Texas state Rep., and Democratic Senate candidate, Rep. James Talarico addressed a campaign rally in Plano, Monday, June 1, 2026.
Smiley N. Pool/The Dallas Morning News
AUSTIN – James Talarico’s supporters wear T-shirts emblazoned with a direct reference to the Bible: “It’s time to start flipping tables.”
The slogan refers to the story of Jesus overturning the tables of merchants and money changers at the temple in Jerusalem.
In Texas politics, Christian Scripture has often been the language of Republican campaigns. Talarico, the Democrat running for the U.S. Senate, has made it a defining feature of his own.
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It’s a faith that has led some Republicans to accuse him of warping Christianity to fit a progressive agenda. His conservative critics have said he is too liberal to represent Texas. Some have even called him blasphemous.
Talarico, a state representative from Austin, says faith does not belong to one party. That argument could reverberate throughout the campaign as both sides make competing moral cases for their vision of Texas.
“Faith is not about left versus right, it’s about right versus wrong,” Talarico said in an interview.
In the November election, Talarico faces Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton in a race that has already been shaped by candidate character. Paxton, who defeated GOP stalwart Sen. John Cornyn in a runoff, has faced fraud charges, impeachment and allegations of marital infidelity.
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A recent visit to Talarico’s home church and the seminary where he studied provided a glimpse into how important his Christian faith has been to his upbringing and worldview: He has often grounded his political stances in faith and Christian Scripture – whether it be on economic issues, immigration, abortion or transgender rights.
In an interview with The Dallas Morning News, Talarico pushed back on people who say he embodies a “progressive Christianity,” saying he is uncomfortable with the political qualifier.
“Too often in American Christianity, on both sides of the aisle,” he said, “people are baptizing their partisanship and calling it Christianity.”
Talarico said faith and service to others are “intertwined” for him, a concept emphasized at the Presbyterian institutions that helped to shape his faith.
Related: Talarico faces Senate test to win over Black voters after defeating Crockett
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Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Austin, Monday, May, 4, 2026. (Stephen Spillman)
Stephen Spillman/Special Contributor
Who is James Talarico?
Talarico grew up in an Austin Presbyterian church and is working toward a master of divinity degree from Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary.
Elected to the Texas House in 2018, Talarico said he opposes Christian nationalism, a wide-encompassing term that represents a spectrum of beliefs, but typically boils down to the idea that the U.S. was founded as a Christian nation and should be today.
He has criticized the religious right, saying it’s not doing enough to focus on issues affecting the poor.
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Shelton Chapel on the campus of Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Austin, Monday, May, 4, 2026. (Stephen Spillman)
Stephen Spillman/Special Contributor
Talarico said his faith has been defined his whole life by a key tenet in Christian teaching: to love God and your neighbor as yourself.
“To love God, that’s the faith part, and love neighbor, which is the service part,” Talarico said.
He referenced the parable of the Good Samaritan and argued the parable is not just an encouragement to help those in need, but to help the enemy, the outsider and the outcast. (Samaritans in Biblical times were an ethnoreligious group at odds with the Jewish people).
“It’s as if Jesus stood in the middle of Darrell K Royal Memorial Stadium [at the University of Texas] and told a story called ‘The Good Aggie,’” Talarico said.
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St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Austin, Sunday, May, 3, 2026. (Stephen Spillman)
Stephen Spillman/Special Contributor
In America today, Talarico said loving your neighbor means doing so through disagreements. He said that is how his campaign is seeking to reach a wide audience, something he is trying to do as he faces general election voters.
“To me, that’s a very Christian way to act politically,” he said.
He recognized that Christians come to different conclusions when reading the Bible, but argued against Christian nationalism, saying the New Testament displays a consistent suspicion of political power. He referenced a Biblical story in which the devil tempts Jesus with “all the kingdoms of the world.”
The grandson of a Baptist preacher, Talarico started attending St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church with his mother when she started dating his adoptive father. Talarico still attends St. Andrew’s.
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The church values putting faith into action, he said.
“That’s the kind of faith a lot of people are looking for,” he said. “Because we’re all used to the performative faith.”
Julia Martinez works in the Field of Hope outside of St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Austin, Sunday, May, 3, 2026. As the Field of Hope team lead Martinez one of her duties is to maintain the look of the crosses in the field that are intended to represent a variety of social issues the church feels need more attention. (Stephen Spillman)
Stephen Spillman/Special Contributor
A “lineage” of social justice at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church
On a recent Sunday at St. Andrew’s, congregants flocked to the church for morning service. Sunday service started with announcements: Volunteers were needed to help repair houses. Pastor Jim Rigby pulled out a guitar and sang for children’s ministry. A puppet show taught children the message: “Every being can be our teacher if we can listen and learn.”
The Scripture reading for the day was Hebrews 6 from the Inclusive Bible, a 2009 English translation that replaces masculine language, especially when used to refer to God, with nouns that are not gendered.
Use of the “Inclusive Bible” drew from the idea that God must be “transcendent beyond gender,” Rigby said in an interview. The translation is inspired by a New Testament verse in Galatians: “In Christ there is neither male nor female,” he said.
“St. Andrew’s has always done this work of showing up and speaking on issues even if it’s not popular to speak about them,” said Julia Martinez, who leads a protest art installation project at the church. “It really is part of the lineage here.”
The project is a callback to one the church led in the 1990s that honored AIDS victims.
Edwena Sobande, left, and Martha Cole speak prior to a worship service at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Austin, Sunday, May, 3, 2026. (Stephen Spillman)
Stephen Spillman/Special Contributor
Martha Cole, a church elder, said the church shelters the homeless during extreme weather and stocks a food pantry with its own garden produce. A group of young people organizes to attend various political rallies. The church has its own library featuring many so-called “banned books.”
Cole said Talarico’s growing fame has also put the church in a spotlight and exposed people to Christianity that supports progressive ideas, Cole said.
“The right feels like they have the corner on Christianity,” she said. “And that’s not true. That is not true.”
On the other hand, the church has received some threatening messages, she said.
Related: Rep. James Talarico mixes faith, family story and Senate pitch in national TV appearance
Senior minister Rev. Jim Rigby delivers his sermon during a worship service at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Austin, Sunday, May, 3, 2026. (Stephen Spillman)
Stephen Spillman/Special Contributor
Sermons become part of the Senate race
On the recent Sunday, Rigby started his sermon by addressing the events of the last week.
It was April 26, and Rigby spoke about the attempted assassination of President Donald Trump at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner to open his sermon.
“There was an assassination attempt. And I know a lot of people have mixed feelings,” Rigby said. Laughter could be heard from the congregation.
Rigby continued, “But it’s really, really important, if we are going to be the healing agents of the world, to realize that violence is not going to get rid of the problem that we have.”
Cornyn, during the GOP primary campaign, criticized Rigby and by extension Talarico, saying Rigby made light of the assassination attempt.
Rigby said that he was condemning political violence with his sermon, and that the Cornyn campaign was misleading.
“I was trying to challenge people who I know are progressive,” Rigby said in his sermon May 3. His sermon often circled back to criticizing the MAGA movement and its followers.
In an interview, Rigby rejected being an adviser to Talarico. Rigby said he is friends with the Talarico family, and he recounted Talarico sitting in the pews as a child.
“He really thought things through,” he said. “He was very – even as a child – was very intense.”
Senior minister Rev. Jim Rigby participates in a children’s moment during a worship service at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Austin, Sunday, May, 3, 2026. (Stephen Spillman)
Stephen Spillman/Special Contributor
Who gets to say what it means to be Christian?
Talarico has drawn sharp criticism from the religious right, especially related to views on abortion and transgender rights. In his runoff victory speech, Paxton said, “James Talarico is a threat to everything we hold dear in this state and in this country.”
Related: Democrat James Talarico’s break in Senate race is over as Republicans turn their fire toward him
Paxton’s campaign did not respond to multiple requests for comment on this story.
In mid-May, a Paxton-affiliated super PAC, Lone Star Liberty, released an ad featuring a series of clips, the first showing Talarico saying, “God is nonbinary.” Republicans have often turned to the quote to attack Talarico as out of touch with Texas’ large base of Christian voters.
Related: Pete Hegseth’s pastor prays for James Talarico to be ‘crucified with Christ’
The quote came from remarks Talarico made on the floor of Texas House in 2021, opposing a bill later signed into law that restricts transgender K-12 student athletes from playing on teams that align with their gender identity. Talarico said, “God is both masculine and feminine, and everything in between.”
In a statement, Talarico said the speech was meant to be “a little provocative.”
“It means you can’t define God using human categories because God is so much bigger than that. As the Apostle Paul says in Galatians: ‘In Christ, there is neither male nor female,” he said.
Some prominent pastors are critical of Talarico’s statements. Robert Jeffress, senior pastor of First Baptist Dallas, said his views, especially on gender, are “antithetical to historic Christianity.”
“Perhaps one of the most core beliefs Jesus referred to, in Matthew 19, was God is the one who makes us male and female,” Jeffress said.
Before the runoff, Jeffress agreed to be on a faith council for Cornyn. Jeffress said being on the council was not an endorsement, and that evangelical Christians are unified against Talarico.
“It’s complicated because of the background and some of the past accusations against Paxton, but I think in the end, a lot of people feel like they’re voting for policies and not a personality,” Jeffress said.
Senior minister Rev. Jim Rigby delivers his sermon during a worship service at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Austin, Sunday, May, 3, 2026. (Stephen Spillman)
Stephen Spillman/Special Contributor
Related: Republicans say state Rep. James Talarico’s faith-heavy Senate campaign is bad religion
As attorney general, Paxton has been praised by the religious right. He has championed putting the Ten Commandments in Texas classrooms, encouraged Christian prayer in schools and opposed abortion.
For years, Paxton listed his church membership as Plano-based Prestonwood Baptist Church, one of the country’s largest churches. Shortly after his wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton, filed for divorce “on biblical grounds,” Paxton’s public biography no longer mentioned his church membership.
His campaign did not respond to several email and phone messages seeking clarity on his church membership and faith. A spokesperson for Prestonwood Baptist Church said it does not disclose information on attendance or membership.
Related: Ken and Angela Paxton divorce trial canceled as couple nears agreement, lawyers say
“My faith and Christian values are the foundation of not only my public service, but they’re also the foundation of every aspect of my life,” Paxton told the Christian Post in May. “My faith shapes how I view right and wrong, justice, and my responsibility to the people I serve.”
In 2023, Paxton was impeached in the Texas House, but acquitted in the Senate, over allegations of abuse of office, bribery and obstruction of justice. In March, speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Grapevine, Paxton said “the grace of God” carried him through the impeachment trial. “He absolutely delivered me, and he used the people of Texas to deliver me,” he said.
In that speech, he said his decision to run for state office years ago was reinforced by his church friends. “I don’t know what happens if you ask God for an answer and he gives it to you, and you don’t do it, but I don’t want to find out,” he said. “So that’s how I got involved in politics.”
Rep. Matt Shaheen, a Plano Republican who attends Prestonwood Baptist Church, was a Cornyn supporter. He says he’s now “100%” behind Paxton, based on Paxton’s support for conservative legislation.
Shaheen also takes offense to Talarico’s references to his faith. He cited the New Testament Book of Titus, warning of “false teachers.”
“He mocks God, and he totally misrepresents Jesus,” Shaheen said.
Trump, meanwhile, recently called Talarico a “weird, weird candidate.”
“Six genders. A real hit on Jesus,” Trump said, referring to remarks Talarico made in a Texas statehouse committee.
Rev. Dr. Cynthia Rigby, one of Talarico’s former professors at Austin Seminary (who is of no relation to Rigby at St. Andrew’s), said in an interview that Christianity has always been debated within itself.
“The Bible has always been a book that needs interpretation,” she said with a laugh. “It’s never the simple truth.” She pointed to different interpretations of Romans 16, a New Testament book of the Bible, and the role of women in the early Christian church.
But Rigby rejected the idea of describing Talarico’s theology as “progressive” and said such phrasing presents a quandary, because it suggests being “better” than conservative.
Although Talarico is not ordained, she believes he is in many ways already a pastor.
“He measures everything by his faith commitments,” she said. “I can see it in his face.”
Shelton Chapel on the campus of Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Austin, Monday, May, 4, 2026. (Stephen Spillman)
Stephen Spillman/Special Contributor
At Austin Presbyterian Seminary, a study of “public theology”
Nestled in a neighborhood near the University of Texas at Austin, Austin Presbyterian Seminary offers a religious education for the 21st century to just under 200 students.
On a recent Monday in May, students hunkered down to work on their final papers on the quiet, tree-lined campus. One class wrapped up outdoors near a stone mediation labyrinth – a walking path meant to encourage contemplation.
A spokesperson for the seminary said Talarico earned the master of arts (theological studies) degree in May of 2025 and “remains in good standing to complete the required coursework for the Master of Divinity degree at his convenience.”
Talarico said, win or lose, he plans to seek ordination with the Presbyterian Church (USA).
Dave Jensen, a professor and former academic dean, said the seminary focuses on engaging with the local community, including on topics like homelessness, the rising cost of living and immigration. That’s part of the seminary’s idea of “public theology.”
Professor Dave Jensen speaks about theologian John Calvin in his office at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Austin, Monday, May, 4, 2026. (Stephen Spillman)
Stephen Spillman/Special Contributor
Jensen explained the purpose is to have students confront the question of “How does a Christian faith leader interact with these cultural divides?”
President José R. Irizarry said the seminary teaches students to “build bridges” in their communities, and Talarico is an example.
“This is not really about activism,” Irizarry said of the school’s emphasis on social responsibility. “It’s really about responding in a prophetic way to the call of the Gospel.”
Theologian John Calvin on a bookshelf in professor Dave Jensen office at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Austin, Monday, May, 4, 2026. (Stephen Spillman)
Stephen Spillman/Special Contributor
Talarico described a key moment in his faith later in life while in his first year at seminary.
Presbyterian clergy are required to take both Greek and Hebrew, the original biblical languages. Talarico said the Greek word for “faith” can be translated as “belief,” but also as “trust.”
He described the moment as a breakthrough.
“Because when you define faith as trust,” he said, “you realize we all have a faith of some kind, because we all put our trust in something.”