Looks like we have another Democrat liar! Texas Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico got caught playing both sides, and the footage is back just in time to follow him into Election Day. Undercover video first published by The Daily Wire in September shows Talarico telling a woman posing as a supporter that his stance on transgender athletes has not changed, and that he will fight for trans kids in the U.S. Senate the same way he did in the Texas legislature.
The problem? Just four days earlier, on September 9, Talarico sat down with Fox News and struck a very different tone. “Every sport has to be safe and fair,” he told the outlet. “I will oppose trans athletes playing in girls’ sports if it risks safety or fairness.” That sounds almost reasonable. Moderate, even. The kind of thing a Democrat might say when he thinks people outside his base are watching.
Then came September 13, at Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church in Houston, where a woman asked Talarico whether he would defend her transgender niece’s ability to compete in women’s athletics. His answer was immediate. “Always,” he said. “The way I fought for trans kids in the legislature is how I will fight for them in the U.S. Senate. And my position hasn’t changed.” He also called his approach “the most inclusive policy of any candidate who’s running.” So much for that Fox News pivot. You can follow Talarico hot mic footage to see exactly how this played out.
Talarico’s legislative record backs up what the mic caught him saying. In 2021, he voted against Texas Senate Bill 29, which would have required public school athletes to compete based on the biological sex on their birth certificate. In 2023, he voted against Senate Bill 14, which restricted certain gender-transition procedures for minors. Then, in that same September Fox News interview, he said he would absolutely support a nationwide ban on gender-transition surgeries for minors. Somebody’s story isn’t adding up, and it isn’t the recording.
Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton’s campaign did not let the resurfaced video go to waste. Campaign spokeswoman Madison Cercy delivered what might be the most efficient summary of the whole mess: “James Talarico can’t outrun his own radical record, and this bombshell video proves it. He voted against protecting kids and voted against protecting girls’ sports. Now, even he admits his position ‘hasn’t changed.’ This video has finally exposed James Talarico for who he truly is: a hypocrite, rampant flip-flopper, and a liar.”
With Election Day bearing down on one of the most closely watched Senate races in the country, Talarico is left trying to explain why the version of himself that shows up on Fox News sounds nothing like the version that shows up at a Houston church four days later. Texas voters are going to have to decide which James Talarico they believe. Given that he told us himself his position hasn’t changed, maybe they should take him at his word.
