In deep-red Texas, the Democrats have chosen a Senate candidate whose Christian faith the party hopes will be a potent weapon, but whose unorthodox views range from God is nonbinary to there are six sexes. 

“God is both masculine and feminine and everything in between,” said James Talarico, a state representative and, now, the Democratic nominee for Senate. “God is nonbinary.”

Progressive Christianity may be a hard sell

The statement is part of dozens of claims about God, Christianity, and morality that Talarico has made on the campaign trail, and before he ran for higher office, geared towards “[reclaiming] Christianity for the left.”

Talarico is currently a seminary student and affiliated with the PCUSA, a liberal Presbyterian denomination. 

The Democrats see Talarico’s firebrand, progressive Christianity as a promising tool to help flip Texas blue. But, Republicans were quick to jump on Talarico’s statements, with the subtext that he is unfit for a relatively religious state traditionally considered part of the nation’s Bible Belt. 

Christian publications have also pushed back on Talarico’s statements and have scrutinized his scriptural interpretations. One of the most contentious issues for Talarico’s campaign has been his unapologetic support for abortion rights, which he also grounds in his interpretation of Christian scripture. 

In recent decades, pro-life activism has been powered by a coalition of evangelical Christians and Catholics who argue that the bible provides a moral requirement for a right to life. For this reason, the pro-life movement has advocated for the overturning of Roe v. Wade and abortion restrictions across the fifty states. 

"Up to interpretation" Talirico says

“For the past 50 years in this country, the religious right, a political movement, convinced a lot of Christians in America that the two most important issues were abortion and homosexuality — two issues that aren’t really discussed in Scripture. Abortion is never mentioned,” Talarico said in an interview with Ezra Klein of The New York Times.

Talarico believes, however, that how a Christian should feel about abortion is up to interpretation, saying that the issue, alongside homosexuality, is never mentioned in the Bible. 

He has controversially used the story of the Virgin Mary to argue that consent is a fundamental principle of creation, which he says is consistent with supporting the practice.

“Mary is probably my favorite figure in the Bible, the mother of Jesus. And you know she is, um, she's an oppressed peasant teenage girl living in poverty under an oppressive empire as a Jew, and she has a vision from God that she's going to give birth to a baby who's going to bring the powerful down from their thrones,” Talarico said on the Joe Rogan podcast. 

“But I say all this […] in the context of abortion because before God comes over Mary and we have the incarnation, God asks for Mary's consent, which is remarkable. I mean, go back and read this in Luke. I mean, the angel comes down and asks Mary if this is something she wants to do, and she says, if it is God's will, let it be done. Let it be. Let it happen.”

“So to me that is an affirmation in one of our most central stories that creation has to be done with consent. You cannot force someone to create. Creation is one of the most sacred acts that we engage in as human beings. But, that has to be done with consent. It has to be done with freedom. And to me, that is absolutely consistent with the ministry and life and death of Jesus. And so that's why I come down on that side of the issue.”

He concluded by saying, “All I'm saying is that it shouldn't be assumed that just because you're a Christian, you are anti-gay or anti-abortion because there are so many Christians out there who don't subscribe to either of those policy positions.”

"More than two sexes ... in fact there are six"

Talarico’s progressive views also extend to social and racial issues. During his time in public office, Talarico has been a vocal proponent of transgender rights, delivering speeches from the Texas House floor and sermons from the pulpit on that diverge widely from the majority Christian view. 

In a Texas House hearing, Talarico stated that he believes modern science recognizes more than two sexes–using the biological term, rather than the use of the supposed socially constructed gender that has become common among progressives.  

“[M]odern science obviously recognizes that there are many more than two biological sexes […] in fact, there are six, which honestly […] surprised me, too,” Talarico said.

Rather than growing more favorable towards the transgender movement, Christians of all stripes have become increasingly skeptical of the claims underpinning it. In the most recent nationwide polling available, 68.5% of both Protestant and Catholic Christians said in 2022 that gender is determined by sex at birth, up nearly 10 points from 59.5% in 2017, according to a Pew Research survey on the subject.   

In a series of tweets in 2020, Talarico said that every white American is a carrier of a  “virus,” racism, and that they must take action to “contain the spread.” 

"White skin gives me and every white American immunity from the virus. But we spread it wherever we go —through our words, our actions, and our systems. We don’t have to be showing symptoms—like a white hood or a Confederate flag—to be contagious," he wrote, adding, "The only cure is diagnosing the virus within ourselves and taking dramatic actions to contain the spread. The first small step is proclaiming loudly and unequivocally that #BlackLivesMatter."

Regardless of whether Talarico’s progressive take on Christianity will resonate with Texas voters or not, he will face an uphill battle to win a statewide race as a Democrat. No politician from the Democratic Party has won statewide since Lt. Gov. Bob Bullock and several downballot incumbents won in 1994. In other words, Republicans have dominated the top of the ballot for three decades. 

But, Democrats believe there are signs the Republican stranglehold on the state may finally crack. In 2018, Democratic senate candidate Beto O’Rourke came within three points of incumbent Senator Ted Cruz, a Republican. That year the Democrats were boosted by opposition to incumbent President Donald Trump. They are hoping the trend repeats itself in 2026, the first midterm election of Trump’s second, nonconsecutive term.