Old and busted: I'm a champion of "bold progressive legislation!" New hotness: Progressive silence.
And let's not forget James Talarico's inspiration for his "activist theology." We'll get to that in a moment.
First, though, the Free Beacon has gone through the dusty Internet archives to compare Talarico's current campaign messaging to his ancient political postures. And by "ancient," I refer to, er ... [checks notes] ... last year. Before starting his primary campaign to capture the Democrat nomination for the US Senate, Talarico couldn't say enough about his support for and leadership on "bold progressive legislation." Now, the P-word has all but disappeared:
As a state lawmaker representing a deep-blue Austin district, Talarico was not shy about broadcasting his left-wing views. On his site's homepage, the 37-year-old said he was "not afraid to stand up to Republican extremism" and boasted about leading "the fight against their efforts to bully trans kids, ban books, whitewash our history curriculum, gut public education with a private school voucher scam, and force their Christian nationalist agenda onto the people of Texas." The site's "Accomplishments" section, meanwhile, presented Talarico as a champion of "Bold, Progressive Legislation."
"I'm committed to building momentum for bold, progressive ideas—no matter how long it takes," Talarico wrote, according to an archived version of the site from August 2025, less than a year ago. "I've introduced ambitious legislation to give every Texas teacher a $15,000 raise, legalize marijuana, combat climate change, and repeal anti-union laws that keep workers from organizing."
The site got a makeover in early September, when Talarico launched his Senate campaign, archives show. The homepage credits Talarico with fighting "billionaire mega-donors" rather than "Republican extremism." A "Meet James Talarico" section touts the Democrat's efforts to "expand job opportunities for young adults" rather than fight for "trans kids." And the site's "Why I'm Running" page says the "biggest divide in this country is not left vs. right" but "top vs. bottom." The word "progressive" has vanished.
Ah yes, the tops-and-bottoms argument. Talarico rolled that out last month to a gale of laughter. Apart from the sexual connotations of top and bottom, the argument itself is a hard-Left progressive tell. As I wrote at the time, this is just another version of the class-warfare argument used by the Bernie Bros and the Democratic Socialists to stoke animosity rather than advance real growth and opportunity. It practically carries the Scarlet P with or without the word appearing explicitly on the website:
It's the politics of envy, of shortage thinking, and of forced redistributionism. It's not aspirational, it's punitive, and red states are aspirational at heart. That is why capital has fled states with punitive mindsets and chosen aspirational states as their new destinations.
Talarico claims to want to unify people with this argument, but this is an argument that divides and stokes animosity. It uses economic success as a target for grievance-mongering, casting wealth as an immutable characteristic in a political and economic environment that has demonstrated the greatest opportunities for upward mobility. Talarico is selling despair rather than hope, and grudges rather than growth. Like every other socialist demagogue, Talarico wants an angry mob rather than a successful and strong electorate.
That argument might work in Massachusetts or California, but in Texas? Good luck. It just reminds voters of who Talarico actually is rather than what he's pretending to be.
Speaking of which, the New York Post provides an even clearer reminder of exactly who Talarico is. His campaign wants to bury his progressive identification and any mention of his advocacy for pediatric sex-change therapies, but Talarico's own words speak volumes on these points – as does his inspiration for them:
Dr. Henderson-Espinoza!! I’m a BIG fan. I read Activist Theology last year! As a progressive Christian in Texas, your work is an inspiration. I would love to talk with you!! pic.twitter.com/FvboIajDy2
— James Talarico (@jamestalarico) February 23, 2021
Texas Democratic Senate hopeful James Talarico once lavished praise on a self-described “TransQueer, Latinx” activist theologian as a major source of inspiration for his left-wing philosophy.
“When you started following me on Twitter, I couldn’t contain my inner fan boy, because I read your book last year and it continues to inspire me and y’all’s work continues to inspire me,” the state lawmaker told Roberto Henderson-Espinoza during a March 2021 podcast appearance.
“I told you I was a boring, straight, cis white man, and I added ‘Presbyterian’ to spice it up,” Talarico added. “My imagination is also just limited by my own background and identity.”
That clip started circulating yesterday:
TALARICO: "My whiteness, my masculinity, all those things limit my imagination about what is possible."
— Brandon Gill (@realBrandonGill) June 22, 2026
What kind of 'man' talks like this? pic.twitter.com/9aob302apN
To answer Gill's question without the scare quotes, men who want to fit into the Left's boundaries of acceptable masculinity. Their vision of masculinity is much more feminized and requires a level of self-loathing that must be publicly addressed. Needless to say, that is not the mainstream view of masculinity in America, and especially not in Texas. This almost sounds like a hostage video, meant to appease the hard-Left and Queer Movement leaders, and at the time it worked. Talarico won his elections to the state legislature in the deep-blue precincts of Austin.
That, however, won't translate to the rest of Texas, and there's no way for Talarico to run away from it now. His disdain for traditional masculinity and his pursuit of the "bold progressive" agenda in terms of trans ideology and socialist demagoguery will rightly paint Talarico as a fringe leftist who might be comfortable in California or Massachusetts than he ever will be in Texas, politically speaking. And the feeling will be mutual.
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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