Talarico Distances Himself From ‘Cringey’ Comments Ahead of Midterms

Ahead of the November general election, Democrat Texas state Rep. and candidate for the U.S. Senate James Talarico is distancing himself from some of the “cringey” comments he has made.

“There are some statements that I’ve made that I certainly regret. There are statements that I’ve made where I’ve missed the mark. I’ll be the first to admit that,” Talarico said during a CBS interview on Wednesday. “But Ken Paxton is intentionally clipping my cringey comments to distract from his career of corruption.”

A new ad from Texas Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is now running for Senate against Talarico, shows the Democrat saying that there are “six biological sexes,” “the American flag is a complicated issue,” that he “loves trans-children,” that the “Southern border should be like our front porch, there should be a giant welcome mat out front,” and that it is existential that Americans should try to reduce their meat consumption. “I am proud to say that our campaign has now become a non-meat campaign.”

During Paxton’s speech after obtaining his party’s nomination on Tuesday, the attorney general referred to Talarico as “Talafreako,” “Tofu Talarico,” and “Low T Talarico.”

Talarico responded to the criticism, telling CBS that he now backtracks on some of those comments.

“I know there are two sexes, men and women. I also know there’s a very small percentage of people who have these chromosomal abnormalities, and I believe they deserve to be treated with dignity and respect,” Talarico said.

As seen in a resurfaced video, Talarico once claimed that “God is nonbinary,” which is now being challenged by conservative and Christian voices on social media. He would later double down on those remarks, saying if people had a problem with what he said, “Take it up with St. Paul.”

Tony Kinnett, host of The Daily Signal’s Tony Kinnett Cast, challenged Talarico’s remarks about God and Paul, claiming that the Democrat misinterpreted Scripture.

“Paul repeatedly refers to the Lord God in the Koine Greek as πατήρ (patēr), meaning ‘father,’ and ὁ θεός (ho Theos), which is grammatically masculine,” Kinnett wrote on X.

President of The Heritage Foundation Kevin Roberts also disagreed with Talarico’s assessment.

“Ironically, the verse he and other progressives often use to argue that sex is fluid actually proves the opposite,” Roberts wrote on X. “Paul lists three binaries in Galatians 3:28—including male and female—and explains that salvation is equally available to all despite these real, unchangeable distinctions.”

Talarico’s remarks come after he called on the voters of Sen. John Cornyn, who lost his primary race on Tuesday against Paxton, to rally behind him instead of the attorney general in November.

“You have a place in our campaign,” Talarico wrote on X.

Talarico has raised $40 million and has welcomed endorsements from progressive Democrat politicians and groups, including former Vice President Kamala Harris, the Houston LGBTQ+ Caucus, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, and Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M.