“Lead me, follow me, or get out of my way.”
—General George Patton
By Alex P. Vidal
IF the Philippines has Vico Sotto, the United States, many pundits say, has James Talarico.
Like Sotto, the incumbent mayor of Pasig City in Metro Manila, Talarico, member of the Texas House of Representatives, has surged in popularity as the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate in Texas by combining a unique faith-based public identity with an economic populist message.
Both the Filipino and American politicians are thirty-seven years old and seen by their admirers and political backers as future presidential candidates.
Talarico frequently draws on his classroom experience to advocate for public education and working-class families as a former middle school teacher in San Antonio through Teach For America.
As a Presbyterian seminary student and former state representative, Talarico explicitly roots his politics in Christian scripture and morality, frequently criticizing Christian nationalism and arguing for policies like healthcare, education funding, and economic equity from a faith-based framework.
Instead of framing politics strictly through a left-versus-right lens,
Talarico positions his message around working people and families versus powerful elites, corporate money, and billionaire mega-donors.
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According to the recent YouGov poll, younger voters choose Talarico over Republican Ken Paxton.
Around two-thirds of voters ages 18–29 (69 percent) and ages 30–44 (62 percent) said they were voting for Talarico. Only 27 percent and 34 percent, respectively, said they were supporting Paxton.
Voters between the ages of 45 and 64 were more split on the race, with 46 percent siding with Talarico and 48 percent for Paxton.
More than half of voters age 65 and above (55 percent) said they were voting for Paxton, while 38 percent said they supported Talarico.
Overall, according to Fox 7 Austin, Talarico led the poll by six points over Paxton, 50 percent to 44 percent, with 2 percent saying they would vote for someone else, 3 percent undecided and 1 percent of those polled saying they would not vote.
The poll also asked voters who made a choice if they would consider another candidate.
Among voters who said they were voting for Talarico, Fox 7 Austin reported that 3 percent said there was a chance they could change their minds and vote for Paxton.
Paxton voters were also mostly locked in on their candidate, with 4 percent saying they would consider voting for Talarico.
Vico Sotto, nephew of former Senate President and incumbent Philippines Senator Vicente “Tito” Sotto III, represents a new generation of ethical leadership in the Philippines and is so popular nationwide.
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Penciled to be the next president of the Philippines, Sotto’s age prohibits him from running in the 2028 presidential elections. The son of popular comedian Marvic Valentin “Vic” Sotto gained widespread national and international recognition by choosing public service over his family's entertainment spotlight and breaking a decades-long political dynasty.
Vico Sotto implemented deep institutional reforms focused on transparency, a move that earned him national fame
He championed Metro Manila's first local Freedom of Information (FOI) ordinance, launched 24/7 public complaint hotlines, and live streamed government bidding processes.
Vico Sotto’s administration is known to have significantly lowered city project costs by eradicating supplier kickbacks and corruption.
Meanwhile, according to Northeastern Global News analyst Tanner Stening, the Democratic Party is positioned to make gains in the 2026 midterm elections, which are now less than a month away “if history is any judge.”
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Quoting associate professor of political science at Northeastern University Nick Beauchamp, Stening observed that on average, the party in power loses about 25 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives during the off-year elections, which take place midway through a president’s four-year term and typically serve as a referendum on the incumbent party.
He wrote that Beauchamp viewed power shift usually as a result of several baseline factors — presidential approval and the state of the economy, which tend to account for a lot of what’s driving public sentiment.
The midterms determine control of the House and Senate and include races for seats in thousands of state and local offices. The Republicans hold a slim majority in the House, with 218 members to the Democrats’ 214. They also command the Senate.
“Election observers note that while the progressive wing of the Democratic Party has enjoyed electoral success in the primaries, that impact has mostly shone through in smaller, less consequential races,” observed Stening.
“The Nov. 3 contest, they contend, will involve larger structural forces that trump ideology. They include the anti-incumbency mood that has swept elections around the globe, a deepening dissatisfaction with President Donald Trump as shown in several national polls, the economy and rising inflation tied to the U.S. war with Iran.”
(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor-in-chief of two leading daily newspapers in Iloilo, Philippines.—Ed)
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