Senate nominee James Talarico said he was "honored" to receive the endorsement of the Texas Organizing Project, whose work he described as "irreplaceable" after the organization previously operated a charitable bail fund that helped secure the release of Shane James — later accused of carrying out a six-person killing spree. The Texas Organizing Project (TOP), a progressive activist organization that endorsed Talarico's Senate campaign in May, previously operated a charitable bail program that, by September 2021, had distributed more than $1 million to secure the release of more than 675 defendants across Texas. The program drew intense scrutiny in late 2023 after authorities accused James of killing six people and records revealed that TOP had posted his bail nearly two years earlier while he faced three misdemeanor family-assault charges involving his parents and a sibling.
UNEARTHED INTERVIEW EXPOSES WHAT TALARICO THOUGHT ABOUT 'TOUGH-ON-CRIME' TACTICS James cut off his court-ordered GPS monitor the day after his March 2022 release, prompting a court to issue three warrants for his re-arrest. Despite the outstanding warrants, James remained free for 21 months before authorities say he carried out a series of attacks across San Antonio and Austin that left six people dead, including his parents. TOP acknowledged after the killings that it had bailed James out in coordination with the Bexar County public defender's office after his bond was reduced to a combined $300.
The organization said James had passed its screening process based on the misdemeanor charges he faced at the time and stressed that bail organizations cannot predict defendants' future behavior. "We acknowledge that our assessments cannot anticipate the future actions of individuals," TOP said following the killings, announcing that it would conduct an internal review of the program. Talarico nevertheless enthusiastically welcomed TOP's endorsement earlier this year.
"I am honored to earn this endorsement," Talarico said when the group announced its backing, praising TOP for spending more than 15 years developing relationships in Black and Latino communities across Texas. "That infrastructure is irreplaceable," he said. PROGRESSIVE TALARICO KNIFES BIDEN'S OPEN BORDER, TRIES MODERATING STANCE ON KEY ISSUES IN TEXAS SENATE RACE The endorsement announcement said TOP members had met with Talarico before backing him, while the organization's leadership said the Senate candidate had demonstrated familiarity with its work.
Talarico is challenging Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in one of the nation's most closely watched Senate races, as Democrats seek to break a decades-long losing streak in statewide Texas elections. Shane James was not the only defendant released through TOP's program who subsequently encountered additional legal trouble. A 2024 KSAT investigation found TOP had bonded defendants out in at least 196 Bexar County cases since jail officials began specifically tracking the organization's activity in October 2022.
Warrants were later issued for defendants' re-arrest in 58 of those cases, or nearly 30%. While failure to appear in court was the most common reason for those warrants, records showed some defendants also faced new criminal charges after TOP secured their release. Among them was Benjamin Sanchez Jr., a convicted felon with two prior burglary convictions who TOP bonded out 11 days after his arrest in connection with the burglary of a San Antonio souvenir store.
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