Democratic state Rep. James Talarico conceded Wednesday that he had misspoken on sensitive cultural matters, a defensive posture forced by his Republican rival's aggressive push to weaponize old comments in their Texas Senate race.
Speaking to NBC News hours after state Attorney General Ken Paxton won the GOP primary runoff, Talarico acknowledged the vulnerability. "I'll be the first to admit that I missed the mark on some of those old statements, but what Ken Paxton is doing is clipping my cringey comments to distract from his career of corruption," he said.
Paxton's victory speech Tuesday night set the tone for a brutal general election battle. The Republican nominee deployed a barrage of mocking nicknames: "Tofu Talarico," "Six gender Jimmy," "James Tala-freako," and "Low T Talarico." He attacked Talarico's positions on gender-affirming care, immigration, energy policy, and religion. The endorsement from Donald Trump came earlier this month.
The attack lines rest on statements Talarico made during his tenure in the Texas House. In 2020, following Ahmaud Arbery's death in a racially motivated killing in Georgia, Talarico posted on X that the killing represented Americans "killed by the virus of racism." He wrote that "white skin gives me and every white American immunity from the virus. But we spread it wherever we go, through our words, our actions, and our systems."
A year later, during a legislative debate on a bill affecting transgender athletes, Talarico claimed that "modern science recognizes that there are many more than two biological sexes, in fact, there are six." That comment has become a centerpiece of conservative attacks on his record.
Trump escalated the criticism on Truth Social after Paxton's win, calling Talarico "may be the worst TEXAS candidate I have ever seen." The former president listed grievances: border policy, criminal justice stance, gender ideology, criticism of Christianity, military opposition, and veganism. "That's not exactly a good way to be if you're wanting to win an Election in Texas," Trump wrote.
Talarico's response pivoted sharply to Paxton's record. "The most corrupt politician in America just became the Republican nominee for the United States Senate," he told NBC News. He highlighted Paxton's 2023 impeachment by the Republican-led state House on charges of using his office to benefit himself and his donors. The state Senate acquitted him, but the allegations remain live in the campaign.
The Democratic nominee has been building his general election message around systemic corruption and the failure of existing political structures. "That kind of corruption is the rot at the core of this broken political system that we're running against," he said.
Talarico also pushed back on rumors that he is vegan, denying the claim in a separate interview Tuesday and using the opportunity to raise Paxton's past indictment.
Cornyn and his allies had spent months warning that nominating Paxton would put the Senate seat in jeopardy with voters concerned about his controversies. That argument evidently did not move GOP primary voters.
Author Sarah Mitchell: "Talarico's retreat on his own record, however modest, hands Paxton an opening to define the race on cultural grounds rather than corruption, and that's terrain where Texas Republicans still have momentum."
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