{"id":670473,"date":"2026-09-18T13:11:51","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T13:11:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/?p=670473"},"modified":"2026-09-18T13:11:51","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T13:11:51","slug":"blatant-corruption-james-talarico-under-fire-for-alleged-pay-to-play-scheme-to-enrich-himself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/?p=670473","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Blatant corruption\u2019: James Talarico under fire for alleged \u2018pay-to-play scheme\u2019 to enrich himself"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/div>\n

Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has accused James Talarico, his opponent in the Texas Senate race, of deep, rampant corruption.<\/p>\n

\u201cJames Talarico abused his office to enrich himself and his employer,\u201d Paxton wrote on X this Thursday. \u201cHe needs to answer for his corruption and explain to taxpayers why he used their tax dollars to benefit himself and the woke DEI firm paying him tens of thousands of dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n

Attached to the tweet was a bombshell Fox News report<\/a> documenting the corruption allegations in detail.<\/p>\n

\n

BREAKING: James Talarico abused his office to enrich himself and his employer. He needs to answer for his corruption and explain to taxpayers why he used their tax dollars to benefit himself and the woke DEI firm paying him tens of thousands of dollars. https:\/\/t.co\/TdX67eCec1<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Attorney General Ken Paxton (@KenPaxtonTX) September 17, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The report from Fox News focused on Talarico\u2019s past consulting work from 2019 to 2025 for MAYA Consulting, now known as VIDA Collaborative. The work occurred during Talarico\u2019s time on the Texas House Public Education Committee, which reportedly oversees the Texas Education Agency (TEA).<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the key: During Talarico\u2019s tenure on the Texas House Public Education Committee, MAYA received millions in contracts from the TEA.<\/p>\n

\u201c[TEA] awarded MAYA two contracts worth $3.578 million and $1.635 million, respectively,\u201d according to Fox News. \u201cThe contracts were related to priorities Talarico was pushing in the Texas House at the time, including addressing learning loss due to COVID-19.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, as MAYA was collecting money from TEA, Talarico was busy collecting $83,333.40 from the nonprofit in 2025, as well as $13,904.92 from his position as a Texas state House representative.<\/p>\n

MAYA has been accused of being a woke, DEI-obsessed nonprofit:<\/p>\n

\n

Just when you think you know a guy\u2026 James Talarico Worked As \u2018Equitable Education\u2019 Consultant at Left-Wing Firm Developing DEI Plans for Texas School Districts<\/p>\n

\u201cTexas Senate candidate James Talarico (D.) earned tens of thousands of dollars working as an \u201cequitable education\u201d\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/yt8ROBuSOh<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) June 11, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Kassi Longoria, the CEO of the now-rebranded VIDA Collaborative, seemed to deny any wrongdoing by Talarico.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring his time at VIDA, his consulting work was structured, specifically to remain separate from his role as a Texas state legislator,\u201d she alleged to Fox News.<\/p>\n

She further stated that he \u201cnever worked under, received compensation from, or was involved in securing any state- or federally-funded contracts.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a matter of standard practice, VIDA discloses any outside employment or potential conflicts of interest for our staff \u2014 including Rep. Talarico\u2019s legislative role \u2014 in our proposals when we apply for publicly-funded opportunities,\u201d she continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cSimilarly, Rep. Talarico\u2019s relationship with VIDA was disclosed in his required public financial disclosure filings,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

However, Republican National Committee spokesperson Zach Kraft didn\u2019t appear to believe her. Speaking with Fox News, he called Talarico\u2019s involvement with MAYA an example of \u201cblatant corruption.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are looking at a textbook pay-to-play scheme with James Talarico steering millions in taxpayer funds to his DEI consulting agency under the condition he gets commission through a scam no-show job,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Kraft also accused Talarico of being \u201cone of the most morally bankrupt individuals to ever run for public office in Texas.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked for comment, a Talarico campaign spokesperson pushed back hard.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a lie,\u201d spokesperson JT Ennis said. \u201cJames\u2019 relationship to MAYA was fully disclosed in compliance with Texas House rules. James had no involvement in MAYA Consulting securing any public contracts and his contract with MAYA barred him from representing MAYA before the Texas Legislature or education agencies.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cKen Paxton is making up lies about James to distract from the fact that he\u2019s been impeached by his own party for bribery, reported to the FBI by his own staff, and indicted for investment fraud for scamming his own friends,\u201d Ennis added.<\/p>\n

Ennis went on to accuse Paxton of being \u201cthe most corrupt politician in Texas.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis November, Republicans, Democrats, and independents will come together to reject Ken Paxton\u2019s corruption and stand up to this broken, corrupt political system,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Madison Cercy, a spokeswoman for Paxton\u2019s campaign, disagreed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt couldn\u2019t be clearer: James Talarico sees Texans\u2019 tax dollars as his own personal slush fund,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has accused James Talarico, his opponent in the Texas Senate race, of deep, rampant corruption. \u201cJames Talarico abused his office to enrich himself and his employer,\u201d Paxton wrote on X this Thursday. \u201cHe needs to answer for his corruption and explain to taxpayers why he used their tax dollars… Continue reading \u2018Blatant corruption\u2019: James Talarico under fire for alleged \u2018pay-to-play scheme\u2019 to enrich himself<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":670474,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[17,22,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-670473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-border-security","category-immigration","category-immigration-reform","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=670473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670473\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/670474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=670473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=670473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=670473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}