{"id":334740,"date":"2026-06-13T06:53:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T06:53:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/334740\/"},"modified":"2026-06-13T06:53:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T06:53:11","slug":"dan-patrick-says-james-talarico-will-go-to-hell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/334740\/","title":{"rendered":"Dan Patrick says James Talarico will \u201cgo to hell\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Audio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story. See our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/about\/ethics\/#ai-policy\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">AI policy<\/a>, and give us <a href=\"https:\/\/airtable.com\/appFeleeKVUN0Iytx\/pagPG40gbkU0EfjIr\/form\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">feedback<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">HOUSTON \u2014 Lt. Gov. <a href=\"https:\/\/directory.texastribune.org\/dan-patrick\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Dan Patrick<\/a> on Friday said Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate Rep. <a href=\"https:\/\/directory.texastribune.org\/james-talarico\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">James Talarico<\/a> will \u201cgo to hell\u201d for his interpretations of the Bible, as Talarico has made his Christian faith a cornerstone of his campaign.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Speaking at the Republican Party of Texas\u2019 convention in Houston, Patrick accused Talarico, an Austin state representative, of introducing faith into the contentious Senate race, expected to be expensive and brutal as Democrats seek to capitalize on anti-Trump sentiment to claim the minority party\u2019s first statewide victory in more than three decades. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt\u2019s James Talarico who decided to bring the Bible into this election. And let me tell you, that\u2019s not a Bible I\u2019ve ever read. I\u2019ve never seen so much blasphemy from anyone running for office,\u201d Patrick said to an uproar of applause. \u201cLet me tell you what, I\u2019m going to pray for that guy, because when he loses the Senate race, if he campaigns against God as he\u2019s been doing, he\u2019s going to Hell, for sure. That\u2019s what we\u2019re up against. That\u2019s the darkness. That\u2019s the light. That\u2019s why we must be one.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a statement Friday evening, Talarico responded saying that Patrick had \u201csold out the poor, the sick, and the vulnerable to enrich his donors\u201d for decades.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cLove feels like blasphemy when you worship power,\u201d Talarico wrote in a <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/jamestalarico\/status\/2065588378637050193?s=20\" rel=\"nofollow\">social media post<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Attorney General <a href=\"https:\/\/directory.texastribune.org\/ken-paxton\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ken Paxton<\/a>, Talarico\u2019s general election opponent, also spoke at the convention.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A GOP leader, Patrick has also been a staunch advocate for Christian values \u2014 often championing proposed legislation as the presiding officer of the Texas Senate that historically failed in the Texas House until recent victories, like requiring the display of Ten Commandments in public schools.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">President Trump also tapped Patrick, a close ally, to lead the Presidential Religious Liberty Commission tasked with drafting policy proposals regarding religious freedom.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Audio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story. See our AI policy, and give&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":334741,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1864,2135,27,29,28],"class_list":["post-334740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-dan-patrick","tag-james-talarico","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334740","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=334740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334740\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/334741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=334740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=334740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=334740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}