Beto O'Rourke ran the most expensive Senate campaign in Texas history and still lost by nearly three points.
James Talarico is trying to finish what Beto started, but Trump just found the perfect weapon to stop him.
And Trump’s PAC just used James Talarico’s own mouth to blow up his Texas Senate campaign.
The Quotes That Could End His Campaign
MAGA Inc. – the super PAC aligned with President Donald Trump – dropped a devastating ad across Texas this week, and it didn't need a single spin doctor.
It just played the tape.
"There are many more than two biological sexes," the ad quoted Talarico saying. "There are six."
Then it got worse.
"Jesus Christ Himself was a radical feminist. God is nonbinary. I always think of myself as a Christian who hates Christianity," he said.
https://twitter.com/teddyschleifer/status/2103511409854239020?s=20
The narrator didn't need to editorialize much: "Six sexes?! Jesus a radical feminist?! A Christian who hates Christianity? Liberal weirdo James Talarico: too loco for Texas."
This isn't opposition research.
These are Talarico's own words, spoken on the record, now airing on Texas TV sets from El Paso to Beaumont.
He Already Tried to Walk It Back
Here's what the mainstream media won't tell you: Talarico already knew these quotes were toxic.
When CBS News confronted him earlier this year about calling God nonbinary, he folded immediately – claiming he was "being intentionally provocative."
He admitted some past statements "missed the mark."
On the six biological sexes claim, he reversed himself entirely – telling CBS, "I know there are two sexes, men and women."
That reversal is the tell.
Nobody walks back a position this dramatically unless they know it's a political grenade.
https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/2103962221323686272?s=20
The problem for Talarico is that you can't un-ring a bell.
Texans are watching an ad that plays his own voice saying things he now refuses to defend – and the timing couldn't be worse.
Trump Committed to Closing the Gap
This ad is part of a bigger push.
MAGA Inc. committed $10 million to the Texas Senate race on September 5 – the PAC's first major general election expenditure of the 2026 cycle.
Half goes toward boosting Paxton.
Half goes toward destroying Talarico's image.
Elon Musk's America PAC has thrown in another $1.4 million on top of that.
The financial cavalry is arriving late – but it's arriving with a target.
Talarico raised over $72 million to Paxton's $16.8 million and dominated Texas television all summer while Republicans waited on MAGA Inc. to engage.
Democrats outspent the GOP by roughly seven to one since June – buying Talarico the narrow polling lead he carries into fall.
That's the Marist poll at plus-six.
The Texas Southern poll at plus-one, 47 to 46.
All of it built on a carefully crafted faith-and-moderation pitch that Trump's PAC just torched with Talarico's own voice.
Those polls were conducted before this ad started running.
Why This Strategy Works
No Democrat has won a statewide Texas race since 1988.
That's 38 years of consecutive losses in a state Democrats have been convinced is flipping for the last decade.
Beto lost.
Wendy Davis lost.
Every "Texas is turning blue" prediction has been wrong.
What made Talarico different – at least in theory – was his appeal to religious voters.
He's a Presbyterian seminarian working toward a Master of Divinity degree.
He quotes Scripture.
He talks about Jesus constantly.
https://twitter.com/RyanAFournier/status/2103988233839501692?s=20
His entire brand is "faithful Democrat."
Now Trump's PAC has ripped that apart by making Talarico's own words contradict his pitch.
A candidate who claims Christian faith while telling a transgender podcast host he "always thinks of himself as a Christian who hates Christianity" doesn't get to run as the religious candidate.
The "weird" attack worked in 2024.
It worked against Tim Walz.
It works because it captures something voters feel before they can articulate it.
When you hear a Senate candidate say God is nonbinary and Jesus was a radical feminist – and you're a Texas voter who goes to church on Sunday – something feels deeply wrong.
Texas conservatives don't just disagree with these positions.
They find them genuinely offensive.
With five weeks until Election Day on November 3, this ad is designed to make that offense follow Talarico into every living room in the state.
That's not spin.
That's the tape.
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