Texas Democrat Talarico backtracks on gender statements ahead of Senate race

James Talarico walked into a food drive event in Dallas on a Tuesday afternoon with a carefully recalibrated message. The Texas Democrat, running for Senate against Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton, had decided it was time to distance himself from statements that had become liabilities as the race tightened. In a Fox News interview conducted at that event, he announced his support for a national ban on gender surgery for minors and his opposition to transgender athletes competing in girls' sports—positions that directly contradicted votes he had cast just three years earlier.

The shift was stark and deliberate. When asked whether he would vote as a U.S. senator to ban gender surgery for minors, Talarico answered without hesitation: "Absolutely." He then offered an explanation for his 2023 vote against Texas's SB 14, which had prohibited certain gender surgeries, puberty blockers, and hormone treatments for minors. The bill, he said, was "overly broad." He claimed he had supported a major amendment to narrow its scope, though all eighteen Democratic amendments to the bill ultimately failed. His framing suggested a lawmaker trying to thread a needle—opposing the bill's full scope while supporting its core intent.

On the question of transgender athletes in women's sports, Talarico adopted similarly cautious language. "I oppose trans athletes playing in girls' sports if it endangers safety or fairness," he said, emphasizing his background as a former public school teacher and his concern for student athletes. This represented another reversal. In 2021, while serving on the Texas House Public Education Committee, he had called restrictions on transgender athletes a "manufactured problem" and voted against both SB 29 and HB 25, which sought to require athletes to compete based on their biological sex at birth.

The most pointed retreat came when Talarico addressed his 2021 statement on the House floor that "God is both masculine and feminine and everything in between. God is non-binary." He acknowledged the provocation. "I was being provocative with that statement. I get that," he said, reframing it as theological rather than political—a distinction he suggested was supported by figures including the late Pope Benedict and Charlie Kirk. He also walked back his earlier claim about there being six genders, saying he had "missed the mark" and clarifying that he believed there were two sexes, with a small percentage of people having genetic abnormalities. "There are not six sexes," he stated flatly.

Talarico attributed the controversy to deliberate distraction. He suggested that Paxton and Republicans were circulating clipped versions of his comments to avoid discussing other issues—and he pivoted sharply to attack Paxton's record. He referenced Paxton's acquittal in a state Senate trial, claiming that two billionaire megadonors had given the lieutenant governor a $3 million check to secure the outcome. "Ken Paxton is the most corrupt politician in Texas," Talarico said, framing the gender debate as a smokescreen.

Despite the repositioning on social issues, Talarico did not moderate his criticism of the Supreme Court. He described the institution as "infected" with corruption and said it "needs to be overhauled." If elected, he pledged to vote for binding codes of conduct for justices, term limits, and openness to expanding the number of justices on the bench. He also stated that Texas "should not have a state income tax," a position that seemed to contradict his earlier vote against a measure to permanently ban one, which he had called redundant and wasteful.

The timing of these reversals was not incidental. Recent Fox News polling showed the Texas Senate race was surprisingly competitive, and the contest was entering its final months. A Republican loss in Texas would significantly complicate President Donald Trump's ability to implement his agenda, making the race critical to both parties' Senate majority calculations. Talarico's campaign announced it would focus the remainder of the race on affordability—groceries, gas, utilities, healthcare—the issues he said Texans were struggling with most. The gender debates, he suggested, were a distraction from the economic message that would carry him to November.