Talarico Pledges in Video to Use Senate Seat to Fight for Trans Children– www.breitbart.com
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EXCERPT:
Texas Democratic U.S. Senate nominee James Talarico told a woman posing as a supporter on Sept. 13 that his position on transgender issues “hasn’t changed,” according to an undercover video clip.
The recording, captured at Houston’s Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church, shows the Democrat responding to a woman who asked whether he would defend her “niece who is trans” and her ability to compete in women’s sports, the Daily Wire reported.
Talarico assured her he would carry his legislative record into the Senate.
“Always,” he said. “The way I fought for trans kids in the legislature is how I will fight for them in the U.S. Senate. And my position hasn’t changed.”
The candidate added that transgender sports eligibility should be handled locally and insisted his approach remained the broadest in the field.
“I still think these should be local decisions, sport by sport, athlete by athlete, and I think I have the most inclusive policy of any candidate who’s running,” Talarico said. “So I know things are getting clipped and stuff, but my views, my position hasn’t changed.”
The comments came four days after the Senate candidate told Fox News on Sept. 9 that he opposed transgender athletes in girls’ sports.
“Every sport has to be safe and fair,” Talarico said in the interview. “And so, I will oppose trans athletes playing in girls’ sports if it risks safety or fairness.”
During the same appearance, Talarico walked back his past claim that there are six biological sexes and pledged to “absolutely” support a national ban on gender-transition surgeries for minors. As a state representative, he voted against Senate Bill 14, the 2023 Texas law restricting such procedures, and against Senate Bill 29 in 2021, which would have tied school athletes to the sex on their birth certificates. He has previously argued that such restrictions stem from a “Christofascism movement.”
Jennifer Miranda, a manager with Texas Together and the Texas Democratic Party, characterized the shift as strategic in separate footage released by the outlet.
“Right now he’s trying to target a wider net, which unfortunately means being more palatable to Republicans here in Texas,” Miranda said. “He does believe the things that he’s said before.”
Rev. Babs Miller, a minister at Talarico’s longtime Austin church, predicted in her own recorded exchange that he would revert after the election.
Paxton campaign spokeswoman Madison Cercy claimed the footage confirmed the candidate’s record.
“James Talarico can’t outrun his own radical record, and this bombshell video proves it,” Cercy said. “Now, even he admits his position ‘hasn’t changed.’”
The footage follows separate undercover video obtained by Breitbart News showing Talarico’s pastor and mentor, Rev. Jim Rigby, welcoming atheists to his congregation. Talarico faces Republican Ken Paxton in November.