I remember, years ago, hearing someone say, “Sometimes God signs his name ‘coincidence.’”
That sounds a little trite, but there are times that two things coincide in the strangest way, and I have a slight sense of God winking at humanity in that moment.
I had that sensation yesterday, as I reflected on James Talarico’s stunning double-digit win over Ken Paxton for Texas’s open U.S. Senate seat.
One of my passions is old movies—especially the black-and-whites of the 1930s and ’40s. I especially love film noir, screwball comedies, and murder mysteries.
For many years, one of my all-time favorite moments in any movie has been the soliloquy that Jimmy Stewart delivers, as Senator Jefferson Smith, in the well of the U.S. Senate, in the 1939 movie, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. Smith is a political novice who has been elected to the Senate and then discovers blatant corruption in the person of a senator he has long admired.
So, while speaking to the Senate and observers in the gallery above, Smith directs his remarks at the corrupt senator: “All you people don’t know about lost causes. Mr. Paine does. He said once they were the only causes worth fighting for. And he fought for them once—for the only reason that any man ever fights for them, because of just one plain simple rule: Love thy neighbor. And in this world today full of hatred, a man who knows that one rule has a great trust.”
That’s a favorite of mine, especially because I’ve fought for a lot of lost causes over the years. Sometimes I’ve found that they weren’t as “lost” as they first appeared. But it takes patience and perseverance to turn them around.
I’ll admit that Talarico’s 2026 victory is not a perfect one-to-one match with this 1939 movie. Talarico is not a political novice, neither Talarico nor Paxton has yet served in the Senate, and Paxton’s corruption runs much deeper and longer than that of Paine, whom Smith had previously revered for his integrity.
However, this analogy hit paydirt in at least a couple of places: (1) Paxton’s blatant corruption and Talarico constantly calling him out on it; and (2) Talarico’s emphasis, throughout both his legislative career in the Texas House AND his campaign for the U.S. Senate, on using public policy to “love thy neighbor.”
So where is God “winking” at us?
On Friday, Fathom Entertainment releases—in movie theaters nationwide—Jimmy, a biographical drama focusing on the life and career of Jimmy Stewart, who gave us that iconic movie moment I referenced earlier.
I’ve met James Talarico, heard him speak, and had our picture taken together.
In March 2025—six months before he announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate—James Talarico spoke, at the Texas Capitol in Austin, to a small group of public education advocates, organized by Pastors for Texas Children (where I’ve served as a trustee since its founding in 2013). He has been a faithful and trusted ally of PTC ever since entering the Texas House in 2018 and has been a forceful advocate for public schools. Those principles he has espoused on the campaign trail this year? They’re the same principles he has demonstrated throughout his private and public life.
So he is more than just a movie character caricature. But I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that he is Jefferson Smith come to life. And he wins election to the U.S. Senate the same week of the release of a movie paying tribute to Jimmy Stewart?
Not even Hollywood could make this up. But I swear I saw God wink!