versant Media, Policy, Versant, Government, Senate

4.5 • 6.4K Ratings

🗓️ 27 May 2026

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Tonight on The Last Word: Ken Paxton defeats Sen. John Cornyn in the Texas GOP primary runoff. Also, the U.S. strikes Iran as Donald Trump says talks are going “nicely.” And Ben Rhodes writes about the battle for American identity in his new book, “All We Say.” Ali Velshi, Texas State Rep. James Talarico, Rep. Adam Smith, and Ben Rhodes join Lawrence O’Donnell.

Transcript

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0:00.0	The last word with Lawrence O'Donnell.
0:02.5	Starts right now.
0:03.3	Hey, Lawrence.
0:04.4	Hey, Jen.
0:05.1	You know, I've never heard Ken Paxson give a speech before tonight.
0:09.6	I listened to his victory speech, and it was just the flattest public speaking I've seen in quite a while.
0:18.1	He spent, it seemed to me, most of the time, talking about our first
0:24.8	guest tonight, James Telerico. We're going to, we're going to show viewers exactly what he
0:29.9	said about James Telerico. James Tlerico, if he hasn't heard it already, is going to hear it on
0:35.6	this program. What Ken Paxston said about him, and this will be the first
0:40.5	place where James Tolerico gets a chance to respond to Ken Paxton tonight. This really will be
0:47.7	in this hour the campaign officially underway. The general election is launching. This race could determine control of the Senate. So I can't
0:57.5	wait to hear what he has to say. General election in Texas is underway right now at this hour.
1:03.3	Exactly. Thanks, Jen. Thanks, Lawrence. Thank you. Well, Texas Senator Lloyd Benson was one of the very few politicians in American
1:12.9	history and the only one who I can personally remember who won and lost an election on the
1:21.0	same night. In 1988, Lloyd Benson appeared on the ballot in all 50 states as the Democratic candidate for vice president
1:31.3	of the United States. And at the same time, on the Texas ballot, Lloyd Benson appeared as a
1:39.3	candidate for reelection to the United States Senate in Texas. The presidential ticket of Michael Dukakis and Lloyd Benson got 43% of the vote in Texas in 1988.
1:53.0	And at the same time, in the same night, Democratic Senator Lloyd Benson got 59% of the vote in his reelection campaign for Senate, thereby making Lloyd Benson
2:04.1	the last Democrat to win a United States Senate election in the state of Texas.
2:13.6	And the next year, James Telerico was born.
2:18.9	He is now the Democratic candidate for Senate in Texas trying to do something that hasn't happened literally in his lifetime.
	...

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