What to know about James Talarico's girlfriend and family

Democrat James Talarico defeated Republican Ken Paxton in Texas' U.S. Senate race on Nov. 3, a major political upset, the Associated Press and NBC News projected.

His victory gave Democrats the statewide win in Texas they had chased for years, particularly since Beto O'Rourke nearly unseated Sen. Ted Cruz in 2018. Talarico will head to Washington, DC, with his longtime girlfriend, Brianna Menard.

Talarico called Menard "his rock" during an appearance on The Jamie Kern Lima Show podcast. "I don't know if I could have gotten through the last six months of this crazy race if she hadn't been by my side," he said.

Here's what you need to know about Menard.

Talarico's partner worked for him as chief of staff

Menard met Talarico while working as his chief of staff, Talarico said on "The Jamie Kern Lima Show." His campaign confirmed their relationship to The New York Times in August.

"Four years ago, after he and his then-chief of staff developed feelings for each other and started dating, she left the office to pursue other opportunities," a Talarico campaign spokesman told the Times.

After departing Talarico's office, Menard worked to elect state Rep. Salman Bhojani, the first Muslim member of the Texas legislature, before becoming his chief of staff, according to a 2023 post on X by Talarico .

She currently works as the director of TEXPAC and Political Education at the Texas Medical Association, according to her biography page on the committee's website. The group describes itself as a "bipartisan political action committee" with the goal of electing "medicine-friendly candidates at the state and federal levels."

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Menard's veganism target of Paxton attacks

Throughout the campaign, Paxton attacked Talarico's masculinity and claimed that the now senator-elect was a vegan.

Talarico denied that he had ever been a vegan, with a campaign spokesperson telling the New York Post: "James is not and never has been a vegan, much to his girlfriend's chagrin. As the saying goes, true love conquers all."

The Post reported that Menard described herself as a "committed vegan" in a since-deleted biography page of an Austin grocery co-op. Talarico said on "The Jamie Kern Lima Show" that Menard did not "want any part of" the contentious campaign but is "very supportive."

"What I'm trying to do is protect her and my family and my friends from the impacts of this race, because I signed up to run for the U.S. Senate. Obviously, they did not, and so I'm trying to balance running this race while also protecting them and protecting her in particular," he said.

What to know about James Talarico's family

Talarico was born in 1989 in Round Rock, Texas, to a single mother, according to his campaign website . After his father became abusive, his mother moved them to a hotel, and later an apartment, and raised Talarico in East Austin.

His adoptive father, Mark Talarico, met James Talarico's mother shortly after she fled his birth father, according to a Texas Monthly profile. The couple married within a year.

"I would not be a state legislator or a pastor or anything like that if I had not met Mark Talarico," Talarico said.

He was contacted by a member of his birth father's family as a young adult but declined, he told Texas Monthly.

Contributing: Nicole Fallert , USA TODAY