James Talarico is trying to reset his message as Texas’ Senate race heats up, and that means walking back some of the sharpest lines that have followed him for years. In a new round of interviews, he softened past comments on gender, sports, and religion while insisting his focus now is on affordability, safety, and fairness.
Talarico said he supports banning gender surgery for minors and opposed transgender-identifying men competing in women’s sports when it raises concerns about safety or fairness. That is a notable shift from some of his earlier positions in the Texas Legislature, where he backed efforts that critics say left him squarely on the other side of those fights.
The timing matters because the Texas Senate race is far closer than many expected. Republicans see the seat as a major prize, and Democrats know they cannot afford a messy, distracting campaign if they want a real shot at keeping the contest competitive.
During a campaign stop in Dallas, Talarico tried to explain his record instead of running from it. He said he opposed a bill on transgender surgeries for minors because it was too broad, while arguing that he had supported amendments aimed at narrowing the measure to what he believed it was supposed to do.
He also defended his earlier legislative choices by pointing to the process itself. According to Talarico, lawmakers often have to weigh whether a bill does more harm than good, even if they agree with part of the goal, and that can lead to voting against the whole package when amendments fail.
That explanation may satisfy some supporters, but it does not erase the contrast with his past votes. In 2023, he voted against a Texas bill that restricted certain gender-related medical treatments for minors, and he later backed multiple Democratic amendments that did not survive.
Sports is another area where Talarico has clearly shifted his tone. He now says he opposes trans athletes in girls’ sports if it threatens fairness or safety, a line that sounds far different from his earlier description of the issue as a manufactured problem.
For critics, that change looks less like conviction and more like campaign-season cleanup. For Talarico, it is an attempt to frame the issue around student athletes and common sense instead of culture-war language that can quickly explode in a statewide race.
He also tried to put distance between himself and one of his most quoted comments from 2021, when he said, “God is both masculine and feminine and everything in between. God is non-binary.” Talarico later said he was being provocative and admitted that the remark was not well stated, while arguing that human labels cannot fully capture God.
Even there, he did not fully step away from the fight. He claimed those comments were being clipped out of context to distract from Ken Paxton’s record, turning the conversation back toward his Republican opponent and the baggage Paxton brings into the race.
Paxton remains a powerful but controversial figure, and that gives Talarico room to argue about corruption and trust. Still, the more Talarico talks about his own past, the harder it becomes to keep the race focused on Paxton alone, especially with every quote instantly becoming campaign ammunition.
Talarico also walked back his earlier claim that there are six genders, saying instead that there are two sexes and that he had not expressed himself clearly before. He added that some politicians are only bringing up that controversy because they would rather avoid talking about the economy, especially the cost of diesel and other basics.
That is where Talarico wants the race to live now, on grocery prices, gas, utilities, and healthcare. He says Texans are struggling to survive, and he wants the campaign to be about the squeeze on family budgets rather than the headlines that have trailed him from one controversy to the next.
He also said he supports the idea that Texas should not have a state income tax, even though he previously voted against a measure to permanently ban one. That older vote was defended at the time as unnecessary government spending, a reminder that his record can be as complicated as the rhetoric now surrounding it.
The broader picture is a candidate trying to steady himself in a race where every public word matters. In Texas, where the stakes are huge and the margins can get tight fast, that kind of recalibration can help, but it can also invite even more scrutiny from voters who want straight answers and nothing less.
