Daily Mail·United Kingdom·Thursday, November 5, 2026 at 02:23 AM UTC

'Woke' Christian who took Texas: Fury of religious Right after state picks ex-teacher who believes in a 'non-binary God'

Translate

Nick Allen

Published: 00:24 GMT, 5 November 2026 | Updated: 02:23 GMT, 5 November 2026

He was called a heretic, a demon in human form and even the Antichrist, but the name-calling didn't stop softly spoken James Talarico from romping home to a historic win in Texas.

The former school teacher crushed his Trump-endorsed Republican opponent Ken Paxton to become the first Democrat senator from the Lone Star State since 1988.

His high-profile victory against the odds has already sparked speculation he is a potential front-runner for the presidency in 2028, having previously garnered Obama-like devotion from some Democrats.

The position of state governor also went to a Democrat – for the first time in two generations. Gina Hinojosa is the first Latina to be elected governor of Texas.

However, Mr Talarico, 37, has alienated and infuriated many evangelical Christians.

To some of them, his campaign against the scandal-plagued Mr Paxton was not just about the fate of the US Senate, nor about influencing the final two years of Donald Trump's presidency.

It was about something bigger – something Biblical. A Presbyterian seminarian, Mr Talarico has espoused a progressive brand of Christianity that critics called 'woke' and quickly made him an enemy of America's religious Right.

'What he teaches is evil,' Dr Robert Jeffress, senior pastor of the First Baptist Church, a nationally known megachurch in Dallas, Texas, told the Daily Mail.

Texas Senator-elect James Talarico and Governor-elect Gina Hinojosa, both Democrats, cheers surrounded by supporters at Whattaburger in Austin, Texas

Mr Talarico's boldest proclamations include statements such as 'God is non-binary,' 'Jesus was a radical feminist,' and that there are 'six genders', a claim he has since walked back on.

He has also suggested the Bible is silent on abortion, and that Jesus would have supported free universal healthcare.

On one Facebook group with more than 250,000 members, a discussion kicked off with: 'James Talarico has the Antichrist spirit living in him.'

A YouTube video with tens of thousands of views said he was 'not the Antichrist but man is he getting close,' going on to claim that the Senate candidate was a 'heretic'.

Mr Talarico was born in Round Rock, a town just outside the city of Austin, Texas in 1989, the year after the Democrats last won a Senate seat in the state.

After graduating from the University of Texas, Austin, and Harvard, he became a middle school teacher in Texas and was elected to the state's legislature in 2018.

He also became a seminarian, training to become a pastor in the Presbyterian Church and pursuing a Master of Divinity degree at Austin Theological Seminary. The degree is now on hold.

Mr Talarico made faith central to his campaign, using the slogan 'Love Thy Neighbor,' and regularly quoting the Bible.

But during a legislative hearing in 2021, Mr Talarico said: 'Modern science recognises that there are many more than two biological sexes – in fact, there are six.'

He voted against a Republican bill banning transgender children playing on sports teams aligning with their gender identity and he suggested that parents who 'deny their child's gender identity' are 'abusive for sure'.

Another comment that landed badly with many Christians was that theirs has been the 'most violent' religion.

However, his victory has led some Democrats to believe they will finally end the Republican's unofficial status as the 'party of God' which they have held since the days of Ronald Reagan.

View the original on Daily Mail →

KioskNews shows a cleaned-up reading view extracted from the publisher’s page — the original always lives on their site, not ours.