James Talarico Is on the Run

WIRED

3 days ago

Aug 13, 2025 8:00 AM WIRED spoke with the Texas state representative, who is hiding out in Illinois along with his colleagues in an attempt to stop Republicans from enacting an unprecedented redistricting plan. Photo-illustration: WIRED Staff; Getty Images
Somewhere in Illinois, shuttling between undisclosed locations, Texas state representative James Talarico is on a work-cation from hell.
He's trying to keep up with constituent services while running out the clock on a special session in the Texas legislature. He's also running out of clean clothes, and can't say much about his whereabouts or the security threats against him and more than 50 of his colleagues.
Technically, he's on the lam—a 19th century slang term for leaving a location quickly, and a favorite among old-school editors—as he and his party look to thwart Texas Republicans from enacting an unprecedented mid-decade redistricting plan. If successful, Texas Republicans would be able to take as many as five seats away from the Democrats in Congress by gerrymandering their districts well before the 2030 Census. This mid-decade gerrymandering could be met by an equal reaction from California, Illinois and New York, all large blue states with several Republican-held seats.
In response, and in order to block the new map from being implemented, Democratic representatives from Texas fled the state. Their goal is to break quorum in the legislature to prevent a vote on the new map before the end of the special session on August 19.
The situation has continued to escalate: Texas governor Greg Abbott threatened the lawmakers with $500 daily fines, Republicans in the legislature put out civil arrest warrants, and President Donald Trump said the FBI 'may have to' get involved in the search.
The Democrats will reportedly return to the state before a separate, second special session, according to KTRK, a local ABC News affiliate in Texas. It would effectively force the Republicans to start over again which would accomplish the goal of tabling the new map while allowing them to push for other initiatives such as flood relief. The timing of the second special session is currently unknown.
Talarico, who lives alone, left his home last week for a charter flight out of Austin. With only a small bag of clothes, Talarico says he didn't even know where he was heading until he got on the plane.
We spoke with Talarico about where things go from here, how bad it could get, and whether Republicans might be overplaying their hand with this unprecedented maneuver.
This interview has been lightly edited for style and clarity.
WIRED: What was happening when you knew you might have to actually leave the state? What was going through your mind?
James Talarico: When the first reporting came out that they may try this mid-decade redistricting power grab, I knew it was going to be a possibility, but I didn't know that we had the numbers and were ready to go until about 24 hours ahead of time.
And that's how much time I had to get my bags packed and arrangements made and all that. I didn't even know where we were going, but I was told the meetup location, which was a union hall in Austin, not too far from the capitol. And then from there we went to the airport, and it wasn't until I got on the plane that I figured that we were going to Illinois.
Could you walk me through what your average day has been looking like since you and your fellow Democrats left the state?
Well, the days have been nonstop. Early mornings, late evenings—doing a lot of interviews because we're trying to shine a national spotlight on this redistricting power grab in Texas and why it is critical, not just for Democrats, but independents and Republicans too, in order to protect their voices in the democratic process across this country.
But we also have constituent services to attend to just like normal. And so in between these interviews, I'm ensuring that my constituents have what they need. If they've got to get ahold of Medicaid, or they have a problem with a state agency, or there's a pothole in the neighborhood, I've got to still handle those issues.
We're all here together in the same hotels. We're keeping our spirits up. We're eating our meals together in the conference room.
How do you pack for going on the lam indefinitely?
My dad has this big duffel bag, and so I borrowed his, and it has his little tag with his name on it instead of mine. I think I brought seven dress shirts. I brought one jacket, jeans, T-shirts, and shorts, too. I've basically run through all those clothes at this point, so I'm going to need to do laundry today at the hotel. All my clothes that I've got now are officially dirty, and I need to try to spend time at some point today to wash some of these shirts.
In what could be a really historic moment, do you feel any pressure?
I knew that it was a dramatic step. It's one we didn't take lightly because it comes with a lot of personal, financial, legal, and political costs. But I knew it was important and it had consequences to the whole country. If Trump was able to escape accountability in the midterms, I think that would have dire consequences for the future of our representative democracy.
And the threat to have the FBI come and arrest you guys, does that being on the table worry you at all?
All the threats against duly elected law-abiding state legislators have been alarming—it should be alarming to all of us. Quorum breaking is a right that we have as the minority in our state constitution. There's about 150 years of history of us breaking quorum in Texas.
So listen, we're not breaking the law. We're not doing anything wrong or illegal. The fact that Trump would threaten to send in the FBI, Greg Abbott would threaten to remove us from office, Ken Paxton would ask his followers to hunt us down—all for doing our jobs and using a legitimate constitutional legislative tactic to stop a massive power grab—is unsettling, to say the least.
What is your level of concern in terms of where this goes, and if this could escalate to something akin to a cold civil war?
I think we need leadership at this moment more than we've ever needed it before. And the president is very proud of the peace deal he worked out [between Armenia and Azerbaijan], and I hope that he can take that same attitude here and help us work out a peace deal between these red states and these blue states. But instead, he's the one instigating the conflict by trying to steal these five seats in the middle of a decade. And if they are intent on cheating like this, then the other side will respond. And if one side cheats, then all bets are off.
We can't let the bullies win. We have to stand up to 'em, look 'em right in the eye and not flinch.
How much do you blame Trump compared to Republicans in your state?
I mean, I put most of the blame on my colleagues, including Governor Abbott back in Texas. Donald Trump, I'm sure, asks for all kinds of crazy things on a whim, but it's incumbent upon the adults around him to stand up to him and speak truth to power. And those Republicans back in Texas, my colleagues, know that this is bad precedent. They know it's unpopular politically, and so I don't think they wanted to do this. But they don't have the courage to stand up to President Trump.
Do you think there's a chance this could backfire on Republicans by stretching their seats too thin, to the point where Democrats could get some surprising wins?
It's possible. Gerrymandering is when politicians draw their own lines to benefit themselves and their party. Dummymandering is when one party gets too greedy, and they cut their districts a little too thin and end up losing seats.
Politicians shouldn't be choosing their voters. Voters should be choosing their politicians. But we got some polling data that just came out today showing that this is deeply unpopular among Texans, even among Trump voters. No one likes a cheater. We don't like cheaters in our personal lives. We don't like cheaters in sports. We don't like cheaters in politics. If you think your policies are more popular, then campaign on those policies and win the election, beat us on the field. But this attempt to rig the game before it starts, I think is unpopular across the political spectrum. No Sheriff in Town
Sure, there's plenty of money to be made during the second Trump administration for big tech.
Yet with a data report exclusively obtained by WIRED, the scale of the industry's lucky break with a Trump victory is becoming a little more clear. It's not just legislation and executive action helping these companies out. In fact, sometimes, doing nothing is the best thing for an industry under the federal regulatory microscope.
In the first six months of Trump 2.0, the administration has either paused or withdrawn a third of the targeted investigations into tech corporations, according to new findings from Public Citizen, appearing for the first time in this edition of Inner Loop.
Among the key findings: At least 104 companies in the tech sector were facing at least 143 federal investigations when Trump's second term began.
As of the first six months of 2025, 47 enforcement actions have been withdrawn or halted. (These were against 45 individual tech companies; 38 enforcement actions were withdrawn, nine were halted.)
Along with their executives and investors, these companies spent more than $1 billion over the course of the 2024 election cycle. Two-thirds of that political spending—$610 million out of $863 million total—went toward supporting Republicans, including Trump.
Nearly half of the enforcement actions that have been dropped or paused were against cryptocurrency corporations. (20 withdrawn, three halted.)
Financial technology corporations had 11 cases withdrawn or halted, mostly under the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Binance, Coinbase, Consensys, Gemini, Kraken, and Polymarket are among the crypto-related companies that had federal investigations or lawsuits filed against them under the Biden administration that have not continued in the second Trump administration. This includes pardons for the parent company of BitMex and four of its executives, in what is arguably the first ever pardon of a corporation.
Tesla, SpaceX, xAI, The Boring Company and Neuralink, all companies in Elon Musk's portfolio, have also had cases contested or potentially dismissed. Others are halted.
Sometimes it pays to have friends in high places. Other times, it pays even more to be an industry proving extremely profitable to the president's family and the cashout option of choice in Trumpworld. For all the favors an industry could ask for in Washington, the new administration doing nothing can sometimes be the most valuable of all.
Matt Giles contributed reporting.
This is an edition of Jake Lahut's Inner Loop newsletter. Read previous newsletters here.