Texas state Rep. James Talarico, the Democratic nominee for the state's open U.S. Senate seat, told Fox News on Wednesday that he opposes transgender athletes competing in girls' sports "if it endangers safety or fairness," a notable softening from the position he held when he voted against a statewide ban on trans student athletes back in 2021.
What Talarico Told Fox News
"Every sport has to be safe and fair," Talarico said in the interview, which aired the same day as the Texas GOP's midterm convention in Dallas. "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."
Pressed on his 2021 vote against Texas's K-12 sports ban, Talarico said he'd supported amendments giving "local communities" the power to decide, adding that lawmakers sometimes have to vote against a whole bill when parts of it are "really harmful." That law, which requires students to compete based on sex assigned at birth, has been in effect since January 2022; Texas separately barred trans athletes from college sports starting in 2023, following NCAA warnings that it would only hold championships in states allowing trans athletes to compete without discrimination.
A Different Tone Than His Legislative Record
The Fox News answer stands in contrast to Talarico's past statements. During 2021 floor debate on the ban, he argued that claims trans athletes have unfair advantages echoed arguments once used to exclude Black athletes from professional sports, and accused Governor Greg Abbott of pushing "far-right conspiracy theories about trans children causing problems on sports teams, which we know does not occur in the state of Texas."
If one trans child dies to protect someone's damn trophy, this bill is grotesque.
James Talarico, 2021 legislative hearing
He also told The New York Times earlier this year that lawmakers pushing such bans weren't trying to solve a real problem but to "score political points off the backs of a vulnerable community." That framing was largely absent from Wednesday's interview.
An AI-Generated Attack in the Background
The interview aired as Paxton's campaign released an AI-generated video called "King James," depicting a fabricated Talarico rewriting scripture and delivering a monologue he never gave, including invented lines about "six genders" and calling himself "a Christian who hates Christianity." The ad blends fragments of Talarico's real past comments about faith and gender, stripped of context, with lines the campaign scripted for a digital double of him. Paxton's campaign did not respond to questions about why it manufactured footage rather than using Talarico's actual words. It's at least the second AI deepfake targeting Talarico this cycle, following an earlier ad depicting him singing about transgender children.
The pressure comes with real money behind it: Trump-aligned super PAC MAGA Inc. has said it plans to spend at least $10 million in the race, split between boosting Paxton and attacking Talarico, according to an FEC filing. Recent polling shows a genuinely competitive race, with surveys putting the candidates anywhere from a Talarico lead to a statistical tie.
Advocates Push Back
Equality Texas CEO Brad Pritchett said in a statement that the organization "expect[s] better" of Talarico's campaign, adding, "Fairness in school sports must include trans kids. Trans kids deserve the opportunity to play sports as much as their peers." The group noted Talarico's broader record of supporting LGBTQ+-inclusive school policies, contrasting it with Paxton's record of rolling back protections for LGBTQ+ youth.
Fairness in school sports must include trans kids. Trans kids deserve the opportunity to play sports as much as their peers.
Brad Pritchett, Equality Texas
Trans journalist Parker Molloy pointed out on Bluesky that Texas's sports ban affects, in practice, essentially no cisgender kids, only the trans kids who want to play. Trans civil rights attorney Alejandra Caraballo argued that distancing himself from trans people wouldn't spare Talarico from attacks anyway, writing that he'd only "betray a vulnerable minority, anger your base, and made the issue front and center." Journalist Erin Reed predicted the pressure would intensify once debate season and ad buys ramp up further.
MQ's Take
There's a real tension here worth naming plainly: Talarico has one of the more consistently pro-trans legislative records of any statewide Democratic candidate in Texas, including a 2021 floor speech calling trans kids "perfect" and "sacred." That record makes Wednesday's hedge sting more, not less. Framing safety and fairness as though they're currently under threat from trans kids in Texas locker rooms, when the ban has produced no documented cases of the harm it claims to prevent, lends credibility to a narrative advocates have spent years fighting. Candidates get to evolve their messaging under pressure. But when the pressure comes from a fabricated video putting words in your mouth, the answer isn't to hand your opponents a real quote to use instead.
Other Ground Covered in the Interview
Talarico also walked back a past comment about "six genders," saying he'd meant there are two sexes with a small percentage of people having chromosomal variations, and defended a past statement that God is nonbinary as a point about theology rather than biology. He pivoted from questions about gender to attacking Paxton's record, noting Paxton was impeached by his own party over bribery allegations and pointing to the net worth increase and multiple home purchases since taking office as evidence of self-enrichment.
Sources: LGBTQ Nation, them., The Advocate
Cover photo: Antonioaesparza, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
