Texas Democrat tells Joe Rogan his advice to GOP that Trump “tapped into”

In what was a highly awaited conversation, Texas state Representative James Talarico joined The Joe Rogan Experience podcast and urged Republicans to compete for young voters rather than trying to suppress them—acknowledging that President Donald Trump had “tapped into” something real with younger Americans.

“I do think there is something that Donald Trump tapped into. I think that other Republicans could tap into,” Talarico said during the episode. “And again, this is weird because I’m a Democrat making an argument for Republicans. The reason I’m doing this is I think when politicians feel that they can win over voters, we all compete to win over those voters and that leads to better public policy.”

Talarico, a 36-year-old Democrat from Austin, argued that GOP-backed voting laws in Texas—which he called “voter suppression”—disproportionately hurt young voters. “Instead of making it harder for young people to vote, why don’t you just go out and try to win their votes? Clearly, Donald Trump was able to do it,” he told Rogan.

On why Trump resonated with young men, Talarico said his own party misunderstands what voters really want: “Democrats too often—my party—we think that people are going to be happy with a handout. I’ve never met someone who wants a handout.”

Faith, Biden and the Meaning of Power

The conversation, which lasted more than two hours, touched on faith, politics and generational change.

Talarico criticized a Texas law requiring the Ten Commandments in public schools, calling it unconstitutional and harmful to religion. “If we have to force people to put up a poster, to me, that means that we have a dead religion—a religion that no longer moves people, a religion that no longer speaks to people’s hearts,” he said.

He warned about “Christian nationalism,” which he defined as “the worship of power—whether it’s social power, economic power, political power—in the name of Christ,” adding: “This is what people think about religious people—that we’re more interested in imposing our faith or our values or our beliefs on others instead of living it out ourselves.”

Talarico also criticized former President Joe Biden, saying he should have stepped aside to allow younger leadership. “We focus so much on President Biden’s age, which I agree was a problem, but I don’t think we’ve really discussed that the biggest problem was ego. It was his inability to step aside and let someone else do the job,” he said. “In 2020, we all knew—anybody that was paying attention—knew that he was compromised.”

On abortion and LGBTQ+ rights, Talarico defended his abortion-rights Christian perspective. “Creation has to be done with consent. You cannot force someone to create. Creation is one of the most sacred acts that we engage in as human beings,” he said. “If this was something that really was central to Jesus’ ministry, I would think he would have said something about it … We have four Gospels with tons of teachings from Jesus and none of them are about this.”

AI, Bipartisanship and a Lost Generation

Talarico also addressed how artificial intelligence (AI) could disrupt work and society, calling it “a spiritual question about what does it mean to be a human being.” He added: “We’re all either thrilled or terrified of this AI future. It’s going to change how we understand work. It’s going to change how we understand our jobs and our careers. It’s going to eliminate a lot of jobs, I would imagine.”

He described how bipartisan friendships in the Texas Legislature led him to work with Republicans on issues like drug pricing and homeschool sports. “I ended up crossing party lines to support that bill. And I got a bunch of blowback from my folks,” he said. “But I felt like this trust that I had with James [Frank]—someone who is on the completely polar opposite side of me—moved me in a way that I actually changed my opinion on something.”

Speaking about young Americans’ spiritual struggles, Talarico said: “I hear from people all day long, yes on TikTok but also in real life, where they’re just like, ‘I want a relationship with God and I’m just not sure how to find that,'” he said.

“It does feel like young people in particular are the ones that are asking these questions … they are waking up to how broken organized religion is and they are starting to yearn for something bigger and better and something that’s more true and more honest.”