USA Today Op/Ed Piece: As Texas Senate race tightens, Talarico's mask is slipping

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Nicole Russell
USA TODAY

The U.S. Senate race between Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Democratic seminarian state Rep. James Talarico is tightening.

August polls showed Talarico ahead by at least 2 percentage points. Now, the Cook Political Report calls the race a dead heat. Another poll, from Overton Insights and the Texas Public Policy Foundation, shows the same tightening: 44% for Talarico, 43.4% for Paxton and 12.6% still undecided.

Despite his moderate everyman pitch, Talarico's true progressive beliefs keep surfacing, slowly shifting voter sentiment and leaving Texans wondering what he actually believes.

I could sense hints of Talarico's authentic leftism back in June, when Texans learned he'd gone from running a "non-meat" campaign a few years ago to wearing a Texas flag shirt and devouring a barbecue-basted turkey leg. That's when I knew the rebranding of Talarico as a Texas everyman had begun.

Since then, his honest ideas and leftist positions have gradually come out.

On a private 2020 Zoom call hosted by the Sierra Club, Talarico was asked about "climate justice" and capitalism. His answer was revealing:

"I'm so thankful that you asked this question, and also thankful that young activists have really drawn the link between climate change and White supremacy and capitalism in our country. And I think only understanding the ways that all three of those oppressive systems work together are we going to be able to begin the process of dismantling them."

On the same call, Talarico took aim at the Texas economy’s reliance on oil and gas: “We all know that Texas has been a leader in oil and gas, but in many ways that’s like being the leader in cassette tapes in the 1980s. That industry is not gonna last.”

The Talarico campaign told CNN he no longer holds those anti-capitalist views. Good thing he walked it back – Texas boasts a nearly $3 trillion gross domestic product, the second-highest in the country. And now he wants to represent it in Washington. (No thanks.)

I suspect Talarico has won over some Texans simply by sounding like a good Christian guy, often talking about faith. In a recent interview with The New York Times, Talarico said his faith was rooted in “biblical Christianity." Pew reports that 67% of Texans identify as Christians. But that appeal should backfire.

Talarico touts Christianity while undermining one of its most basic tenets. In one newly surfaced video clip about Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights celebrated around Texas, he denies that Jesus Christ is the only way to truth, something most Christians hold as core to the faith.

“I find that they’re all kind of equal pathways to truth," Talarico said. "You know, that’s how I think, you know, I always think of all of the world’s faith traditions as like a circle with that divine mystery of the universe in the middle. And we all have different names for that mystery.”

"From abortion to guns to voting, a reactionary minority is threatening our most basic rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Leaders at all levels have to start using every tool in the toolbox to protect our freedoms," Talarico posted on X in 2022.

He might be campaigning like a Christian who embraces capitalism and champions Texans' freedoms, but his actual positions on capitalism, faith and abortion don't reflect the values of most Republicans – or, likely, of most Texans.

It's a common tactic for Democrats to embrace leftist beliefs, camouflage their worst positions, then pivot to the center when campaigning for higher office. It's political strategy 101: Win over the progressive base in the primary, then tack toward the middle once the general electorate, which skews more moderate, becomes the crucial audience.

Talarico is running that play by the book.

This is inauthentic and manipulative. But even more, it's offensive. Do they think voters are stupid?

Talarico didn't have much name recognition across Texas, which initially gave him the luxury of campaigning however he wanted. So he ran as a faux moderate Democrat and an outspoken Christian, hoping that would separate him from the smarmy, controversial Paxton.

Voters might have seen Talarico as a refreshing change from Paxton, whose wife filed for divorce following alleged infidelity, to say nothing of his indictment and impeachment trial in 2023.

But as more of Talarico's progressive statements have surfaced in recent weeks, it wouldn't surprise me if they're slowly shifting voter sentiment. What Talarico truly believes, as opposed to what he's campaigning on, is a far better predictor of how he'd actually govern in Washington.

I'm still disappointed that either of these men – both frauds in their own way – is seriously campaigning for the U.S. Senate. But voters will soon choose between a Democrat pretending to be something he isn't, and a Republican who should be better than he is.

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