GOP One Bad Poll Away From Shouting Outright Gay Slurs At James Talarico
No, it doesn't matter that Talarico isn't gay ... I mean, 'vegan.'
Ken Paxton predictably crushed John Cornyn this week in the Texas Senate primary runoff, sending the incumbent senator into retirement. It wasn’t particularly close, despite some recent polling: Paxton won 63.8 percent of the vote to Cornyn’s humiliating 36.2. Republican voters overwhelmingly rejected Cornyn and abandoned all the benefits of his seniority. That’s probably a greater blow than losing a general election in a year that’s bad for your party overall. Losing a primary feels like a personal rejection from what was once your most loyal constituents. Cornyn debased himself for Trump’s support, and it ended pretty much as it always does, in betrayal and humiliation. I’d almost feel sorry for Cornyn but my summer is already starting to fill up.
Paxton, the state’s attorney general, is a perpetual corruption machine who was impeached by the Republican-controlled state House on multiple charges. His senior staff reported him to the FBI for using his position to help a major donor. State Sen. Angela Paxton, who willingly married him, filed for divorce last year on “biblical grounds,” which specifically refers to adultery, though he’s probably not on familiar grounds with the most of the 10 Commandments.
Not long after the runoff was called for Paxton, Democrats started to rejoice, suggesting that Paxton’s upset victory makes it more likely that Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico could prevail in November. This immediately triggered flashbacks to 2016 when so many of my fellow liberals celebrated Donald Trump’s primary win because they were certain he was so unfit that Hillary Clinton would win in a landslide. I am no fan of John Cornyn, but he’s obviously preferable to Ken Paxton, just as Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, or even Ted Cruz would’ve been better than Trump.
Of course, Hillary Clinton was up against decades of right-wing smears and demonization, but on the other hand, Talarico made public statements on video during the Great Awokening Period — one that might still continue to claim liberal casualties.
In a 2021 speech defending trans rights, Talarico said, “God is both masculine and feminine and everything in between. God is nonbinary.” This greatly offended Republicans who insist God is either George Burns or Morgan Freeman. (They won’t acknowledge the Alanis Morissette version.)
Tuesday night, Republican National Committee Chair Joe Gruters exclaimed, “Tala-freako is a creep. He’s a vegan. He thinks God is nonbinary. He wants to mutilate children.” The childish playground nickname shows how Trump has left a permanent stain on our politics.
The vegan “smear” is perhaps rooted in remarks Talarico made during his 2022 re-election to the Texas House of Representatives. He announced — again on video — that his campaign was reducing its meat consumption to help fight climate change.”
“I am proud to say that our campaign has officially become a non-meat campaign,” Talarico said. “We are only buying vegan products from our local vegan businesses.” He’s wearing a mask in the clip that’s circulating, which I suspect won’t help. Obviously, Texas, whose state animal is the brisket, is not where you want to discuss reducing meat consumption.
Talarico has confirmed that he’s not personally a vegan. He told the MeidasTouch Podcast, “I’m an eighth-generation Texan. I’ve been eating barbecue since before Ken Paxton’s first indictment.” He’s even shared photos of himself eating barbecue.
Ted Cruz, soon to be the senior senator from Texas, claimed that the barbecue in the photo was probably a “tofu log.” (I think it’s a turkey leg.) They’re really going all in on this.
Honestly, it’s not a great image, as no one ever looks good eating messy barbecue. Well … there’s a 1994 X-Files episode where Mulder and Scully eat ribs, and Gillian Anderson with barbecue sauce on her fingers and cheek made 20-year-old me weep. (Watch below.)
During his victory speech, Ken Paxton condemned Talarico as a “threat to our very way of life and our values. I mean, he’s a vegan who thinks God is nonbinary.” It’s hilarious that Paxton would pit his own “values” against any other upright mammal.
The Paxton campaign immediately released an ad declaring Talarico a “radical” who’s “too low-T for Texas.” Yes, that’s a reference to testosterone. (This is what happens when you let Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in the White House.)
The right-wing Club for Growth released an ad that introduced Talarico as a “woke weirdo” with “he/it/their” pronouns. Paxton might’ve cheated on his wife and broken several laws, but Talarico once admitted, “I was a big nerd in high school. I never played sports.” There’s no room for vegan theatre kids in Texas!
A Republican strategist, in between maniacal laughter, explained the party’s anti-Talarico plan to The Independent: “Nobody’s laid a glove on Talarico in any meaningful way. Right-wing cable and online noise only move the needle so far. By November he’ll be defined as an emasculated vegan dweeb. It won’t be pretty.”
“Emasculated vegan dweeb” is obvious coded language for “gay,” and some of the worst people alive aren’t bothering with dog whistles. Stephen Miller shared a photo of Talarico and posted, “The Democrats made history in Texas by nominating their first transgender senate candidate.” Those are bold words coming from someone who looks as if he were a failed lab experiment.
It’s clear that Republicans plan to run against Talarico as if he’s gay, regardless of whether he is or not. Bigots aren’t known for their scruples. They want voters, especially Latino men, to feel ashamed to even consider voting for Talarico — sort of like the anti-electric car propaganda in a classic Simpsons episode. (Watch below.)
This is Texas in 2026, so I am either cynical or realistic enough to worry this will start to stick. Talarico is soft-featured, dare I say “delicate,” like an unseen tragic character in a Tennessee Williams play, and a 24 hours hadn’t even passed before Talarico was put on the defensive.
During a CBS News interview, Talarico was pressed about his woke transgressions as if he were the one who’d committed securities fraud, bribery, and adultery. He told Ed O’Keefe, “There are some statements that I've made that I certainly regret. There are statements that I've made where I've missed the mark. I'll be the first to admit that. But Ken Paxton is intentionally clipping my cringey comments to distract from his career of corruption.”
On the upside, Talarico seems prepared for a fight. When O’Keefe asked him about the GOP’s juvenile “Talafreako” nickname, he said:
“If Ken Paxton is worried about freaks, he should stop giving Epstein-style sweetheart deals to pedophiles. This is the guy who just released Adam Hoffman from jail, an admitted child rapist, after one of Ken Paxton’s wealthy lawyer friends got involved in the case.
Ken Paxton even kept him off the sex offender registry. Adam Hoffman was supposed to serve 25 years to life, but instead he served less than a month. As of this week, he’s now back on our streets because of Ken Paxton’s corruption.
Ken Paxton is the most corrupt politician in America, and it is costing Texans, it’s endangering our children, and it must end. The Epstein class has no place in Texas.”
That’s the fire Talarico will need to show against a bigoted, petty GOP. Let’s hope it’s enough.
I'd like to think that Talarico has a fighting chance, but I'm afraid that Texas has so embraced Trumpian politics that it will be an uphill climb. In fact, it may actually work to the advantage of Paxton that he is a known fraudster and felon and sex creep. It worked for Trump, right?
There are two things Talarico needs to do to win this:
1) Define yourself to the voters before Republicans do (and this should’ve started much earlier but Democrats be Democratting). Big tours, free media and ads everywhere showing him playing with kids, preaching Gospel, friends talking about how he helped them fix their truck—it’s harder to undo an impression than it is to create one.
2) Destroy Paxton. Make “P3” a thing—“Paxton Protects Pedophiles”. Get every surrogate out in the black and Hispanic communities talking about this until no one can think of anything else. Turn everything around on him: “gee, I guess he has a problem with a guy eating vegetables, maybe he just thinks vegetables are to be used for sodomizing children, like the pedophiles he keeps protecting like to do.”
3) Bonus tip—Trump is underwater in Texas. Keep attacking Trump for making your gas and food more expensive and looting your tax dollars and screwing up health care! Saddle Paxton with Trump and set a clear line for voters.