James Talarico speaks at the Paper Tiger in San Antonio on Friday. Credit: Michael Karlis

State Rep. James Talarico, a Democratic U.S. Senate hopeful, had choice words over the weekend for a right-wing blogger who published the name of Talarico’s girlfriend.

“This is what people hate about politics,” Talarico told reporters gathered at a Sunday rally in Williamson County. “I signed up to run for U.S. Senate, my girlfriend did not, my family members did not. So, I hope we can keep this race focused on what matters — my record and my plans for the people of Texas.”

The Current last month reported that Talarico has been dating his former chief of staff for four years. The candidate asked the Current not to publish his significant other’s name out of concern for her safety, a request the paper was willing to grant since she isn’t running for office.

“What I’m trying to do is protect her and my family and my friends from the impacts of this race,” Talarico said at the time.​

However, Tony Ortiz, editor of the right-wing news blog Current Revolt, published the woman’s name late last week in a subscriber-only article behind a paywall.

Talarico was in Williamson County as part of his The People vs. Ken Paxton tour, which his campaign unveiled following Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s decisive defeat last week of U.S. Sen. John Cornyn in the GOP Senate runoff.​

The name of the tour, which also stopped at San Antonio’s Paper Tiger on Friday, is a cheeky reference to Paxton’s numerous legal problems during his time as Attorney General, including now-settled felony securities fraud charges, an FBI bribery investigation, a near impeachment by the Republican-controlled Texas Legislature and a divorce filing by his wife on “biblical grounds.”

Even so, Paxton’s campaign has tried to deflect focus away from his laundry list of scandals by calling Talarico names and accusing him of being a vegan — a claim the Democrat denies.

“I’ve been eating Texas barbecue since before Ken Paxton’s first indictment,” Talarico told the crowd gathered at the Paper Tiger.

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Michael Karlis is a multimedia journalist at the San Antonio Current, whose coverage in print and on social media focuses on local and state politics. He is a graduate of American University in Washington,...