Texas Dem Senate hopeful James Talarico once “proudly” donated campaign cash to a group pushing to cut tens of millions of dollars from the police department in Austin — where the homicide rate then soared.
Records show that Talarico’s campaign for state House in 2020 shelled out $2,500 to the Austin Justice Coalition, which sought to decrease the local police department’s funding to the “minimum possible” amount.
“Now is the time to invest in a safe, liberated future for our city,’’ the group wrote in a June 3, 2020, press release.
“We can’t afford to keep funding APD’s attacks on Black lives,” it said.
Talarico wrote in his own tweet, apparently referencing his donation, “After the murders of George Floyd and Javier Ambler, our campaign proudly donated to a well-respected civil rights organization in our community that champions educational equity, economic opportunity, and police reform.
“We did it publicly, and asked our supporters to match our donation. Because we believe #BlackLivesMatter.”
JT Ennis, a spokesperson for Talarico, told The Post that “James does not support defunding the police, and has consistently voted to allocate billions to fund police.”
The Senate hopeful has voted for additional police funding numerous times, including during the appropriations process last year.
Talarico’s first piece of legislation from the state legislature that was signed into law, renamed part of US Highway 79 after fallen police officer Sgt. Chris Kelley, whom he hailed as a hero.
“While John Cornyn, Ken Paxton, and the billionaires who prop them up try to deceive voters by presenting a false choice between funding law enforcement and funding crime prevention services, James will continue building a people-powered movement that takes on this broken political system,” Ennis added.
Not long after Talarico’s donation, the Austin City Council moved to cut $150 million — or about one-third of funding — from the local police budget.
Homicides then began to surge dramatically by nearly 50%, according to some estimates.
At the time, the country was reeling over the fallout from the death of George Floyd.
A year prior, Austin had been rocked by the death of Javier Ambler, a black man who was subject to a 22-minute chase from police after he refused to pull over.
Ambler was tased multiple times, and chilling footage released in June 2020 showed him pleading with officers that he couldn’t breathe. He suffered from congestive heart failure while he was being brutally tased.
The Austin city council’s decision to drastically cut police funding in 2020 led to a dissolution of law-enforcement units and a cancellation of cadet classes, the Texas Tribune reported.
Multiple analyses found that homicide rates jumped after those cuts were pursued.
A June 2021 report from the Austin American-Statesman, whose editorial board previously endorsed Talarico, found that homicide rates in the city at that point in the year were close to doubling those during the same stretch of time in 2020.
In a roughly one-year stretch that followed the death of Floyd, arrests in Austin plummeted 36%, and murders surged by 49%, according to data cited by the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund.
Eventually, amid fierce backlash, Austin moved funds back into its police department.
Talarico, meanwhile, also campaigned aggressively against Austin’s Proposition A ballot initiative in 2021, which called for setting a minimum requirement of two police officers per every 1,000 residents.
The initiative ended up failing with nearly 70% opposition. It faced opposition from the Austin police chief. Critics argued it was overly rigid and would force the city to divert resources from elsewhere.
Talarico has battled back against criticism over his support of defunding cops.
“Republicans tried to beat me with ‘Defund the Police’ scare tactics in 2020,” Talarico tweeted at the time. “Now they’re doing the same thing in Austin’s city election.
“The only way to achieve true public safety is to invest directly in communities. Choose hope over fear today. Defeat Prop A. #NoWayPropA.”
Talarico won the Democratic nod for Senate last week over Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas).
“What’s truly scary is that Talarico and his allies have made it clear that defunding the police is just the start, abolishing ICE and Border Patrol is next,” Republican National Committee spokesperson Zach Kraft told The Post about the donation.
Polls show him faring very competitively against his potential Republican foes.
A recent poll commissioned by the Democrat-aligned Senate Majority PAC pegged Talarico beating incumbent Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) by 44% to 43% and Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) 47% to 45%.
Both Republicans still have a small edge over Talarico in the latest RealClearPolitics aggregate of hypothetical matchups.
