"Mr. Vance, who just published a book about his conversion to Catholicism, has for weeks been road-testing unfounded, innuendo-based salvos against Mr. Talarico, a Presbyterian seminarian."

"At the Republicans’ midterm convention in Dallas last month, the vice president suggested that Mr. Talarico’s past statements supporting transgender children were evidence of inappropriate behavior. 'A guy that age who is so obsessed and focused on transgender children, I don’t know about you, but I never want to see that guy’s web browser history,' Mr. Vance said. People in the crowd gasped and murmured. Some clapped. Mr. Vance has defended those comments. 'I think typically people who say stuff like that tend to have some pretty unusual search histories,' he said a day later. Mr. Talarico, who has said he has a longtime girlfriend, has largely ignored the vice president’s insinuations...."

From "Vance’s Talarico Attacks Show His Penchant for Personal Broadsides/At a rally in Texas, the vice president suggested the Democratic Senate nominee is gay, a comment criticized as homophobic" (NYT).

Tweet found after prompting A.I. with "get me up to speed on the Talarico-had-a-nervous-breakdown craze."

I’ve never even been to Ohio 😂

— James Talarico (@jamestalarico) October 12, 2026

What?! Never been to Ohio? That's got to be disqualifying. How can we have a Senator who's never been to Ohio?

Parody opportunity:

My contribution to the parody contest:

"We have to understand... that these violent hierarchies, these systems, white supremacy, heteropatriarchy, economic exploitation, have colonized our own minds."

"... especially for the white educators..."

James Talarico telling White teachers on a zoom call that "white supremacy and hetero-patriarchy have colonized their minds"…

This guy is not a moderate.
He’s full woke 1.0 insanity. pic.twitter.com/FxSTb7opT2

— Geiger Capital (@Geiger_Capital) October 5, 2026

I'd like to see him asked why he used this jargon and if he was sincere at the time and would he stand by it now. Perhaps he can restate language like "violent hierarchies" and "colonized minds" in a way that mainstream Texan voters can relate to. Ask him!

I asked Grok to write Talarico's answer to my question and got this: "I taught in a poor school where the kids were mostly not white. A lot of us who grew up middle-class, including me, walked in with assumptions that didn’t match what those students were dealing with—family stress, neighborhood crime, schools funded by local property taxes that leave the poorest districts behind. If you’re going to help those kids, you have to notice your own blind spots instead of pretending the system is already fair. That’s all I was trying to say.”

"To understand the religious dynamics of the Texas race, it’s important to absorb the true depths of the 'God gap' in American politics."

Writes David French, in "The ‘God Gap’ Is Narrowing in Texas" (NYT).

That gap isn’t just about white evangelicals (although it certainly is partly about them), and it’s one of the Democrats’ chief obstacles to obtaining a durable political majority. Any discussion of the God gap does have to begin with white evangelicals. Their numbers are vast (far more than twice as large as Black Protestants, the most loyal religious Democratic voters), and they vote in lock step. In 2024, white evangelicals voted for Trump by a 65-point margin, 82 percent to 17 percent. Trump lost all other voters by 18 points, 58 percent to 40 percent....

A Texas conversation.

Paxton:

James Talarico is a conman who believes in sex change surgeries for kids.

His favorite drag queen even grooms children. pic.twitter.com/D7fNvdvDD1

— Attorney General Ken Paxton (@KenPaxtonTX) September 17, 2026

A response from the Texas drag queen Tarico named as his favorite:

"After Trump’s 11th-hour endorsement of Texas attorney general and all-in Trump sycophant Ken Paxton..."

"...who was impeached for multiple charges of abuse of office, investigated on felony security charges, and dogged by adulterous sexual imbroglios, the slippery MAGA sleazebag still went on to pulverize Senate old-timer John Cornyn in the Republican primary on Tuesday. And yet, liberal cableheads deconstructing the results keep recycling the point that, somehow this was good news. Millions of dollars, they chortled, will now have to be diverted from other imperiled Republicans to defend a Senate seat that, for four terms, had been occupied by the beloved party elder Cornyn and now will be in play against the Democrats’ latest Texan mirage and Colbert candidate James Talarico. When has Trump ever found it difficult to raise millions of dollars, especially against a Senate candidate who tweeted in 2021 that his office was 'the first in the history of the (Texas) Capitol to put pronouns on their business cards?' Paxton was already on a roll in his victory speech, immediately branding his Presbyterian seminarian opponent 'James Talafreako,' 'Six-Gender Jimmy,' and 'Tofu Talarico'...."

From "Trump’s Sweet Vengeance" by Tina Brown (at Substack).

Paxton wins and gives us a dose of his comedy stylings.

Ken Paxton just put on a 30-second comedy routine for his audience, as he debuted his favorite nicknames for his radical Democrat opponent, James Talarico.

The crowd was loving every second of this!

PAXTON: “My opponent is the most extreme radical the Democrats have ever… pic.twitter.com/kvEtsoyKmY

— Overton (@overton_news) May 27, 2026

I know some people seem to think that's hilarious. I don't see the value of kicking someone around for being a vegan. You'll say but Althouse is not a Texan. I sort of am though.

AND: Paxton's satirizing of Talarico doesn't work on me, but Talarico just being Talarico strikes me as hilarious:

James Talarico: "I am proud to say that our campaign has officially become a non-meat campaign. We are only buying vegan products from our local vegan businesses." #TXsenpic.twitter.com/SkZZ05IXMj

— Lone Star Liberty PAC (@LoneStar_PAC) May 27, 2026

Trump starts tearing into Talarico, pivots to "Newscum," and ends with "Kamala is back!"

A new Truth Social post from Trump (boldface mine):

The Democrat running in Texas, James Talarico, turns out to be a FRAUD! It showed after the Election when he beat Low IQ Candidate Jasmine Crockett (No relation to Davy Crockett!). He’s got six Genders, insults to Jesus, only vegan food, was wearing a mask in 2023 and 2024, and is a weak, ineffective guy who we “allowed” to win prior to releasing the avalanche of information we had on him because, as bad as Crockett was as a Candidate, this guy is worse! I believe that any human being running against him, sick, incompetent, close to death or, even a child, would win. He may be the Worst Candidate I have ever seen, other than, of course, Gavin Newscum who admitted that he suffers from mental incapacity, is unable to read a speech, and is dumb but, in saying “the dumb comment,” referred to his audience, and therefore became, in the eyes of African Americans, A TOTAL RACIST — which is probably true! Gavin admits that he’s a Low IQ individual, which typically is not good for winning the Presidency. His interview may have been the worst ever given by a “professional” politician. I believe, it takes him OUT OF THE RACE. Kamala is back! President DONALD J. TRUMP

Also, Trump has a Truth post with a video from the new "Saturday Night Live UK," the same clip I discussed and passed along in my first post of the morning, here. So we're already discussing that clip in the comments over there, where Rabel wrote: "Unflattering representation of Starmer. Shows him living up to the 'coward' claim. Minimal bashing of Trump. It wasn't especially funny but I agree with the message in the attempted humour."

"Both John and Ken ran great races, but not good enough. Now, this one, must be PERFECT!"

"My Endorsements within the Republican Party have been virtually insurmountable! It is such an honor to realize and say that almost everyone I Endorse WINS, and wins by a lot, especially in Texas! I will be making my Endorsement soon, and will be asking the candidate that I don’t Endorse to immediately DROP OUT OF THE RACE! Is that fair? We must win in November!!! Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DONALD J. TRUMP."

At Truth Social, this afternoon, the day after the Texas primary, where neither John Cornyn nor Ken Paxton got enough votes to avoid a runoff.

I assume that Trump is talking to both men and stating the condition that he won't endorse them unless they promise they'll drop out if he picks the other guy. 

And I assume Trump's main concern is simply that a Republican win, but is that Cornyn or Paxton? I'll withhold my opinion. Here's a poll:

Which Republican is more likely to beat Talarico in the Texas Senate race?

Cornyn

Paxton

 

pollcode.com free polls

ADDED:

The real victim is Jasmine Crockett.

I'm reading "The Colbert-CBS spat is about overregulation/Keeping the equal-time rule in place is a political choice" — gift link. That's by the Editorial Board of The Washington Post.

I remember writing about FCC regulation when I was a law student — I graduated in 1981 — and even back then the argument was made that times have changed and the basis for regulation — the scarcity of the airwaves — was being overtaken by technology — then, cable TV. I remember using the phrase "based on a future that has not yet arrived," because cable TV was expensive and it wasn't even available everywhere. But now, it's 45 years later, and the FCC is still pressuring broadcast media avoid the most egregious sort of political imbalance.

The equal-time rule hasn’t been vigorously enforced in recent years, reflecting its obsolescence. But as with many outdated business regulations, Congress hasn’t bothered to revoke it.

"My implicit equation of attention is: Curiosity plus conflict equals attention."

Says Ezra Klein, in his podcast, which is titled "Can James Talarico Reclaim Christianity for the Left?" (NYT).

Talarico is on the podcast because, as Klein puts it, he "was breaking through on TikTok, Instagram and viral videos" and "ended up on Joe Rogan’s podcast — the first significant Democrat that Rogan seemed interested in, in a very long time."

And now "Talarico is running for Senate in Texas. He’s running in a primary with Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett...." There's no other mention of Crockett in the article. Why not? Talarico was never invited to speak against her, but this podcast is clearly boosting him, which is inherently against her. I presume hardcore Democrats, focused on winning the Texas Senate seat, don't want Crockett to win the primary.

The question isn't really Can James Talarico Reclaim Christianity for the Left? It's Can James Talarico Seize the Nomination from Crockett?

Ezra Klein says: "The biggest concern I hear about you in Texas is that you’re sort of a liberal’s idea of what a Christian politician should be." 

And, really, we all know the way liberals use Christianity... whether they make viral video or not. But Talarico has advanced to where he is because he put the standard argument into the form of viral video.

But the Talarico's video that's out there includes things that can be cherry-picked and used against him. Klein confronts him with clips that were used in an attack ad against him (not by Crockett, but by another candidate, Terry Virts, who has dropped out). 

Talarico Clip 1: Modern science obviously recognizes that there are many more than two biological sexes. In fact, there are six.

Talarico Clip 2: God is nonbinary. I find this to be a deeply offensive bill.

Voice-over: James Talarico is talking about the bill that would ban biological men from playing in women’s sports. Remember this ad?

Voice-over from archival clip: Biological men compete against our girls in their sports. Kamala is for they/them.

Voice-over: The same ads will be played by Ken Paxton. The result will be: U.S. Senator Ken Paxton. James Talarico owes it to us to tell us how he’s going to answer these attack ads.

Klein asks: "So how are you going to answer those attack ads?" And Talarico stalls for time: "Man, the music was real scary." Which isn't how you're going to answer successfully.

Klein has to push him even to try to answer. He says: "You can talk about love all you want. But the idea is to say you’re out of step with Texans, and they’re not going to feel loved by someone they feel doesn’t agree with them."

And then Talarico talks not about Christianity or love, but about local control of decisionmaking and "common sense."