James Talarico Once Backed a Bill That Could Have Sent You to Jail for Posting Memes

Texas Democrat Senate candidate James Talarico once voted in favor of a bill that critics claimed would have criminalized the use of political memes.

This was the vote on the Meme Criminalization Bill in the Texas House. All Republicans who voted Green need to be primaried. pic.twitter.com/B1hVEJFHaX

— LTC Larry Brock (ret.), Host of The Reckoning (@LarryBrockJr) April 30, 2025

In 2025, House Bill 366 of the Texas Legislature was launched as an answer to growing concerns over AI-generated deep fakes, according to Texas Scorecard. The outlet explained that, due to the use of overly-broad language, the bill would criminalize the publication of content that “did not occur in reality” unless the poster had included a disclaimer, leaving political memes in danger of violating the proposed law.

Texas Scorecard further explained that some lawmakers attempted to restrict the bill by introducing a political advertising threshold of $100 during a reporting period as well as an “intent to influence an election” stipulation. Concerns were raised that Texans could be branded a criminal for purchasing higher engagement on platforms like X or subscribing to creative software services.

Violations of the Talarico-backed proposed law could have landed politically-active Texans in prison for up to one year. The shocking decision has raised questions from Republicans over how he planned to couple imprisoning political activists who failed to disclaim their content with his progressive stances on criminal justice.

"The radical left has no sense of humor and is obsessed with stopping the rest of us from having fun,” RNC spokesman Zach Kraft told Townhall. “But you do have to wonder who six-gendered-Jimmy thinks is coming to arrest you for a meme after he defunds the police and abolishes prisons."

Talarico has been desperate to moderate his startling voting record as the November midterms draw near. He has attempted to walk back many of his long-held stances on issues like gender reassignment surgery for children, energy production, and border security since securing his party’s nomination.

Now, Talarico will take on Republican Ken Paxton as the two parties vie for control over the body as President Donald Trump headed into the second half of his term.

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