James Talarico has been sounding the same alarm for years: Christian nationalism, he argues, threatens both Christianity and American democracy.
Now, as the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate and a central figure in his party’s push to flip Congress, he is still leaning hard into that message while fending off Republican attacks that his theology is strange and out of step with Texas.
Mr. Talarico has long made the case against Christian nationalism, the belief that the United States was founded as a Christian nation and that the government should actively preserve and promote Christian identity.
People were interested in these podcasts
Back in 2023, standing in the pulpit at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian in Austin, he told his hometown congregation there was “nothing Christian about Christian nationalism.”
“They have co-opted the Son of God. They’ve turned this humble rabbi into a gun-toting, gay-bashing, science-denying, money-loving, fear-mongering fascist. And it is incumbent upon all Christians to confront it and denounce it,” he said.
He is still preaching that message, making him a polarizing figure in his bid to flip the Texas seat and become the first Democrat to win statewide since 1994. Some Democrats praise his emphasis on Christian values as a long‑overdue reframing of religious politics, while Republicans criticize him for perverting his faith for political ends.
In a July sermon at St. Andrew’s, Mr. Talarico warned that Christian nationalism had “reared its ugly head” in recent state policy fights. His refrain had not changed: Christians are called to resist domination, not sanctify it.
He urged congregants to filter their politics — from taxes to healthcare — through Jesus’ teachings. Jesus, he said, would not sit quietly and pray.
“He would walk into the seat of power and flip over the tables of injustice,” he said, stressing that “Christian activism is not Christian nationalism.”
Jesus would not rubber‑stamp either party’s platform. Instead, Mr. Talarico said, he would “challenge America to keep working toward a radical vision of democracy — more rights, more freedoms, more opportunities for more of our neighbors.”
Round Rock beginnings
Mr. Talarico grew up north of Austin in Round Rock, raised by his mother, Tamara Causey — later Ms. Talarico — who left an abusive relationship shortly after his birth and worked at a hotel to support them.
“We didn’t come from a wealthy or well‑connected family,” he wrote on Substack in August. She eventually married Mark Talarico, who adopted James.
He often points to his maternal grandfather, Jimmy Causey, a South Texas Baptist preacher in the 1960s, as a major influence on his faith and politics, especially his focus on Jesus’ two commandments: love God and love thy neighbor.
“I was supposed to love all of my neighbors,” Mr. Talarico recently told a Hispanic business council, “not just my neighbors who look like me, not just my neighbors who speak the same language that I speak, not just my neighbors who pray like I do.”
After public schools, he earned a government degree from the University of Texas at Austin and joined Teach For America. He spent two years teaching language arts at a middle school in a low-income community on San Antonio’s west side. He adorned the walls of his classroom with posters of rapper Jay‑Z and Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor.
He left after his two‑year commitment, citing a mix of personal financial strain and systemic frustrations, but has made the experience central to his political brand.
He later worked for an education nonprofit, earned a master’s in education policy from Harvard in 2016, won his Texas House seat in 2018, and in 2022 began theological studies at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary.
During that first campaign, Mr. Talarico livestreamed himself walking the entire 25‑mile length of his district, holding town halls along the way. In clips, he talked about wanting to “put people over politics” and “walk humbly” with his constituents. “I find myself praying for Donald Trump,” he says in one video.
Youngest lawmaker
Elected at 29, Mr. Talarico entered the Legislature as its youngest member. He has since won reelection three times and built a reputation as a fierce defender of public education.
Luke Warford, a Democratic strategist who worked with him at the state party, remembered that even as a young lawmaker, Mr. Talarico volunteered for party events and pandemic Zoom forums.
“I had nothing I could offer him — no status, no leverage, nothing,” Mr. Warford said. “He just wanted to be helpful. A lot of people in politics are transactional, and he’s never felt that way.”
Serving in the minority, only a small fraction of the roughly 200 bills he sponsored became law. Still, he often tells voters he “brought Democrats and Republicans together to pass 60 pieces of legislation that lowered costs and that improved people’s lives.”
His legislative career might have stayed modest if not for a series of breakout moments that made him one of Texas’ most-watched rising Democrats.
He was among the more than 50 House Democrats who fled the state in 2021 to break the quorum and block a sweeping election bill. He joined another walkout in August 2025 to protest mid‑decade redistricting.
Battles over the Ten Commandments, transgender issues and school choice further raised his profile, including a fiery appearance at a 2023 “War Over School Choice” panel event in Austin, where Mr. Talarico called vouchers a “scam” backed by billionaire donors who helped Mr. Paxton survive impeachment.
He rooted the case in his own story: public schools opened doors his single mother never had, and as a sixth‑grade teacher, he once managed 45 students with too few desks, some perched on air‑conditioning units. Vouchers, he said, were an “existential threat” to public education.
Channeling former Texas Gov. Ann Richards, he warned that the middle of the road offers only “two yellow lines and a dead armadillo.”
His comments caught the attention of the Texas American Federation of Teachers. Manny Garcia, the former executive director of the Texas Democratic Party, recalled their reaction: “They were like, this is the guy.”
Yet nothing put him on the national stage like his July 2025 appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast, where he talked about his faith, separation of church and state and abortion politics. Mr. Rogan urged him to run for president, saying, “We need someone who is actually a good person.”
The attention did not always translate into legislative wins.
In 2025, Gov. Greg Abbott and the Republican‑controlled Legislature passed the voucher program Mr. Talarico had denounced, along with new congressional maps and a law requiring the Ten Commandments to be displayed in public school classrooms.
Yet the spotlight helped him build a massive online following and a reputation as one of his party’s most effective communicators — momentum he carried into his Senate campaign that launched in September 2025.
His primary against Rep. Jasmine Crockett got a major late boost after an appearance on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” that did not air. The unaired segment racked up millions of views online and sparked a $2.5 million fundraising surge in 24 hours.
He won the March 3 primary with about 53% of the vote, and by June 30, his campaign reported raising more than $70 million.
Mr. Garcia said Mr. Talarico’s core values have not changed — thoughtful, empathetic, rooted in his background as an educator — but his public persona has grown magnetic. He compared Mr. Talarico’s rise to figures like Rick Perry and Barbara Jordan. “Texas loves characters,” he said. “And this guy is out there talking about some of the most basic, fundamental things in human history — like, love thy neighbor.”
Under the microscope
His Senate run has brought renewed scrutiny. He has received some ribbing for being a mama’s boy after financial disclosures showed he still had a joint checking account with his mother earlier this year.
Some have questioned his masculinity. He is not married, but is reportedly in a relationship with Brianna Menard, who previously served as his chief of staff in the Texas House.
The Republican National Committee has accused Mr. Talarico of a pay‑to‑play scheme during his time in the Legislature while he worked as an education consultant — an allegation his campaign denies.
He is also haunted by his statements in sermons, media appearances and social media posts.
State Rep. Tom Oliverson, chair of the Texas House Republican caucus, said Mr. Talarico frustrated colleagues by claiming credit for work he played little role in, including a bill to cap insulin costs.
Mr. Oliverson described him as a grandstander who “has never met a camera that he could walk away from,” saying his floor lectures have grown tiresome.
“All of these crazy things that he said because he can’t keep himself away from the microphone” will not go away, he said.
There is the “God is not a Christian” line from the 2023 sermon, his comments from a 2021 hearing that “modern science obviously recognizes that there are many more than two biological sexes. … In fact, there are six,” and a “God is nonbinary” remark during a 2021 floor debate on transgender student‑athletes.
Mr. Talarico recently addressed that last quote on Fox News: “I was being provocative with that statement. I get that. What I was trying to say is that you can’t use human categories to define God, and that’s not controversial, theologically.”
He also backtracked on six genders. He said the comment missed the mark.
He now says he would vote for a national ban on gender surgery for minors and opposes trans athletes in girls’ sports if it endangers safety or fairness.
Republicans have not let up. A recent super PAC ad labeled him “liberal weirdo James Talarico — too loco for Texas.”
His defenders include the Rev. Jim Rigby, whose liberal theology has long drawn conservative criticism.
On the “Weekly Witness With Scott Atnip” podcast, Mr. Rigby called the attacks “pathetic,” saying, “Poor James is just so squeaky-clean they can’t get at him.”
He argued that “the old systems are dying, and that MAGA is sort of the death throes of a lot of the bad things about the United States that we really need to change.”
Please read our comment policy before commenting.