Democrat Texas Senate candidate James Talarico did a CNN town hall on Wednesday night.
In it, he went all in trying to sell himself as a "moderate" — despite his long history of extreme, leftist positions. It was almost insulting, given how gullible he thinks we Texas voters are, that we would fall for this.
We already noted his wild response at the town hall on abortion. But here are some of the other issues.
1. Oil, gas, and capitalism
“I will stand up to my own party if they mess with our oil and gas industry, and I will stand up to the other party if they mess with renewables,” he said.
He also tried to claim he was for capitalism.
Yet he's spoken in the past against the oil and gas industry, as we previously reported, saying it wasn't "going to last" while he was also attacking and talking about dismantling capitalism.
CNN exposes James talarico for pretending to be a moderate:
— Lone Star Liberty PAC (@LoneStar_PAC) September 2, 2026
talarico's unearthed call to end Texas oil and gas and dismantle capitalism is a "very different political vocabulary from the one he's using in his campaign today"
"This is obviously a number of progressive positions… pic.twitter.com/Ef5QlfjSUZ
2. Illegal Immigration
His answer on illegal immigration was bizarre, saying we lived with the "challenges" and the "benefits." What benefits are there to illegal immigration? He spoke about concentrating on the "criminals."
Q: When someone enters our country illegally, should federal law require they be removed from our country? TALARICO: "Texans understand this issue of immigration better than most.. We live with the challenges AND THE BENEFITS." What benefits? 🤔 https://t.co/6nZ0AxnFVU
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) October 15, 2026
Yet, if they entered illegally, they are all "criminals." The law is that anyone here illegally can be deported, yet Democrats want to keep forgetting that and ignoring the law.
Talarico claimed during the town hall that he doesn't support abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). “No. And I never have,” Talarico said. That's just a flat-out lie.
James Talarico is a liar who wants to abolish ICE and open our borders. TONIGHT: "I never have" supported abolishing ICE EARLIER THIS YEAR: "It is time to tear down this secret police force." https://t.co/suNZWGH3DN
— Senate Republicans (@NRSC) October 15, 2026
I'm sure I can find lots of examples. But here's another one at 2:10 in this video from the primary.
Talarico says it's time to "tear down this secret police force" and "replace it with an agency that actually is going to focus on public safety." Busted, and he's insanely attacking law enforcement as a "secret police force." And that wasn't even years ago; that was just in the primary earlier this year.
Then of course he wants a "pathway to citizenship."
James Talarico calls to grant mass amnesty to millions of criminal illegal aliens. https://t.co/88o1HMQgW0
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) October 15, 2026
3. Money in politics
“There’s way too much big money in our politics,” Talarico declared during the town hall.
“I’m running to ban super PACs and corporate PACs, so billionaires aren’t spending unlimited secret money on our political campaigns,” he told a student. He claimed at another point that billionaires were destroying the country.
Yet he's benefiting from a ton of money from multiple billionaires. For example, Reid Hoffman has donated $11.5 million to a super PAC supporting Talarico. So I guess billionaires are okay — if they support him.
4. Economy and taxes
Talarico attacked the One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB), claiming that it gave a tax cut to the "top 1 percent."
Yet, in fact, the OBBB helped most Americans — and the Democrats voted against it. Based on what he's saying at the CNN town hall, Talarico would have voted against it, which would have raised taxes on Americans.
5. Iran and Ukraine
If you juxtapose his positions on Iran and Ukraine, they don't make a lot of sense.
"When we fail to stand up to an aggressor in Europe, that comes back to haunt us,” Talarico said. “And we need to strengthen Ukraine. We need to strengthen our NATO allies as they stand up to Russian aggression so we don’t have to.”
And yet he said we should end the battle in Iran because it is costing too much money.
So we should continue to pour out our money for Ukraine. Yet we shouldn't stop the country that posed a potential nuclear threat, chanted for our death, plotted to kill our president, and killed more than 1,000 Americans through its proxies over 47 years.
Because not stopping them wouldn't come back and haunt us, right, James? P.S. It already has.
6. "God is Non-Binary" comment
Talarico tried again to run away from that comment, saying he had been trying to be "provocative" — as though that excused it.
James Talarico laughs off calling “God non-binary” to defend child gender mutilations and admits he wanted to provoke Texans. TALARICO: "When I said that, I was being provocative." https://t.co/moQRd6cLZ0
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) October 15, 2026
I don't think anyone is buying that as he tries to laugh it off now.
7. Gender comments
Talarico is now trying to convince people he isn't for gender transition surgery for kids under 18.
JAMES TALARICO (who previously called parents "abusive" for denying children's gender identity) now says, "When it comes to minors... I have to balance two things; protecting children and honoring the rights of parents" https://t.co/b899xt2RTD
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) October 15, 2026
Yet he previously called parents abusive for denying kids' gender identity.
8. Save America Act and Voter ID
Voter ID was another issue he was weaselly on and tried to be on all sides of the issue, while really not giving a straight answer. It's a simple issue: are you for voter ID like most of the rest of the country? Is he for the Save America Act?
He wouldn't give a straight answer, claiming he couldn't really say until he read the final version of the bill, acting as if he didn't know what it was about. He asserted he was for "fair ID," arguing that "a lot of our voter ID policies are discriminatory.”
He described how some types of identification, like a concealed handgun license, are allowed to be used for voting purposes while others, such as a student ID, are not.
“I think that hurts some kind of voters and helps other kind of voters,” Talarico said. “What I want to see is voter ID that is consistent across the board.”
Um, what? Most student IDs don't require any verification of citizenship. So what is he even talking about?
I don't think even slippery fish have flipped more times than James Talarico.
Editor’s Note: The 2026 Midterms will determine the fate of President Trump’s America First agenda. Republicans must maintain control of both chambers of Congress.
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