{"id":466406,"date":"2026-10-15T03:48:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-15T03:48:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/466406\/"},"modified":"2026-10-15T03:48:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-15T03:48:10","slug":"texas-democrat-james-talarico-faces-grilling-from-voters-at-town-hall-in-tight-senate-race-texas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/466406\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas Democrat James Talarico faces grilling from voters at town hall in tight Senate race | Texas"},"content":{"rendered":"

James Talarico, the Texas<\/a> Democratic nominee for Senate, sat face to face with several undecided voters who grilled him on a slew of contentious issues including Israel\u2019s military campaign in Gaza, abortion and foreign aid, during a CNN town hall on Wednesday evening.<\/p>\n

One voter, a devout small business owner, questioned the authenticity of Talarico\u2019s faith, referencing a past remark where he described God as nonbinary.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I said that, I was being provocative and I want to admit that and come clean about that,\u201d Talarico responded. \u201cWhat I was saying is actually not controversial theologically: the idea that we can\u2019t define God using human categories. Not only did I say that, but the late Charlie Kirk said that \u2013 the late Pope Benedict said that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Talarico added that he was receptive to feedback from Christians.<\/p>\n

Jodi Hunt, a self-described single-issue voter, probed Talarico\u2019s pro-choice stance, asking: \u201cHow would you convince me as a Catholic voter that I can trust you would protect the most innocent among us?\u201d<\/p>\n

Talarico described the Bible as being silent on abortion, to which Hunt countered quoting \u201cThou shalt not kill\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe may have different, moral conclusions when it comes to this particular ethical question, but we actually have the same public policy goal,\u201d Talarico said, framing abortion as a public health issue that could be solved with a reduction in unplanned pregnancies.<\/p>\n

During the night, Talarico cast himself as a moderate, who would put the needs of Texans over party allegiances. He railed against the ultra-wealthy, framing them as the common enemy.<\/p>\n

Talarico and the Republican nominee, Ken Paxton<\/a>, are locked in a competitive race to become Texas\u2019s next US senator, with most recent polls showing Talarico with a narrow lead over Paxton. (Paxton declined an invitation to appear on CNN, host Erin Burnett said at the start of the town hall.)<\/p>\n

Though Democrats have not won a Senate seat in the state since the late 1980s, they\u2019re hoping Talarico\u2019s newcomer energy and popular appeal will persuade independents and Republicans fed up with Donald Trump\u2019s second term \u2013 or turned off by Paxton\u2019s many scandals.<\/p>\n

Over the weekend, Talarico became the subject of a disinformation campaign after he was absent from the campaign trail for more than a week. While Talarico\u2019s campaign repeatedly said the candidate was sick with a bad case of the flu, conservative influencers falsely accused him of receiving medical treatment at a mental health facility in Ohio.<\/p>\n

The rumor was further propelled by Paxton and Trump, who sought to fuel skepticism about Talarico\u2019s health and fitness for office.<\/p>\n

The Democratic candidate denied the false allegations after returning to the campaign trail last week, noting he had never been to Ohio.<\/p>\n

\u201cFalse claims got millions of views online and this is an example of what I call the \u2018rage economy\u2019,\u201d Talarico said during the town hall. \u201cBillionaires who own these platforms get rich. We all get angry and nobody\u2019s life gets any better. Conspiracy theories don\u2019t put food on the table, put gas in the tank, or improve our communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paxton, meanwhile, has been battling his own controversies. A series of leaked audio recordings \u2013 made during a closed-door meeting \u2013 have been posted online and revealed him being critical of his own party<\/a> and campaign leaders in DC<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Paxton entered the race with a history of scandals. He was impeached by the Texas state legislature in 2023<\/a> on allegations including bribery and abuse of public trust, though he was later acquitted. Paxton\u2019s wife of almost four decades, Angela Paxton, then filed for divorce in 2025 on \u201cbiblical grounds\u201d, citing adultery.<\/p>\n

But Trump endorsed Paxton to run against Talarico, passing up incumbent Republican John Cornyn.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"James Talarico, the Texas Democratic nominee for Senate, sat face to face with several undecided voters who grilled…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":466407,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-466406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466406","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=466406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466406\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/466407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=466406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=466406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=466406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}