Progressive populist Texas Democrat freely talks about faith while running for U.S. Senate
With 22 candidates running, both major parties holding their primaries in March
In a video that has been viewed well over 1.5 million times on YouTube, the young politician substitutes for the preacher at a Texas church and talks about the sin that has become a cancer on his religion.
But the sin he’s talking about isn’t abortion or anything to do with LGBTQ issues. And the substitute preacher isn’t a Republican. But he is a seminary student.
There’s no question that in modern America, Democrats are far less religious than Republicans, and few of the blue-party politicians have much to say about Jesus or the Bible. But this is the year where there’s a key exception: Texas state Rep. James Talarico, who represents a district in Austin and is seeking the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate seat held by John Cornyn.
The sin the 36-year-old Talarico was talking about in the Oct. 22, 2023, sermon is Christian nationalism, and he was speaking at Austin’s St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, to which he has belonged since he was two years old. Here’s the context:
My faith means more to me than anything. But if I’m being very honest, sometimes I hesitate before telling someone I’m a Christian. There is a cancer on our religion. Until we confess the sin that is Christian nationalism and exorcise it from our churches, our religion can do a lot more damage than a six-pack of Lone Star. There is nothing Christian about Christian nationalism. It is the worship of power, social power, economic power, political power in the name of Christ. And it is a betrayal of Jesus of Nazareth.
Talarico gave that sermon well before he announced his candidacy. Attention to his campaign picked up last summer when he appeared on the Joe Rogan podcast in an episode that included Rogan saying Talarico should run for president. Starting from basically nowhere, Talarico now has 1.8 million followers on Instagram and almost that many, 1.5 million, on TikTok, helping him get the impetus to raise more than $6 million in campaign funds as of September.
And for those who watch his campaign, it doesn’t take long to see that he is as comfortable as Charlie Kirk was or Franklin Graham is in talking about his faith as a motivation for what he does. The difference, however, is that for Talarico, he faith his propelled him in an unapologetically progressive direction, although his progressivism has a distinctly populist tone with his criticisms of billionaires and the political establishment.
An example of his perspective can be found in a recent Instagram video:
It makes me sick to my stomach to see self-proclaimed Christians in the halls of power blatantly violating the teachings of Jesus Christ. Speaker Mike Johnson, who says his entire worldview comes from the Bible, is literally about to kick 2 million Texans off their health care right before Christmas. If Mike Johnson actually read his Bible, he would know that Jesus healed the sick. No copays, no deductibles, no premiums. These Christian nationalists say they want a Christian nation until it comes to providing health care for the sick, until it comes to acting like Jesus. As Christians, Mike Johnson and I are both supposed to love our neighbor as ourselves. Our neighbor is the diabetic rationing their insulin to make rent. Our neighbor is the senior choosing between their medicine and their groceries. Our neighbor is the father fighting cancer while also fighting his insurance company. If you aren’t loving your neighbor, then keep Jesus’s name out of your mouth.
And he has not shied away from taking a pro-choice position on a abortion, contrasting himself with most evangelical politicians:
I think everyone watching knows that Texas has the most extreme abortion ban in the country right now. I have constituents who can’t access basic reproductive health care. We have women dying in emergency room parking lots from sepsis because their doctors are too afraid to provide that basic health care. And so again, if you claim to be pro-life, you need to know that these policies are killing women in our state. Pro-choice policies lead to fewer abortions and lead to better outcomes for women and children. You know, Texas also has one of the highest maternal mortality rates. You were talking about the impact on black and brown women. We have more black mothers dying in our state than any other state in the country because of these regressive policies. If your goal is life, if your goal is the flourishing of all people, then I think you’ve got to look at the data and you’ve got to look at the track record, and it’s pro-choice policies that lead to more of that flourishing.1
By any standard, Talarico is an underdog. But capturing the Senate seat isn’t completely out of reach. Although Texas is a solid red state, Democrat Beto O’Rourke came within 3 percent of Ted Cruz for the other Texas U.S. Senate seat eight years ago. And it’s possible that Republicans could be fractured coming out of the primary this year.
But first Talarico would need to get through the Democratic primary. His main opponent is U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, who has been leading by a small margin in the few polls that have been taken so far. There are also three minor candidates in the Democratic race.
On the Republican side, Cornyn, who has been a strong supporter of President Donald Trump but nevertheless has faced political fire for his support of bipartisan gun legislation in 2022, is facing a brawl of a contest as he appears locked in a three-way race in a field of 15 candidates total. His major opponents are U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt, who claims that he can do a better job of appealing to Trump’s MAGA base, and Ken Paxton, Texas’s hard-right attorney general.
The party primaries will be held on March 3. Runoff primaries, if needed because someone wins a primary without getting 50 percent of the vote, will be held May 26. A runoff appears likely on the Republican side and could happen for Democrats as well if their race is close.
From an Instagram video.