This is a rare piece by the Liberal Patriot that simply parrots DNC talking points and completely dodges the most important truths about Talarico: he is a freaky trans-supremacist, an anti-white racist, and a young man more than willing to aggressively distort the Bible in ways Evangelicals - but not Democrat commentators or the Democrat Media - immediately catch. In short, he's a fraud (and one with no accomplishments). Maybe LP needs an editor?
The DNC is trying to repeat Virginia. Give a deeply progressive candidate a quick paint job throughout the mass media to sanitize the candidate to look as moderate and centrist as possible for the general. Get the Trojan horse elected no matter what it takes.
Spanberger is a good comp except that (as you said) Talarico is a much more radical version. He might even make Tim Walz seem tame.
It would be nice if someone on the Left would admit that bastardizing Christianity as terrible as Talarico does is offensive even to people who don't like Christians, but hell will freeze over first.
In a remotely sane world, we'd be congratulating Republicans for their shrewdness in holding off on Talarico criticism until he won the nomination.
I'm sure Talarico's tweet that "Every white American spreads the virus of racism everywhere we go" is going to go over well with Texans, not to mention the one saying "God is nonbinary."
I'm surprised that nowhere in this article did Mr. Vassallo mention one of Mr. Talarico's key weaknesses: not just that he is in some generic way a "cultural progressive" or has "fidelity to identity politics", but that he has been on camera saying some incredibly stupid things about sex and gender, stupid things that will surely form the center of attack ads against him. See https://www.joshbarro.com/p/the-first-step-to-winning-back-the for some trenchant analysis.
Mr. Talarico is going to have to work out how to neutralize these things, or he is going to be in the same position as Kamala Harris was with the (in)famous "Kamala is for they/them" ads. But the only likely way of neutralizing them is to do what VP Harris would not, and affirmatively say the opposite, and to explain that he was wrong then. I wonder if he really has the willpower to antagonize progressives by doing so.
It’s not just that he said “God is non-binary” on camera, but that he said it defending boys in girl’s sports. Is there a dumber hill for leftists to die on?
As evangelical, I would say that God is beyond any biological concept of gender. But his use of “non-binary” shows approval for 1. Narcissism, 2. A human rights scandal, 3. A medical scandal, and 4. Far-left ideology.
As seen in the comments above Talarico has the same problem that many Democrats now face. The internet is forever, and in order to remain in the good graces with the more extreme portions of our party, people have said some pretty dumb things on many subjects, the kind of things that return to bite you in the butt.
I'd say voters needed some new choices in the Democratic Party.
No, and not necessarily conservative Dems either. I'd wish for realistic Democrats (and Republicans). Besides intact perverts calling themselves women we also have a resurgence of measles. Bipartisan dumb and everyone spends like drunken sailors without raising any revenue.
It was a good post primary analysis, but for the fact in Texas, Talarico's chops as a bona fide Christian minister are melting faster than Ted Haggard's and Jim Baker's combined, minus the women.
In the handful of days since Talarico won the Texas primary, it has been revealed the pro abortion zealot/supposed religious student, did not just desire abortion remain safe, legal and rare, in the face of Dobbs. Talarico begged Biden to place abortion facilities into every Texas Federal Court House and to allow federally employed MDs to perform abortions in them, in clear in violation of Texas law.
Talarico seemed not only willing to incite a Civil War to provide illegal unrestricted abortion, the "man of God" seriously expected the then current Leader of the Free World, to be his partner in crime. I know plenty of pro choice Texans. I happen to be one myself. I can't find one who believes Federal Court Houses doubling as illegal abortion centers, is not bat guano crazy.
It is hard to believe, but the story gets stranger. In video after video, the 36 unmarried man who routinely still mentions in speeches his Prom Queen, Prom date, has spent years, not requesting gender confused children receive compassion and therapy, but demanding their genitalia be removed and replaced, at will. All, with fertility ending hormone blockers handed out like Halloween candy, every day of the year. Even the vast majority of secular, Progressive Europe no longer holds Talarico's indefensible position.
Nor is the insanity limited to matters of reproduction and child sexuality. Talarico doesn't just believe God is non binary, "science" proves 6 genders, and the trans community must have access to abortion services. James demands Americans imagine a world where prisons are replaced with "love" and borders are replaced with a welcome mat and "a lock on the door". Talarico has been unapologetically pro Open Borders his entire adult life. The "lock on the door" was added, as Dems became aware cheering Open Borders outright, is a political death sentence after Biden. As for the end of prisons, someone already imagined a twist on that scenario and made the movie, The Purge.
More revelations are bound to surface. Walking a dog in Texas last weekend, it wasn't hard to find Talarico political quips that focused on a Texas version of a young Huey Long, and the conditions necessary to his political demise. A religious neighbor noted in less than a week, her opinion of Talarico had changed from possible support to creepy. All as James continues to demand Texas morph into CA, minus the perfect weather and ocean views.
Dems betting the Texas Senate election will ignore anything unrelated to affordability or the economy may be right. Ditto for the power of the politics of envy, especially if oil remains at $100 bucks a barrel for 6 months. Still, Dems might want to temper their expectations. Every Talarico sermon was recorded for the ages. Imagine what other pearls of wisdom have yet to be unearthed.
Republicans definitely have the vulnerabilities that this essay mentions. But all this analysis can be distilled into one question: can Talarico convince/fool enough persuadable voters that he is not a far Left wolf in sheep's clothing? He will have the national and Texas political media in his corner, with all those anti-religion journalists celebrating his supposed Christian beliefs. I'm skeptical that they will succeed because there is too much in his public record that shows what he really believes. He is not at all moderate on anything other than public demeanor.
According to Talarico's campaign website, "Our schools are being defunded — so billionaires can get another tax break."
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, "Current expenditures per pupil increased by 13 percent from 2010–11 to 2020–21, after adjusting for inflation."
Our schools are not "being defunded." Per-pupil spending is up instead of down. Talarico is just another liar.
As a Republican, I was concerned when I first read that a supposed non-Radical white man had beaten Jasmine Crocket to become the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate race in Texas. I was relieved when I found out he is in fact not a non-Radical but very much to the left. However, I was then overjoyed to find out he is woke to the nth degree, spewing out more tweets from 2020-21 than even Kamala did. Don’t the Democrats in Texas recall that the most effective ad against Kamala in 2024 was, “She is for they/them, Trump is for you.” This is going to be a wipeout in Texas, especially when he talks about his white skin immunity and explains that God is non-binary. This is Texas, not Minnesota.
According to Talarico's website, "Our Social Security benefits are constantly under threat — so billionaires can get yet another tax break." But, Social Security isn't funded by income tax, it is funded by payroll tax. So, how can any "tax break" for billionaires reduce funding for Social Security? It can't. Talarico is just another lying demagogue.
He is proposing increasing the income ceiling subject to social security tax. That is part of the solution to extend the life the program, in addition to raising the age for full benefits, among other tweaks to the program. Originally Social Security started for those who reached 65, and that was at the time when the life expectancy was about 63.3 years in 1933.
With today’s life expectancy of about 79 years, there is a little room to adjust the full retirement age, while continuing a reduced benefit at age 62. The concept of retiring pretty much started with those born between WW1 and WW2. Before that they’d say people died in the harness.
Save early and often, save the maximum in every plan available to you, invest in boring, solid investments. Figure out how to live on what is left.
Talerico has a typical plan to reduce the cost of living: subsidies and regulation. If that reduced inflation, the United States should have an incredibly low cost of living.
Yes this guy is portrayed as a moderate… these opinions he has I would not call moderate. I think though he is a moderate in the current Democratic Party ..
I’m a registered independent… I’ve come to the conclusion that I will change my registration to Republican so that I can vote in that primary in our state
I will not cast a vote for a Democrat if this is what they say are moderates.
Many previous comments have stated most parts of the following comment but here is how I put it all together. I think what happened here is that Democrats convinced themselves they had found a Texas version of the kind of candidate profile that can work better in places like Virginia or New Jersey. Someone with a calmer tone, a less abrasive style, and in Talarico’s case, an explicit Christian framing that makes him seem more culturally relatable. That may have helped him in the primary, especially compared with someone like Crockett.
But the problem is that the primary never really tested the cultural issues that are most likely to matter in a Texas general election. And in Texas, we actually know what some of those cultural issues are because the legislature has already passed laws on them. That tells you they are politically salient. These are not just abstract culture-war topics.
The structural problem is that those cultural issues rarely get sorted out in a Democratic primary because there is too much alignment inside the party on them and too little incentive for candidates to challenge each other on them. So a candidate can come out of the primary looking broadly reasonable without ever having been forced to answer the exact cultural questions that are likely to define the general election.
That is where Talarico may run into trouble. He is not brand new politically. He has been around during the years when the Democratic Party was rewarding very progressive rhetoric on these cultural issues. So even if he now tries to sound moderate or nuanced, he may not have much room to maneuver because Republicans can simply go back to what he said before and make that the center of the campaign.
So Democrats may feel they nominated someone who looks reasonable and broadly appealing, but the primary never really sorted out whether he can survive the specific cultural issues that Texas voters have already shown they care enough about to legislate.
Unfortunately, Talarico has represented the Austin area. They're giving a BIG RAH RAH RAH!!! Dallas, Houston & Austin make up about 70% of the population of TX, all 3 being predominately Blue, Austin being the strongest Blue. So, Dems are very happy having him be their guy. They don't want to represent everyone.
Lots of folks moving into TX, because lots of businesses hate the politics driving them away from their blue states, into predominantly Red TX. And, as other areas say, DON'T CALIFORNIA MY TEXAS. Some of these folks start off in Austin, then soon recognize they really don't like the speedy ways their taxes keep going up, so they're moving into the areas surrounding Austin. Some businesses are now locating outside of Austin. I understand the areas around Dallas & Houston are more suburban & generally more Republican and conservative, providing a stark contrast to the Democratic-leaning urban cores. While cities like Dallas and Houston have moved toward the Democratic party, their surrounding suburbs, such as Montgomery County, have maintained strong GOP support, often acting as a counterweight to city-center voting patterns.
I wouldn't be surprised to see Talarico downplay or back away from some of his progressive cultural stances as November approaches, even at the risk of angering the left, both inside and outside Texas.
He might say he respects pro-lifers even though he disagrees with them. He might pair his condemnation of Trump's cruelty to immigrants with calls for more border fences. He might say he misspoke when he said God was nonbinary, that he let his emotions get the better of him. He might edit the "LGBTQ+" on his website to something swing voters are more comfortable with. He might reverse his opposition to giving offensive weapons to Israel, and condemn Hamas and antisemitism more frequently, even if he's appalled by the situation in Gaza.
How much of this he feels the need to do will depend on what the economy looks like in the summer and fall, and on whether we're still at war with Iran then. But even if high oil prices have led to a deep recession by October, Talarico will still have to show overt, conscious respect for cultural conservatives (and broadcast that respect to fellow Democrats nationwide as well as Texas swing voters) if he wants to win.
I wouldn't be surprised either if he does these things. But I would be more surprised if he reversed his support for biological men in women's sports, since that has now become a progressive litmus test. And that matters, since that was (as the attack ads will make clear) the context in which the "God is non-binary" comment came up. He needs to actually renounce that view - saying (as he has said) "leave it up to districts" is an evasion, because it doesn't say what he would want the districts to do, or what he would support if it was in his district.
It would be good for him if he did so - being attacked by the Left for "throwing trans people under the bus" would serve him well with the wider Texas electorate. But I still wonder if he has that level of political savvy and political instincts.
This is a rare piece by the Liberal Patriot that simply parrots DNC talking points and completely dodges the most important truths about Talarico: he is a freaky trans-supremacist, an anti-white racist, and a young man more than willing to aggressively distort the Bible in ways Evangelicals - but not Democrat commentators or the Democrat Media - immediately catch. In short, he's a fraud (and one with no accomplishments). Maybe LP needs an editor?
The DNC is trying to repeat Virginia. Give a deeply progressive candidate a quick paint job throughout the mass media to sanitize the candidate to look as moderate and centrist as possible for the general. Get the Trojan horse elected no matter what it takes.
Agree entirely, but this young man makes Spanberger look like Nelson Rockefeller.
The virus of racism effects all white people, whether they wear a white pointy hat, carry a KKK flag, or not . . .
That would sound Jim Jones adjacent, if Talarico were a Rep,
Spanberger is a good comp except that (as you said) Talarico is a much more radical version. He might even make Tim Walz seem tame.
It would be nice if someone on the Left would admit that bastardizing Christianity as terrible as Talarico does is offensive even to people who don't like Christians, but hell will freeze over first.
In a remotely sane world, we'd be congratulating Republicans for their shrewdness in holding off on Talarico criticism until he won the nomination.
Talarico said god is non binary. He worships the false prophets of abortion, climate change, and social justice. The cringe word salad era has ended.
In the name of the They/Them, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.
In our church, God is not binary; God is a Trinity.
"The cringe word salad era has ended."
I wish that were true, but for the moment, I'm not buying it. There's SO much more cringe to be explored...
I'm sure Talarico's tweet that "Every white American spreads the virus of racism everywhere we go" is going to go over well with Texans, not to mention the one saying "God is nonbinary."
I'm surprised that nowhere in this article did Mr. Vassallo mention one of Mr. Talarico's key weaknesses: not just that he is in some generic way a "cultural progressive" or has "fidelity to identity politics", but that he has been on camera saying some incredibly stupid things about sex and gender, stupid things that will surely form the center of attack ads against him. See https://www.joshbarro.com/p/the-first-step-to-winning-back-the for some trenchant analysis.
Mr. Talarico is going to have to work out how to neutralize these things, or he is going to be in the same position as Kamala Harris was with the (in)famous "Kamala is for they/them" ads. But the only likely way of neutralizing them is to do what VP Harris would not, and affirmatively say the opposite, and to explain that he was wrong then. I wonder if he really has the willpower to antagonize progressives by doing so.
It’s not just that he said “God is non-binary” on camera, but that he said it defending boys in girl’s sports. Is there a dumber hill for leftists to die on?
As evangelical, I would say that God is beyond any biological concept of gender. But his use of “non-binary” shows approval for 1. Narcissism, 2. A human rights scandal, 3. A medical scandal, and 4. Far-left ideology.
Great article, thanks for posting it.
As seen in the comments above Talarico has the same problem that many Democrats now face. The internet is forever, and in order to remain in the good graces with the more extreme portions of our party, people have said some pretty dumb things on many subjects, the kind of things that return to bite you in the butt.
I'd say voters needed some new choices in the Democratic Party.
I'd say voters need a new Democratic Party.
Do you mean a resurgence of Democrats in the Socialist Progressive Party?
No, and not necessarily conservative Dems either. I'd wish for realistic Democrats (and Republicans). Besides intact perverts calling themselves women we also have a resurgence of measles. Bipartisan dumb and everyone spends like drunken sailors without raising any revenue.
Start with cutting the budget (really cutting, not just slowing down the rate of growth) then we can talk about raising taxes.
It was a good post primary analysis, but for the fact in Texas, Talarico's chops as a bona fide Christian minister are melting faster than Ted Haggard's and Jim Baker's combined, minus the women.
In the handful of days since Talarico won the Texas primary, it has been revealed the pro abortion zealot/supposed religious student, did not just desire abortion remain safe, legal and rare, in the face of Dobbs. Talarico begged Biden to place abortion facilities into every Texas Federal Court House and to allow federally employed MDs to perform abortions in them, in clear in violation of Texas law.
Talarico seemed not only willing to incite a Civil War to provide illegal unrestricted abortion, the "man of God" seriously expected the then current Leader of the Free World, to be his partner in crime. I know plenty of pro choice Texans. I happen to be one myself. I can't find one who believes Federal Court Houses doubling as illegal abortion centers, is not bat guano crazy.
It is hard to believe, but the story gets stranger. In video after video, the 36 unmarried man who routinely still mentions in speeches his Prom Queen, Prom date, has spent years, not requesting gender confused children receive compassion and therapy, but demanding their genitalia be removed and replaced, at will. All, with fertility ending hormone blockers handed out like Halloween candy, every day of the year. Even the vast majority of secular, Progressive Europe no longer holds Talarico's indefensible position.
Nor is the insanity limited to matters of reproduction and child sexuality. Talarico doesn't just believe God is non binary, "science" proves 6 genders, and the trans community must have access to abortion services. James demands Americans imagine a world where prisons are replaced with "love" and borders are replaced with a welcome mat and "a lock on the door". Talarico has been unapologetically pro Open Borders his entire adult life. The "lock on the door" was added, as Dems became aware cheering Open Borders outright, is a political death sentence after Biden. As for the end of prisons, someone already imagined a twist on that scenario and made the movie, The Purge.
More revelations are bound to surface. Walking a dog in Texas last weekend, it wasn't hard to find Talarico political quips that focused on a Texas version of a young Huey Long, and the conditions necessary to his political demise. A religious neighbor noted in less than a week, her opinion of Talarico had changed from possible support to creepy. All as James continues to demand Texas morph into CA, minus the perfect weather and ocean views.
Dems betting the Texas Senate election will ignore anything unrelated to affordability or the economy may be right. Ditto for the power of the politics of envy, especially if oil remains at $100 bucks a barrel for 6 months. Still, Dems might want to temper their expectations. Every Talarico sermon was recorded for the ages. Imagine what other pearls of wisdom have yet to be unearthed.
so.....he's an absolute creeper!
Republicans definitely have the vulnerabilities that this essay mentions. But all this analysis can be distilled into one question: can Talarico convince/fool enough persuadable voters that he is not a far Left wolf in sheep's clothing? He will have the national and Texas political media in his corner, with all those anti-religion journalists celebrating his supposed Christian beliefs. I'm skeptical that they will succeed because there is too much in his public record that shows what he really believes. He is not at all moderate on anything other than public demeanor.
According to Talarico's campaign website, "Our schools are being defunded — so billionaires can get another tax break."
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, "Current expenditures per pupil increased by 13 percent from 2010–11 to 2020–21, after adjusting for inflation."
Our schools are not "being defunded." Per-pupil spending is up instead of down. Talarico is just another liar.
As a Republican, I was concerned when I first read that a supposed non-Radical white man had beaten Jasmine Crocket to become the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate race in Texas. I was relieved when I found out he is in fact not a non-Radical but very much to the left. However, I was then overjoyed to find out he is woke to the nth degree, spewing out more tweets from 2020-21 than even Kamala did. Don’t the Democrats in Texas recall that the most effective ad against Kamala in 2024 was, “She is for they/them, Trump is for you.” This is going to be a wipeout in Texas, especially when he talks about his white skin immunity and explains that God is non-binary. This is Texas, not Minnesota.
A sales pitch for another political Corvair. Poorly designed non-performer trotted out as a new and exciting model.
Talarico is just another Democratic Fraudster, who just happens to lie while looking more agreeable than Crockett
According to Talarico's website, "Our Social Security benefits are constantly under threat — so billionaires can get yet another tax break." But, Social Security isn't funded by income tax, it is funded by payroll tax. So, how can any "tax break" for billionaires reduce funding for Social Security? It can't. Talarico is just another lying demagogue.
Musk's payments to Social Security end at 3 minutes past midnight Jan 1st. We could raise the cap on Social Security, that would help things out.
A favorite of the left, but removing the payroll tax cap would:
- increase the marginal tax rate from 38% to 50.4%
- turn Social Security from a "get out what you pay in" that has near universal support to a welfare program
Just another democrat income-transfer scheme.
He is proposing increasing the income ceiling subject to social security tax. That is part of the solution to extend the life the program, in addition to raising the age for full benefits, among other tweaks to the program. Originally Social Security started for those who reached 65, and that was at the time when the life expectancy was about 63.3 years in 1933.
With today’s life expectancy of about 79 years, there is a little room to adjust the full retirement age, while continuing a reduced benefit at age 62. The concept of retiring pretty much started with those born between WW1 and WW2. Before that they’d say people died in the harness.
Save early and often, save the maximum in every plan available to you, invest in boring, solid investments. Figure out how to live on what is left.
Talerico has a typical plan to reduce the cost of living: subsidies and regulation. If that reduced inflation, the United States should have an incredibly low cost of living.
Yes this guy is portrayed as a moderate… these opinions he has I would not call moderate. I think though he is a moderate in the current Democratic Party ..
I’m a registered independent… I’ve come to the conclusion that I will change my registration to Republican so that I can vote in that primary in our state
I will not cast a vote for a Democrat if this is what they say are moderates.
Many previous comments have stated most parts of the following comment but here is how I put it all together. I think what happened here is that Democrats convinced themselves they had found a Texas version of the kind of candidate profile that can work better in places like Virginia or New Jersey. Someone with a calmer tone, a less abrasive style, and in Talarico’s case, an explicit Christian framing that makes him seem more culturally relatable. That may have helped him in the primary, especially compared with someone like Crockett.
But the problem is that the primary never really tested the cultural issues that are most likely to matter in a Texas general election. And in Texas, we actually know what some of those cultural issues are because the legislature has already passed laws on them. That tells you they are politically salient. These are not just abstract culture-war topics.
The structural problem is that those cultural issues rarely get sorted out in a Democratic primary because there is too much alignment inside the party on them and too little incentive for candidates to challenge each other on them. So a candidate can come out of the primary looking broadly reasonable without ever having been forced to answer the exact cultural questions that are likely to define the general election.
That is where Talarico may run into trouble. He is not brand new politically. He has been around during the years when the Democratic Party was rewarding very progressive rhetoric on these cultural issues. So even if he now tries to sound moderate or nuanced, he may not have much room to maneuver because Republicans can simply go back to what he said before and make that the center of the campaign.
So Democrats may feel they nominated someone who looks reasonable and broadly appealing, but the primary never really sorted out whether he can survive the specific cultural issues that Texas voters have already shown they care enough about to legislate.
Unfortunately, Talarico has represented the Austin area. They're giving a BIG RAH RAH RAH!!! Dallas, Houston & Austin make up about 70% of the population of TX, all 3 being predominately Blue, Austin being the strongest Blue. So, Dems are very happy having him be their guy. They don't want to represent everyone.
Lots of folks moving into TX, because lots of businesses hate the politics driving them away from their blue states, into predominantly Red TX. And, as other areas say, DON'T CALIFORNIA MY TEXAS. Some of these folks start off in Austin, then soon recognize they really don't like the speedy ways their taxes keep going up, so they're moving into the areas surrounding Austin. Some businesses are now locating outside of Austin. I understand the areas around Dallas & Houston are more suburban & generally more Republican and conservative, providing a stark contrast to the Democratic-leaning urban cores. While cities like Dallas and Houston have moved toward the Democratic party, their surrounding suburbs, such as Montgomery County, have maintained strong GOP support, often acting as a counterweight to city-center voting patterns.
I wouldn't be surprised to see Talarico downplay or back away from some of his progressive cultural stances as November approaches, even at the risk of angering the left, both inside and outside Texas.
He might say he respects pro-lifers even though he disagrees with them. He might pair his condemnation of Trump's cruelty to immigrants with calls for more border fences. He might say he misspoke when he said God was nonbinary, that he let his emotions get the better of him. He might edit the "LGBTQ+" on his website to something swing voters are more comfortable with. He might reverse his opposition to giving offensive weapons to Israel, and condemn Hamas and antisemitism more frequently, even if he's appalled by the situation in Gaza.
How much of this he feels the need to do will depend on what the economy looks like in the summer and fall, and on whether we're still at war with Iran then. But even if high oil prices have led to a deep recession by October, Talarico will still have to show overt, conscious respect for cultural conservatives (and broadcast that respect to fellow Democrats nationwide as well as Texas swing voters) if he wants to win.
You mean he needs to become a bigger phony than he already is?
I wouldn't be surprised either if he does these things. But I would be more surprised if he reversed his support for biological men in women's sports, since that has now become a progressive litmus test. And that matters, since that was (as the attack ads will make clear) the context in which the "God is non-binary" comment came up. He needs to actually renounce that view - saying (as he has said) "leave it up to districts" is an evasion, because it doesn't say what he would want the districts to do, or what he would support if it was in his district.
It would be good for him if he did so - being attacked by the Left for "throwing trans people under the bus" would serve him well with the wider Texas electorate. But I still wonder if he has that level of political savvy and political instincts.