• What Happened: Texas Democrat James Talarico, who won the Senate nomination over Rep. Jasmine Crockett, once demanded Biden lease federal land to abortion providers and hire abortionists as federal employees. He calls Jesus a "barefoot rabbi" on his campaign website and has said God is "non-binary."
  • Why It Matters: Trump called him "whacked out" and "beyond woke." Both Cornyn and Paxton are going after him hard. Texas hasn't elected a Democrat to the Senate in over 30 years.
  • Bottom Line: Democrats picked their most radical Senate candidate in decades to try to flip Texas. Republicans could not have written a better opponent.

Texas Democrats had a choice. They picked James Talarico.

The 36-year-old state representative and Presbyterian seminary student beat Rep. Jasmine Crockett in the March 3 Democratic primary to become the party's Senate nominee in Texas. He will face either incumbent Sen. John Cornyn or Attorney General Ken Paxton after their May 26 Republican runoff. Texas has not elected a Democrat to the Senate in more than 30 years.

Republicans are already making clear what the general election will look like.

"He is a strange guy who quotes the Bible for support of abortion rights and says God is non-binary," Cornyn told Fox News. Paxton added that Talarico "thinks Christians are commanded to put boys in girls' sports." The NRSC called him "an open borders, Trump-hating radical who can never be allowed to set foot in the U.S. Senate."

Trump weighed in on Fox News' Brian Kilmeade Show in March, calling Talarico "whacked out with his six different forms of gender" and saying his views on God were "an insult to Jesus." "He is so woke. He's beyond woke," Trump said.

So what exactly has Talarico said? A lot.

In a 2022 speech at the Texas Democratic Convention, Talarico called on President Biden to "use every tool in the toolbox" after Roe v. Wade was overturned, including leasing "federal land to abortion providers" and declaring a public health emergency. He also called Biden a man of "deep faith" and declared that they both follow a "barefoot rabbi".

WATCH (Go to 6:33 for relevant comment)

He also sent a letter to Biden that same year demanding the federal government hire abortionists as federal employees to shield them from state lawsuits, and repurpose federal buildings across Texas as abortion facilities. "The General Services Administration manages more than 800 federally owned or leased buildings in Texas alone," he wrote. "Just repurposing a small fraction of those spaces can provide critical life-saving care to people across my state."

In 2021, on the Texas House floor, Talarico declared "God is non-binary" while opposing a bill banning men from women's sports. In a 2023 interview, he appeared to equate Christianity with Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam. He has used biblical language throughout to defend abortion rights.

His campaign website features Jesus described as "a barefoot rabbi" who "walked into the seat of power and flipped over the tables of injustice," with Talarico casting himself as the political heir to that mission. His grandfather, he says, was a Baptist preacher who taught him to follow the barefoot rabbi's two commandments: love God and love neighbor.

In his same 2022 convention speech, Talarico called national Democratic leaders spineless, demanded Biden "impeach justices who lied under oath," prosecute Trump and his "fellow insurrectionists," and abolish the filibuster, which he called "a Jim Crow relic."

He has also posted on social media that "radicalized white men are the greatest domestic terrorist threat in our country."

Talarico frames all of it through a Christian lens, describing his political fight as a continuation of Jesus overturning the money changers' tables. Republicans are framing it as a roadmap for exactly why Texas will stay red in November.