In the first episode of his new podcast, the Republican lieutenant governor said he has “never seen anyone commit so much blasphemy against the word of God in the Bible as he is doing.”
“He may think he’s going to the Senate but I’m praying for him, because if he doesn’t really come back from that, then he’s going to hell,” Patrick said during the interview with Attorney General Ken Paxton, the Republican running against Talarico.
Paxton agreed with the sentiment, adding “they are not Christian views, they are his views.”
Talarico’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Austin state representative previously responded to similar comments from Patrick with the statement “love feels like blasphemy when you worship power” on social media.
Patrick’s comments come as Republicans have homed in on Talarico’s past statements in an effort to make the Austin Democrat seem out of step with Texas voters. Those include a clip from a 2021 floor debate where Talarico said “God is non-binary” and his stance that the Bible does not advocate for anti-abortion views.
“The idea that there is a set Christian orthodoxy on the issue of abortion is just not rooted in Scripture,” he said in a podcast interview with Joe Rogan.
Patrick previously drew backlash from Democrats and some Christians after he made similar comments at the state’s Republican convention in Houston earlier this month.
“As Christians, we have a responsibility to take our place as followers of Jesus. We are not prophets. We are not gatekeepers of heaven and hell. And we certainly are not God,” former state Rep. Glenn Rogers, a Republican, wrote in a Dallas Morning News column. “Yet Patrick decrees that Talarico is ‘going to Hell for sure.”’