James Talarico sat down with Fox News. Then he backtracked on several of his past comments: ‘Obviously didn’t say it correctly’

James Talarico, a Democrat running for the U.S. Senate in Texas, sat for a Fox News interview at a grocery drive campaign stop in Dallas. During that conversation, he discussed earlier remarks and recorded votes from his years in the Texas House.

He is facing Republican Ken Paxton, the state’s attorney general. Fox News polling has described the contest as surprisingly close heading into the Nov. 3 general election. The interview took place as a GOP midterm convention opened a short distance away in downtown Dallas.

When asked if he would support a nationwide ban on gender surgery for minors as a senator, Talarico said, “Absolutely.” He also said, “I’ve been consistent on this issue.”

Talarico revisits earlier Texas House votes on sports eligibility and medical bills

Talarico said a Texas measure aimed at banning transgender surgeries on minors “was overly broad,” which is why he opposed it. He said, “If you go back and check, I voted for a major amendment to limit the bill to banning surgeries for minors.”

He said, “As a lawmaker, my job is to try to sift through everything the bill does. And sometimes there’s stuff in it that’s really harmful, and I have no choice but to oppose the bill as a whole.” He added, “It’s why I try to use amendments, to narrow the focus of the bill so that it does exactly what we intend it to do.” He said the amendment he backed did not pass.

As a Texas House member in 2023, Talarico voted against SB 14. That bill barred certain gender surgery, puberty blockers, and certain hormone treatments for minors. Democrats offered 18 amendments. Talarico supported each of them, and none of them passed.

Talarico said the presence of men in women’s sports is a significant issue in Texas. He said, “I oppose trans athletes playing in girls’ sports if it endangers safety or fairness.” He also said, “Every sport has to be safe and fair. As a former public school teacher, I care a lot about our student athletes. I care a lot about our students. And so, I will oppose trans athletes playing in girls’ sports if it risks safety or fairness.”

In 2021, while on the Texas House Public Education Committee, he opposed SB 29, a proposal that would have required public-school athletes to compete according to the biological sex on their birth certificate. He called that issue a “manufactured problem.” Later in 2021, he voted against HB 25, which put similar limits into state law.

Talarico also discussed a 2021 floor speech he gave while opposing a bill meant to keep men out of women’s sports. At that time, he said, “God is both masculine and feminine and everything in between. God is non-binary.”

“I was being provocative with that statement. I get that,” Talarico said. He said, “What I was trying to say is that you can’t use human categories to define God, and that’s not controversial theologically. In fact, the late Charlie Kirk, the late Pope Benedict all said the same thing.”

Talarico said, “these comments are being clipped out of context to try to distract from Ken Paxton’s career of corruption.” Paxton’s conduct has drawn scrutiny, such as when a caller confronted him during a town hall about cheating on his wife.

He also said, “You mentioned [Paxton] being acquitted in the state Senate. That was after two of his billionaire megadonors gave the lieutenant governor a $3 million check to buy his acquittal.” He described Paxton as “the most corrupt politician in Texas.” Fox News Digital contacted the Paxton campaign for a response.

On an earlier comment about there being more than two genders, Talarico said he does not now believe there are six sexes. “I’ve missed the mark on some of my past statements. I will be the first to admit it,” he said. He also said, “What I meant is that there are two sexes, and then there’s a small percentage of people with genetic abnormalities.”

“Obviously didn’t say it correctly. There are not six sexes. There are two, and I think the reason that politicians in that convention center across the street want to talk about six sexes is because they don’t want to talk about $6 diesel,” he said.

Talarico called the Supreme Court “infected” with corruption and said it “needs to be overhauled.” He said that if he wins, “You’re going to expect that I will vote for overhaul to the Supreme Court. That will include binding codes of conduct for our justices. It’ll include term limits, and I am open to a discussion about expanding the number of justices.”

He said affordability would be his focus through Election Day. “Everywhere I go across the state of Texas, people are struggling to survive in this economy. They are struggling to afford the basics: groceries, gas, utilities, healthcare. And that’s what I’m going to be focused on from now until Election Day.”

Talarico said “we should not have a state income tax” in Texas. He earlier voted against a proposal to permanently ban a state income tax and suggested the measure was redundant and an example of “government waste at its worst.” Lawmakers later passed that measure, and Texas voters approved it in November 2019. Talarico has also faced political pushback, as when Republicans tried to mock him with a nickname he then put on a T-shirt and started selling.