U.S. Senate candidiate James Talarico, D-Austin, poses for a photo with NIOSA attendees on Thursday. Credit: Michael Karlis

Revelers at Night In Old San Antonio (NIOSA), one of Fiesta’s best-attended events, got a surprise Thursday night when State Rep. James Talarico, Texas’ Democratic U.S. Senate candidate, showed up unexpectedly.

Talarico has been on something of a campaign hiatus since winning the Democratic nomination against U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett this spring. His team has been awaiting the results of the May 26 Republican runoff to find out whether he’ll take on U.S. Sen. John Cornyn or Attorney General Ken Paxton in November’s general election.

After an exhausting primary, Talarico — who represents an Austin district but once taught school in San Antonio — said there are few better ways to spend downtime than enjoying Fiesta.

“I’ve always been partial to the Battle of the Flowers Parade, but I’m so excited to be here tonight and looking forward to trying some of the food and meeting a lot of the folks that are here,” he said.

Indeed, some NIOSA-goers were left gobsmacked to see Talarico wandering around La Villita, his shirt heavy with Fiesta medals from vendors. He shook hands and mingled with attendees, occasionally posing for photos.

“I think it’s incredibly cool,” NIOSA attendee Amanda Rothbauer said. “I think it shows that he’s relating to Texans on a Texan level. It feels like he’s here to have a good time.”

And a good time he had.

Although the former Rhodes Middle School teacher didn’t get a chance to grab chicken-on-a-stick — his favorite Fiesta food — he did scarf down some beef tacos from a vendor and a piña agua fresca.

“I didn’t know he loved beef tacos,” said the vendor, who didn’t give his name. “But hey, that’s a man of the people.”

During his conversation with the Current, Talarico also revealed that his favorite breakfast taco is potato, egg, and cheese.

To Talarico’s surprise, Thursday was NIOSA’s annual College Night. While the crowd was relatively tame compared to past years, the state rep said he was happy to meet and mingle with younger voters.

“We’ve had so many young people who have been joining the campaign and signing up to volunteer, signing up to donate, showing up to our events, and so I think the youth vote is going to be critical in this election,” Talarico said.

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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,...