Who Is James Talarico and Why Is He So Dangerous?

James Talarico is a 36-year-old former public school teacher who has served in the Texas House of Representatives since 2018. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in government from the University of Texas at Austin and a Master of Education degree in education policy from Harvard University.

Pretty impressive… but pretty liberal, too.

In 2022, Talarico began pursuing a Master of Divinity degree at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, which is affiliated with the ultra-liberal Presbyterian Church (USA). Unlike the far-more conservative and biblically-sound Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), the PCUSA supports the ordination of women, affirms same-sex marriage, and welcomes practicing gay and lesbian persons to serve in leadership positions as ministers, deacons, elders, and trustees.

In other words, the PCUSA is an apostate denomination, at least as far as these critical church teachings are concerned.

So, now you know where James Talarico is coming from spiritually-speaking. He is a wolf in sheep’s clothing; a theological heretic dressed in a finely tailored suit and tie… not to mention his Lucchese boots that retail for between $650 and $3,500 per pair.

Kinda pokes holes in his carefully-honed “I’m for the little guy” schtick, doesn’t it?

That would be bad enough if he were content to merely lead astray his fellow seminary students or God forbid, a church congregation if one was foolish enough to hire him. But James Talarico has much higher aspirations.

Earlier this month, he declared his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate seat currently occupied by Republican John Cornyn, who is facing a strong primary challenge from TX Attorney General Ken Paxton.

Talarico has an uphill battle for the nomination, with former Congressman and NFL linebacker Colin Allred considered the frontrunner after losing to incumbent Sen. Ted Cruz last year by 8.5 points. Retired astronaut Terry Virts has also declared his candidacy, and former U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke and U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro of San Antonio are also considering entering the race.

However, Talarico has captured the imagination of many young voters, including some theologically-challenged and doctrinally-shallow Christians, and his appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast has made him a household name. In fact, Talarico’s marathon 2-hour and 41-minute sit-down interview with Rogan – during which the host told him he “needs to run for president” – catapulted the Alfred E. Newman lookalike to near-celebrity status.

Today, Talarico boasts 1.2 million TikTok followers, about half the number that follow California Gov. Gavin Newsom and his massive digital machine. However, his legion of followers is larger than The Wall Street Journal’s and dwarfs the 73,000 who follow the Texas Democratic Party. Meanwhile, on Instagram, Talarico has five times as many followers as Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, although Abbott trounces Talarico on X.

So, why is Talarico so increasingly popular, especially in Democratic circles? If you ask me, it’s because he waters down Christianity to make everyone feel like their behavior, no matter how sinful, is acceptable to God.

Talarico is a dream come true for the Dems. They can now counter the Bible-toters on the evangelical right by trotting out a pseudo-Christian of their own, who justifies everything from abortion-on-demand to same-sex marriage… and supports his heresy with cherry-picked, out-of-context, and grossly misinterpreted and misapplied biblical passages. He also opposes school prayer and the posting of the Ten Commandments in public classrooms. 

For instance, just 20 minutes into his interview on The Joe Rogan Experience, Talarico twisted scripture in a vain attempt not only to justify abortion, but also to make the case that the Bible actually sanctions it.

According to Talarico, when the virgin Mary told the angel Gabriel in Luke 1:38, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word”, it was her way of saying that although God was giving her the option, she was choosing not to abort the Christ Child already forming in her womb.

That, my friend, is utter blasphemy!

The rest of Talarico’s platform is copied straight from the Democratic playbook: stoke class envy by demonizing the rich and then promise voters every freebie under the sun without saying how you are going to pay for those government giveaways (other than by raising taxes on the wealthy). Then, once the class warfare is in full bloom, blame your opponents for being divisive.

You would think that voters would know better than to buy what this snake oil salesman is peddling, but a recent Talarico campaign event drew roughly 200,000 online views. That just goes to show you that P.T. Barnum was right: There IS a sucker born every minute… and apparently, a whole lot of them live in Austin or spend entirely too much time watching TikTok videos.