Viral video star and Senate candidate James Talarico is Texas’s answer to Zohran Mamdani
James Talarico leveraged his viral video popularity to secure the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate in Texas. Republicans are now aiming to use his years of frank on-camera reflections against him.
Conservative groups are scouring Talarico’s extensive archive of media appearances and uncovering a wealth of progressive statements on contentious cultural topics such as race, gender, religion, and immigration. Their objective is to sink his campaign in a Republican-leaning state like Texas, where Democrats have spent many years trying to gain ground.
Before cultivating a national presence by becoming highly visible, Talarico was a state representative with little recognition beyond his own district. He participated in long-form podcast discussions and was an active social media user. As the grandson of a Baptist preacher and a former seminary student, Talarico frequently uses scripture to advocate for progressive policies, employing an eloquent speaking style that many in his party think will resonate with a broad Texas electorate.
This very visibility has also supplied his opponents with a vast amount of material to examine. Following his victory over Rep. Jasmine Crockett in Tuesday’s Democratic primary, conservatives began releasing a stockpile of video excerpts.
“God is nonbinary,” Talarico stated in a past speech on the legislative floor. He later clarified that he was being “a little provocative” to express the theological idea that “God is beyond gender.”
In one clip that omits the full context, Talarico is heard saying, “Our southern border should be like our front porch. There should be a giant welcome mat out front,” — the remainder of his sentence was “and a lock on the door.”
Five years ago, in a post decrying mass shootings that targeted Black, Hispanic, and Asian Americans, Talarico wrote, “Radicalized white men are the greatest domestic terrorist threat in our country.”
Republican strategist Chris LaCivita described the accumulated material as “great ad copy” for the GOP. LaCivita is advising a super PAC that backs incumbent Sen. John Cornyn, who is competing against state Attorney General Ken Paxton in a runoff for the Republican nomination.
Former President Donald Trump also weighed in, telling Politico in an interview that Talarico is “a terribly weak candidate” and “more woke than even the very highly untalented Jasmine Crockett.” Trump forecast that Talarico would be “much easier than her” to beat in the general election.
“He is radically out of touch with Texans and they will not vote for this in November,” stated Samantha Cantrell, a spokesperson for the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
In a Wednesday victory address, Talarico prepared his supporters for the expected wave of criticism, which he attributed to billionaires and political elites clinging to power.
“They’re going to throw everything they have at us,” he declared. “They’re going to call me a radical leftist. They’re going to call me a fake Christian. They’ll call our movement un-Texan, un-American. They’ll call us a threat.”
Talarico asserted that the criticism is arriving “because we’re a threat to their corrupt system.”
“Our campaign is building a movement poised to change the politics of this state and take power back for working people,” said Talarico’s spokesperson, JT Ennis. “While they lob stale attacks to mislead Texans, we are uniting the people of Texas to win in November.”
Democrats are hopeful that voters in the Republican runoff will choose Paxton, who has faced accusations of corruption and infidelity and has his own record of controversial comments.
Trump has pledged to make an endorsement in the race but has not specified when he will decide or which candidate he will support. GOP leaders are urging him to back Cornyn, who is running for a fifth term.
The successful campaign of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani offers a recent example of a Democrat who survived intense examination of progressive statements that turned into a political burden. Mamdani appeared on news programs and apologized to New York Police Department officers for previous criticisms, including a 2020 call to “defund this rogue agency.”
However, the political landscapes of New York and Texas are vastly different. Trump carried Texas by a margin of nearly 14 points, while he lost New York by a similar margin.