{"id":192947,"date":"2026-03-06T06:59:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T06:59:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/192947\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T06:59:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T06:59:11","slug":"republicans-target-talaricos-social-media-clips-in-texas-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/192947\/","title":{"rendered":"Republicans target Talarico’s social media clips in Texas race"},"content":{"rendered":"

James Talarico<\/a> rode viral video fame to the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate in Texas. Now Republicans want to turn years of candid on-camera musings against him. <\/p>\n

Conservatives are digging through Talarico\u2019s social media history<\/a> and finding a trove of progressive commentary on hot-button cultural issues like race, gender, religion and immigration. They hope it will torpedo his candidacy in a red state like Texas that Democrats have spent decades struggling to turn blue. <\/p>\n

Talarico was a state legislator barely known outside his district before he started building a national profile by making himself ubiquitous. He sat for lengthy podcast interviews and posted heavily on social media. The grandson of a Baptist preacher and a seminary student himself, Talarico often makes a Biblical case for progressive policies, using a gift of gab that many Democrats believe will help him connect with voters across Texas.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also given his critics hours and hours of material to mine. And after he defeated Rep. Jasmine Crockett in the Democratic primary on Tuesday, conservatives started uploading an arsenal of video clips.<\/p>\n

\u201cGod is nonbinary,\u201d Talarico once said during a legislative floor speech. He later explained<\/a> that he was being \u201ca little provocative\u201d to make the theological point that \u201cGod is beyond gender.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cOur southern border should be like our front porch. There should be a giant welcome mat out front,\u201d Talarico said in a clip that cuts off the rest of his sentence \u2014 \u201cand a lock on the door.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRadicalized white men are the greatest domestic terrorist threat in our country,\u201d Talarico wrote five years ago in a post lamenting mass shootings targeting Black, Hispanic and Asian Americans. <\/p>\n

Republican consultant Chris LaCivita shared that post on social media<\/a> and suggested it was \u201cgreat ad copy\u201d for his party. LaCivita is working for a super PAC supporting incumbent Sen. John Cornyn, who faces state Attorney General Ken Paxton in a runoff for the Republican nomination. <\/p>\n

President Donald Trump even joined in, telling Politico in an interview that Talarico is \u201ca terribly weak candidate\u201d who is \u201cmore woke than even the very highly untalented Jasmine Crockett.\u201d He predicted Talarico would be \u201cmuch easier than her\u201d to defeat in a general election. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe is radically out of touch with Texans and they will not vote for this in November,\u201d said Samantha Cantrell, a spokesperson for the National Republican Senatorial Committee. <\/p>\n

During a victory speech Wednesday, Talarico primed his supporters for the onslaught of criticism, which he blamed on billionaires and political elites desperate to hold onto power. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re going to throw everything they have at us,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re going to call me a radical leftist. They\u2019re going to call me a fake Christian. They\u2019ll call our movement un-Texan, un-American. They\u2019ll call us a threat.\u201d<\/p>\n

The criticism is coming, Talarico said, \u201cbecause we\u2019re a threat to their corrupt system.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cOur campaign is building a movement poised to change the politics of this state and take power back for working people,\u201d said Talarico spokesperson JT Ennis. \u201cWhile they lob stale attacks to mislead Texans, we are uniting the people of Texas to win in November.\u201d <\/p>\n

Democrats are hoping that Republican runoff voters will favor Paxton, who has weathered allegations of corruption and infidelity and has his own history of controversial remarks. <\/p>\n

Trump has promised to make an endorsement<\/a> in the race, but he hasn\u2019t said when he\u2019ll announce a decision or who it will be. Republican leaders want him to line up behind Cornyn, who is seeking a fifth term. <\/p>\n

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s successful campaign provides a recent model of a Democrat who overcame intense scrutiny for progressive statements that became a political liability. Mandani went on Fox News and apologized to New York Police Department officers for past criticism, such as a calling to \u201cdefund this rogue agency\u201d in 2020.<\/p>\n

Still, New York and Texas are worlds apart politically. Trump won Texas by nearly 14 points and lost the state of New York by nearly as much. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"James Talarico rode viral video fame to the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate in Texas. Now Republicans want…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":192948,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2137,74977,7762,145,288,490,1724,2135,3481,3309,1967,287,76515,39208,27,29,28,1760,5576,1499,9931,7533,11259],"class_list":{"0":"post-192947","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-2026-elections","9":"tag-chris-lacivita","10":"tag-conservatism","11":"tag-donald-trump","12":"tag-elections","13":"tag-general-news","14":"tag-immigration","15":"tag-james-talarico","16":"tag-jasmine-crockett","17":"tag-john-cornyn","18":"tag-ken-paxton","19":"tag-politics","20":"tag-samantha-cantrell","21":"tag-senate-elections","22":"tag-texas","23":"tag-texas-headlines","24":"tag-texas-news","25":"tag-tx-state-wire","26":"tag-u-s-democratic-party","27":"tag-u-s-news","28":"tag-u-s-republican-party","29":"tag-washington-news","30":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=192947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192947\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/192948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}