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Texas state Rep. James Talarico, who recently won the Democratic [leftist] nomination for U.S. Senate, once advocated for federal land leases to abortion providers and referred to Jesus as a “barefoot rabbi,” a phrase that appears on his Senate campaign site.
In a 2022 address delivered at the Texas Democratic [leftist] Convention in Dallas, Talarico, a Presbyterian seminary student and former public school teacher, blended personal stories of resilience with a forceful call for Democrats to confront what he described as an existential threat to democracy. He invoked his experiences teaching on San Antonio’s West Side, his mother’s escape from domestic abuse, and Texas Democratic icons to urge aggressive action against “Trumpism” and “fascism.”
Talarico lambasted national Democratic leaders at the time for what he called a lack of resolve in contrast with Texas Democrats’ scrappiness, exemplified by political figures like former President Lyndon Baines Johnson, state Sens. Barbara Jordan and Wendy Davis, and former U.S. Rep. Robert 'Beto' O’Rourke.
“The Democratic Party is the only thing standing between this country and fascism, yet the most our national party leaders can muster is spineless talking points and soulless fundraising emails,” he said. “National Democrats, you know, the ones who fly into Texas to fundraise and then don’t spend a penny of that money in our state. They don’t know how to fight.”
He urged then-President Joe Biden, whom he said “saved our nation” from President Donald Trump following the 2020 election, to once and for all 'restore its soul by defeating Trumpism.' “We need you and our nation’s leaders to start using every tool in the toolbox to protect our freedom. Lease federal land to abortion providers, declare a public health emergency, impeach justices who lied under oath, prosecute Trump and his fellow insurrectionists, and finally, call the filibuster what it is, a Jim Crow relic that’s standing between the American people and cheap prescription drugs, universal pre-K and a livable planet.”
In his speech, Talarico framed the political fight in explicitly Christian terms, referring to Jesus as “a barefoot rabbi” who gave two commandments: love God and love neighbor. A review by The Christian Post of Talarico’s campaign website found additional references to Jesus as a “barefoot rabbi.”
CP reached out to Talarico’s campaign for comment on Tuesday.
The 2022 speech, which Talarico has echoed in his current Senate campaign materials emphasizing a “top versus bottom” divide and the need to “flip tables” of injustice, has resurfaced following his victory over U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX), in the March 3 Democratic primary. He now awaits the winner of the May 26 Republican runoff between incumbent Sen. John Cornyn and Attorney General Ken Paxton.
In a March 13 interview on Fox News’ “The Brian Kilmeade Show,” Trump took aim at Talarico’s campaign, calling the candidate “whacked out with his six different forms of gender.” The president appeared to refer to a 2021 statement by Talarico in which he said God is “both masculine, feminine and everything in between.”
Calling Talarico’s statement an “insult to Jesus,” Trump added, “He is so woke. He’s beyond woke. … When you see what this guy said about gender and about other topics …” While Trump has backed off an earlier pledge to endorse in the May 3 runoff vote between Cornyn and Paxton, he called Talarico’s defeat of Crockett “good news” for either candidate.
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