Democratic Texas Senate nominee James Talarico has already stepped on the road toward walking back his past cringey statements now that the general election has started.
To put it simply, he will have plenty of walking to do if he wants Texas to forget that he’s a far-leftist ideologue who will push for more government in the Senate if he is elected. Over his political career, Talarico has made a series of absurd comments regarding LGBTQ issues, sexuality, Christianity, and gender ideology.
During an appearance on CBS News, he addressed these statements. For starters, the interviewer brought up Talarico’s prior contention that God is “nonbinary.” He responded by saying, “I was being intentionally provocative with that statement, but what it means is that God can’t be defined by human categories.”
He added, “The Apostle Paul in his letter to the Galatians says that in Christ there is neither male nor female. I'm always going to stand up for Texans who are being picked on by the most powerful, most corrupt politicians in the country. And I'm gonna continue doing that in this race and hopefully in the U.S. Senate.”
The interviewer asked whether the candidate regrets making that comment. There are some statements that I've made that I certainly regret,” Talarico replied. “There are some statements that I've made where I've missed the mark. I'll be the first to admit that. But Ken Paxton is intentionally clipping my cringey comments to distract from his career of corruption. Ken Paxton has a criminal record. I have a legislative record.”
Talarico continued, touting his record, saying he “brought Republican legislators, Democratic legislators together to cut property taxes, to raise teacher pay, to lower the cost of housing and child care, prescription drugs. I've passed more than 60 bipartisan bills. As a legislator, I've also called out the extremes in both parties, on left and right. I have called out Ken Paxton for his blatant corruption but also called out President Biden for failing to secure our southern border."
The candidate also tried to explain away his previous argument that there are six biological genders. “I know there are two sexes: Men and women,” he said, noting that that there are rare instances of intersex individuals.
Texas state Rep. and Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico responded to GOP attacks over his past remark that God is “non-binary,” telling @edokeefe that some of his previous comments “missed the mark.”
— CBS News (@CBSNews) May 27, 2026
“There are some statements that I’ve made that I certainly regret,”… pic.twitter.com/VRsEXHo6ir
This was to be expected. Republicans have been hammering Talarico on his cringe comments since five seconds after he won the Democratic nomination. Paxton has also jumped on these statements, using them to portray Talarico as a rabid progressive who is out of touch with ordinary Texans.
But Talarico has to walk a bit of a tightrope here. Walking back those statements is a smart move, but he can’t go too far because he would risk alienating Democrats who actually believe this folderol. Still, I don’t think this issue is going away anytime soon — but it could help him make some people more comfortable with supporting him.