{"id":9176,"date":"2026-08-16T09:37:57","date_gmt":"2026-08-16T09:37:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=9176"},"modified":"2026-08-16T09:37:57","modified_gmt":"2026-08-16T09:37:57","slug":"senate-hopeful-talarico-touts-his-faith-texas-republicans-call-it-blasphemy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=9176","title":{"rendered":"Senate hopeful Talarico touts his faith. Texas Republicans call it blasphemy."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>The Democratic nominee is seeking to win over faith-based voters in Texas, the Bible Belt\u2019s largest state, but evangelical Republicans aren\u2019t sold.<\/strong><\/p><p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=9167\">Democrats approve 2028 primary calendar that puts South Carolina first<\/a><\/p>\n<figure>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-9169\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/9c0f73a00571721996cdac2202d48439-1024x683.jpg\" width=\"1024\" srcset=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/9c0f73a00571721996cdac2202d48439-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/9c0f73a00571721996cdac2202d48439-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/9c0f73a00571721996cdac2202d48439-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/9c0f73a00571721996cdac2202d48439-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/9c0f73a00571721996cdac2202d48439-2048x1365.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n<figcaption>Democratic state Rep. James Talarico greets supporters following a campaign rally in Round Rock, Texas, on Sept. 9, 2025. (Callaghan O\u2019Hare\/For The Washington Post)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n<p>PLANO, Texas \u2014 Talking about Jesus is pretty routine for Texans running for office. But usually not Democrats.<\/p>\n<p>State Rep. James Talarico is changing the script, leaning into his background in a progressive Presbyterian seminary.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a playbook that has helped propel his political career. Before he was the<b> <\/b>Democrats\u2019 hope to flip a Republican Senate seat in Texas, the state lawmaker often invoked the Bible to justify progressive policy positions in the Texas Capitol. Past floor speeches and sermons on abortion, gender equity and religious pluralism helped give him the online platform that launched his Senate run.<\/p>\n<p>He is now making his faith a central part of his Senate campaign, telling voters \u201cit\u2019s time to start flipping tables\u201d and take back faith from the religious right \u2014 a reference to the biblical story of Jesus flipping over tables in the Temple of Jerusalem to purge merchants profiting off a house of worship. Talarico<b> <\/b>boils down his core message to two commandments from the Bible: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=l2laitYVITo\" rel=\"noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=l2laitYVITo\">Love God and love your neighbor<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>His allies say Talarico\u2019s<b> <\/b>approach could help win<b> <\/b>over faith-based voters in the Bible Belt\u2019s largest state. But Talarico\u2019s past remarks regarding the Bible have infuriated some evangelical voters, and attacking Talarico\u2019s comments is now a regular<b> <\/b>part of his Republican opponent\u2019s stump speech.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFirst of all, he said God is nonbinary. He also said, \u2018I\u2019m a Christian, but I hate Christianity.\u2019 How many Christians do you know have said that?\u201d Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) recently told an audience of supporters in North Texas. \u201cI\u2019ve never met one.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Talarico, 37, and Paxton, a 63-year-old staunch evangelical Trump ally, are engaged in a competitive general election race that could be pivotal in Democrats\u2019 attempt to retake control of the Senate.<\/p>\n<p>Texas has not elected a Democratic senator in nearly four decades, but Democrats are optimistic, given<b> <\/b>Talarico\u2019s prodigious fundraising and novel campaign message, as well as Paxton\u2019s past of personal and legal scandals. Public polling has had the two candidates neck and neck for weeks.<\/p>\n<p>Rep. Christian Menefee (D-Texas), a Talarico supporter who grew up in Baptist and nondenominational churches, said an appeal to faith could be a key ingredient to break the Democrats\u2019 drought. Talarico\u2019s openness about faith could attract Christian voters who have voted Republican in the past because they never saw Democrats address their faith publicly before, Menefee said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen James came onto the scene, and this was before this race, when he worked in the teachings of the Bible into some of his opposition to bills while he\u2019s at the state legislature, people immediately took notice,\u201d Menefee said. \u201cAnybody who thinks that it won\u2019t play a role in this election has not spent much time in Texas.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Brooke Kemp, a schoolteacher from Arlington, Texas, said she resonated with Talarico\u2019s emphasis on biblical teachings of caring for others rather than some of the cultural issues that have motivated the state\u2019s religious right.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe has it right,\u201d Kemp said. \u201cI\u2019m just practicing what Jesus told us is the tenets of my faith as a Methodist: Loving my neighbor, caring for others.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But conservative evangelicals have expressed dismay at Talarico\u2019s use of biblical text to justify positions they view as morally reprehensible.<\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com\/wapo\/QIISFPHD35CFVQY3MI67AMI73M.jpg\"\/>\n<figcaption>Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton speaks during a campaign event in Allen, Texas, earlier this month. Public polling has had Paxton and Talarico running neck and neck for weeks in their quest for the U.S. Senate. (Brandon Bell\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Talarico has previously invoked the Annunciation, the biblical event when the archangel Gabriel told Mary that she<b> <\/b>would carry the baby Jesus, to justify abortion. Speaking on the Joe Rogan Experience <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=_jOGPvMftb8\" rel=\"noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=_jOGPvMftb8\">podcast<\/a>, Talarico claimed that God asked for Mary\u2019s consent before she became pregnant with Jesus.<\/p>\n<p>He has also said during a 2021 legislative floor debate that \u201cGod is nonbinary\u201d while opposing a bill barring trans children from participating in sports aligned with their self-identified gender. And <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/talarico-says-hates-christianity-unearthed-interview-transgender-latinx-theologian\" rel=\"noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/talarico-says-hates-christianity-unearthed-interview-transgender-latinx-theologian\">Talarico said in 2021<\/a> that he was a Christian who hates Christianity in an expression of frustration with some elements of organized religion that peddle in Christian nationalism apart from teachings of Jesus.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is blasphemous,\u201d said Republican state Rep. Matt Shaheen, a deacon at the influential Prestonwood Baptist Church. Shaheen dismissed the idea that Talarico could convert evangelicals to voting Democratic as \u201cnaive,\u201d saying \u201cif anything, it probably frustrates evangelicals\u201d to see their faith misrepresented.<\/p>\n<p>Talarico acknowledges that his progressive positions, particularly his stance on abortion, put him at odds with many voters of faith. But he asserts those disagreements shouldn\u2019t block Democrats from building coalitions with voters who are driven by the same Biblical tenets that drive his campaign.<\/p><p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=9164\">Navy weighs major warship redesign to match Trump\u2019s preferences<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople of good faith can arrive at different moral conclusions,\u201d Talarico said on a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=4Rlr3vA6F5M\" rel=\"noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=4Rlr3vA6F5M\">podcast appearance last spring<\/a>. Talarico noted that even though Pope Francis and Pope Leo XIV hold opposite views from him on abortion he still holds them as spiritual heroes.<\/p>\n<p>He has also walked back some of his most provocative remarks, saying he regrets some of his comments that he said could be \u201ccringy.\u201d He <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=HsgLJk-HpEo\" rel=\"noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=HsgLJk-HpEo\">told CBS News<\/a> that he called God nonbinary to emphasize that God can\u2019t be categorized in human terms and cited Galatians 3:28, which teaches that all are equal before God, regardless of nationality, gender or class.<\/p>\n<p>The divergent takes on Talarico can be explained in part by differences between the mainline Protestantism he espouses and the evangelical Christianity that makes up a plurality of Christian voters in Texas.<\/p>\n<p>Mainline Protestants tend to view faith as part of a pluralistic religious and social landscape that can adapt to the needs of the people it serves. Evangelicals recognize only one form of salvation \u2014 through Jesus \u2014 and the infallibility of the literal text of the Bible.<\/p>\n<figure>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-9175\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/9d91b3407716e13b061fc15c0c1fa5b1-1024x683.jpg\" width=\"1024\" srcset=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/9d91b3407716e13b061fc15c0c1fa5b1-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/9d91b3407716e13b061fc15c0c1fa5b1-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/9d91b3407716e13b061fc15c0c1fa5b1-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/9d91b3407716e13b061fc15c0c1fa5b1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/9d91b3407716e13b061fc15c0c1fa5b1-2048x1366.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n<figcaption>\u201cPeople of good faith can arrive at different moral conclusions,\u201d says Talarico, shown here with supporters. (Callaghan O\u2019Hare\/For The Washington Post)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Roughly 67 percent of Texas adults identify as Christian, with roughly 27 percent identifying as evangelical, compared to only 10 percent identifying as mainline Protestant, according to Pew Research Center. Catholics make up about 22 percent of Texas adults, making them the second largest denomination in the state.<\/p>\n<p>Evangelical voters have been some of the Republican coalition\u2019s most reliable supporters. Nearly 70 percent of White evangelicals nationally approve of President Donald Trump\u2019s performance, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pewresearch.org\/short-reads\/2026\/02\/09\/white-evangelicals-remain-among-trumps-strongest-supporters-but-theyre-less-supportive-than-a-year-ago\/\" rel=\"noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"https:\/\/www.pewresearch.org\/short-reads\/2026\/02\/09\/white-evangelicals-remain-among-trumps-strongest-supporters-but-theyre-less-supportive-than-a-year-ago\/\">according to Pew<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Paxton identifies as an evangelical and has invoked his faith throughout his time in office as a major motivator for his conservative beliefs.<\/p>\n<p>He and his wife were longtime members of the influential Prestonwood Baptist Church, and he worked at its pregnancy and family care center, which ministers to women while discouraging them from having abortions. He has also questioned the constitutionality of separating church and state and called for encouraging <a href=\"https:\/\/www.texasattorneygeneral.gov\/news\/releases\/attorney-general-ken-paxton-encourages-texas-schools-begin-legal-process-putting-prayer-back\" rel=\"noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"https:\/\/www.texasattorneygeneral.gov\/news\/releases\/attorney-general-ken-paxton-encourages-texas-schools-begin-legal-process-putting-prayer-back\">public school students<\/a> to pray and read the Bible in school.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFaith is the driver of my life, and so it animates everything that I do. It animates, hopefully, how I treat people,\u201d Paxton said. \u201cI hope that when I\u2019m in office, I\u2019m thinking about what\u2019s best for my constituents and that in the end, I\u2019m here to represent my neighbors and do the best thing I can for my neighbors because that\u2019s what my faith would ask me to do.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But Paxton has also had personal scandals that are at odds with church doctrine. Those include a spate of legal controversies, including alleged corruption involving an extramarital affair that led to his impeachment by the Texas House (he was later acquitted by the Senate). Paxton and his wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton, divorced in July of last year over alleged adultery.<\/p>\n<p>Angela Paxton cited \u201cbiblical grounds\u201d for the separation, writing in a social media: \u201cI believe marriage is a sacred covenant and I have earnestly pursued reconciliation. But in light of recent discoveries, I do not believe that it honors God or is loving to myself, my children, or Ken to remain in the marriage.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ken Paxton no longer attends Prestonwood Baptist Church, the sprawling North Texas megachurch where he and his wife attended together for years. When asked where Paxton now goes to church, his campaign said in a written response: \u201cThe Attorney General has been worshipping at churches in communities all across the state. Right now, our focus is on meeting Texans where they are and visiting churches throughout Texas as he continues to travel across the state.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Some of Paxton\u2019s evangelical supporters say forgiving lapses in judgment is easier than looking past fundamental disagreements on doctrine.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI say, Here for the grace of God go I. There is nobody without a past,\u201d said Jennie Evans, a nondenominational Christian and Paxton supporter from Dallas, reflecting the core evangelical belief that humans are all equally sinners and in need of redemption. Evans said all elected leaders have fallen short personally, but she felt Paxton\u2019s core values still aligned with hers. Talarico\u2019s did not, she said.<\/p>\n<p>When asked about Paxton\u2019s past conduct, Shannon Markle, another evangelical Paxton supporter from Dallas, quoted from Romans and II Corinthians and said: \u201cNo one runs for office that is a saint. No one. Every one of us is just jars of clay. Every one of us has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But when asked about Talarico\u2019s interpretation of the Bible, she was much less receptive.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think it is blasphemous. I think he is ignorant. But I do think that he will be judged,\u201d Markle said. \u201cWe all will.\u201d<\/p><p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=9160\">Killings and other violent crimes dropped sharply in 2025<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Democratic nominee is seeking to win over faith-based voters in Texas, the Bible Belt\u2019s largest state, but evangelical Republicans aren\u2019t sold.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9168,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Senate hopeful Talarico touts his faith. 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Texas Republicans call it blasphemy. - Moving Insider USA","og_description":"The Democratic nominee is seeking to win over faith-based voters in Texas, the Bible Belt\u2019s largest state, but evangelical Republicans aren\u2019t sold.","og_url":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=9176","og_site_name":"Moving Insider USA","article_published_time":"2026-08-16T09:37:57+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2560,"height":1706,"url":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/9c0f73a00571721996cdac2202d48439-scaled.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Est. reading time":"8 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=9176#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=9176"},"author":{"name":"admin","@id":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/#\/schema\/person\/22d40ab81790f6a361021763bb56ef03"},"headline":"Senate hopeful Talarico touts his faith. 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