Texas Democrat James Talarico wants voters to believe he stands against gender reassignment surgeries for minors. What he does not want them to remember is that he voted against the law that actually banned those procedures, and argued on the Texas House floor that doctors had a "moral obligation" to provide gender-transition treatments to children.
Talarico, a former state representative now running for U.S. Senate against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, made the claim during a recent podcast appearance. "I oppose gender reassignment surgeries for minors," he said. The line sounds like common sense. But the legislative record from just two years earlier paints a starkly different picture.
During the 2023 Texas House debate over SB 14, legislation prohibiting gender-transition procedures and treatments for children and barring the use of public money to fund them, Talarico took to the floor to argue against the bill. Clips from that debate show him making the case that restricting these treatments could lead to suicide and psychological harm among minors.
"Before this bill was filed, there was plenty of evidence that not treating extreme gender dysphoria can not only lead to suicide, but can lead to psychological and physical harm to a child, and since this bill is filed, the New England Journal of Medicine released a study of 350 young people with gender dysphoria who were receiving hormonal therapy, and it showed that that therapy reduced anxiety and depression... I'm asking us to follow that evidence, follow that science, and I'm disturbed that this body is not willing to let doctors make these decisions."
He went further, asserting that physicians had a "moral obligation" under the "Hippocratic oath" to treat children's gender dysphoria. He then voted against SB 14.
That vote was not a close call for Talarico. He did not agonize publicly over a difficult policy question. He framed the bill's supporters as the ones doing harm, and at one point described denying children sex-change treatments as "child abuse."
The 2023 floor speech was not an isolated moment. Talarico's public record on gender ideology stretches back years and runs deep.
In 2021, during a Texas House public education committee meeting, he claimed that "modern science" recognizes "six" biological sexes. That same year, he announced that his office was the first in the state Capitol's history to "add pronouns to our official business cards."
He has repeatedly referred to women as "neighbors with a uterus." He has said that biological men need abortion care. He has supported allowing males to compete on female sports teams based on gender identity. And on "A Superbloom Podcast," when host Candice King asked him to name something he loves besides friends or family, Talarico's answer was revealing:
"I love, and I'm just going to say this because it's on my mind, the trans children who showed up yesterday at the State Capitol to advocate for their humanity. They shouldn't have to, but it was an inspiration to watch."
None of this is the record of a man who has been quietly skeptical of the gender-transition movement. It is the record of one of its most vocal legislative allies in Texas.
So why the sudden moderation? The answer is obvious enough: Talarico is no longer running in a deep-blue state House district. He is running statewide in Texas, against Ken Paxton, for a U.S. Senate seat. The electorate is different. The stakes are higher. And a candidate who called it "child abuse" to deny minors sex-change treatments cannot win a general election in Texas without some creative distance from his own words.
The repositioning extends beyond gender issues. In March, Talarico defended past comments suggesting God is "non-binary" after podcast host Tim Miller pressed him on the subject. He conceded the remark had been "provocative" politically but insisted the underlying theology was unremarkable, saying, "Most Christians believe that God is beyond gender." That framing may play well in a seminary seminar. It is a harder sell in a state where most churchgoers hold traditional views on both God and biology.
He also asserted that Paxton and Sen. Ted Cruz were "in no position to tell anybody what a real man is." Whatever voters make of that jab, it does not erase the legislative trail Talarico left behind.
Republican National Committee spokesman Zach Kraft did not hold back in a statement provided to Breitbart News. Kraft called Talarico's record on children and gender ideology deeply troubling:
"James Talarico is a world class creep who has spent years thinking about what is in little kids' pants. Implying that suicide is an option for children if they don't want to get a sex change is disgusting and raises concerns about what sort of twisted material is on Talarico's hard drives."
The language is sharp, but the underlying point tracks the public record. Talarico did invoke the risk of child suicide as an argument against restricting gender-transition treatments. He did vote against the ban. And he did build a years-long record of embracing gender ideology in its most progressive forms, from "six biological sexes" to pronouns on government business cards to males on girls' sports teams.
Texas SB 14, the legislation Talarico opposed, addressed the provision of gender-transition procedures and treatments to minors. Its text dealt with "prohibitions on the provision to certain children of procedures and treatments for gender transitioning, gender reassignment, or gender dysphoria and on the use of public money or public assistance to provide those procedures and treatments."
The bill passed over Talarico's objection. Texas joined a growing list of states drawing a line between adult autonomy and the medical treatment of children who cannot legally consent to a tattoo, let alone irreversible hormonal or surgical interventions.
Talarico now says he agrees, at least on surgeries. But the law he voted against covered more than surgery. It covered hormonal treatments, the very therapies he championed on the House floor by citing a study of 350 young people. His current position, if taken at face value, would still leave the door open to puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones for minors, the interventions that constitute the vast majority of pediatric gender-transition medicine.
This is the sleight of hand at the center of Talarico's repositioning. By narrowing his stated opposition to "gender reassignment surgeries," he can sound moderate while preserving the broader framework he fought for in 2023. Most voters hearing "I oppose gender reassignment surgeries for minors" will assume that means he opposes the whole enterprise. His record says otherwise.
He argued that doctors have a moral obligation to treat children's gender dysphoria with hormones. He called withholding those treatments child abuse. He voted against the ban. And now he wants credit for opposing the one narrow category, surgery, that even many progressive health systems in Europe have begun restricting.
Talarico is a Presbyterian seminarian and a former teacher. He speaks fluently about faith, science, and compassion. Those are fine qualities in a candidate. But fluency is not the same as consistency, and compassion is not a substitute for candor.
Texas voters weighing a Senate race deserve to know exactly what their candidates believe, not the polished version crafted for a general election audience, but the version that shows up on the House floor when the cameras are rolling and the votes are being cast.
On that floor in 2023, Talarico told his colleagues he was "disturbed" that they would not let doctors make decisions about children's gender transitions. He invoked the Hippocratic oath. He cited the New England Journal of Medicine. He voted no on the ban.
That is his record. A single podcast sentence does not rewrite it.
Voters can forgive a genuine change of heart. What they tend not to forgive is a candidate who hopes they were not paying attention the first time.