James Talarico called Texans who oppose child sex-change surgeries for minors fascists.
Now the seminary-trained Democrat says the New Testament settles the health care debate too.
Talarico stood in a Texas pulpit and told voters exactly whose side Jesus is on.
Talarico Pulls Matthew 25 Into His Medicare Pitch
The Austin Democrat brought his Senate campaign into a DeSoto church pulpit on July 20 for a town hall.
His campaign didn't post the footage until August 1 – and titled it "James Talarico Unveils Plan For Black Voters."
Talarico told the crowd he wanted to speak scripturally, given the setting.
He turned straight to the Gospels to defend a government-run health insurance option.
"It's not preaching, it's not teaching, it is healing," Talarico said of Jesus's ministry.
He pointed to Matthew 25 and its instructions to heal the sick and feed the hungry.
Then he stretched a passage about personal charity into a mandate for a federal insurance product.
His platform would let any American buy into Medicare no matter their age, add federal negotiation over drug prices, and cap what patients pay out of pocket.
He's paired it with a claim that he's finishing the job Barack Obama left undone.
Democrats tried this exact idea before, and it didn't survive contact with their own party.
A public option was written into Obamacare in 2009 and stripped out before final passage because Senate Democrats couldn't hold the votes.
Talarico wants Texas voters to believe Jesus can sell what a Democratic supermajority in Washington couldn't.
He can point to real bipartisan work, too – a deal with Texas Republicans that capped what patients pay for insulin at $25 a prescription.
But he told the DeSoto crowd Texas's health care problem is now a statewide emergency.
Only a government program, in his telling, can fix it.
And the church he chose for the pitch wasn't random.
His campaign built an entire video package around courting Black voters specifically, wrapping a decades-old government insurance scheme in fresh scriptural packaging for a single audience.
The Same Preacher Who Called Fellow Christians Fascists
Talarico wasn't shy about religion in July either – he just used it as a weapon instead of a sales pitch.
Weeks before the DeSoto sermon, Talarico told a religious podcast that laws protecting children from irreversible sex-change procedures grew out of a movement he invented a word for.
He said the same about the state law protecting unborn babies.
"All of these ideologies stem from this Christofascism movement," Talarico said.
That means the Texas Legislature – the same body he worked with on insulin pricing – is fascist to him, except when he needs Republican votes.
His theology apparently changes with the polling memo, and so does his memory.
Talarico voted against the 2023 bill banning sex-change procedures for minors and told the House floor that denying those procedures amounted to abusing children.
He's since told a podcast host, "I oppose gender reassignment surgeries for minors."
Same lawmaker, same law, opposite position – only the audience changed.
A Convenient Gospel
Talarico earned a Master of Divinity from a Presbyterian seminary while serving in the Texas House.
That degree apparently taught him Matthew 25 obligates individual Christians to visit prisoners and feed the hungry.
It didn't teach him the difference between personal charity and a federal insurance mandate run by Washington bureaucrats.
Jesus healed the sick himself – he didn't lobby Rome to build an insurance exchange.
Talarico is betting Texans won't notice the difference.
He's polling well enough that it might work.
A Texas Public Opinion Research survey released July 28 showed Talarico ahead of Ken Paxton 45 percent to 40 percent, the biggest edge either man has posted all cycle.
That's up from a 47-44 edge in May, and it comes after Paxton had been ahead in the Real Clear Politics average as recently as June 30.
He's doing it against a Trump-endorsed attorney general in a state Republicans haven't won statewide in three decades.
None of that makes him a preacher.
It makes him a salesman who found a costume that tests well with churchgoing voters.
A man who calls fellow Christians fascists doesn't get to invoke their own Bible weeks later and expect applause.
Texas voters can support a public option, oppose it, or shrug at it.
What they shouldn't do is let Talarico tell them Jesus wrote his campaign platform.
If preaching the Gospel from a DeSoto pulpit gets him there, expect more sermons before November.
Sources:
- Mariane Angela, "Talarico Says the Bible Demands Government-Run Health Insurance," Breitbart, August 1, 2026.
- Mariane Angela, "Talarico Says Banning 'Gender-Affirming Health Care to Trans Children' Is 'Christofascism'," Breitbart, July 2, 2026.
- Jasmyn Jordan, "Poll: Talarico Opens Five-Point Lead over Paxton in Texas Senate Race," Breitbart, July 28, 2026.
- Breitbart News, "Exclusive: James Talarico Claimed Doctors Have 'Moral Obligation' to Treat Child 'Gender Dysphoria'," Breitbart, June 12, 2026.
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