The Democratic Party's candidate for U.S. Senate in Texas, James Talarico, has a record that looks very different from the outward-facing moderation he now shows voters, with less than one month to go before November's midterm elections. 

The model is not atypical. Candidates on both sides of the aisle often espouse views further to the left and right fringes during primaries before moderating as the general election nears, attempting to appeal more to center-left, center-right voters or independent voters who may cross over and vote for them.

Talarico's radical -- and changing -- stances on sex, minors and LGBTQ issues

In May 2023, Talarico voted against Texas' SB 14, which banned puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries on minors for gender transition. The House passed the bill 87-56 and after it passed, he said the bill was about discriminating against transgender people rather than science or safety. 

Talarico pledged in writing at least twice—including on a Stonewall Democrats of Austin questionnaire and a Communications Workers of America survey—to support and sponsor the Equality Act if elected, legislation that would allow biological males into women’s bathrooms, locker rooms, and other sex-segregated spaces. 

According to Human Rights Watch, that act was reintroduced in the 119th Congress on April 29, 2025, in the House of Representatives by Rep. Mark Takano, D-Calif., and in the Senate by Sens. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., and Cory Booker, D-N.J. 

Despite his previous pledge of support, Talarico now claims he would merely "review it."

More "clarifications" of his positions

Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson has stated that Talarico "clarified" his earlier comments on transgender athletes, interpreting his opposition to boys competing in girls’ sports applied only when safety or fairness was at issue.

As for gender-transition care for minors, he later asserted that politicians should not interfere in decisions made in doctors’ offices. 

At the same time, however, in an interview with conservative Fox News, he said he opposes gender-reassignment surgeries for minors and would support a national ban on them, and that he opposes transgender athletes in girls’ sports when safety or fairness is compromised. 

Talarico's poll-driven switcheroos on other issues

Talarico may be paying the price of taking extreme positions popular with the extreme left, but he is losing ground in polling. USAToday reported that recent polls suggest a potential shift toward Republicans as early voting approaches, and an October 1 Fox News poll showed his lead dwindling to 2%: well within the poll's 6 to 8 point margin of error.  

In a 2021 House speech, he stated that Genesis shows God is “both masculine and feminine and everything in between. God is nonbinary,” and that modern science recognizes six biological sexes. 

By contrast, when pressed in May, ABC News reported he later walked back that statement, calling some of his earlier comments "cringey" and then claimed he believes that there are two sexes with only a small percentage of chromosomal abnormalities.

At a 2020 Sierra Club forum, he described climate change, white supremacy, and capitalism as interconnected “oppressive systems” that needed to be dismantled together, and compared Texas oil-and-gas leadership to cassette tapes that “is not gonna last.” 

Contrary to his socialist-sounding attacks on American business in the style of Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, his campaign now calls him a "proud capitalist" who wants higher taxes on billionaires and corporations plus an all-of-the-above energy approach that partners with oil and gas. 

After the 2021 grid failure, he authored the Texas Climate Action Act requiring emissions cuts of at least 50% below 1990 levels by 2030 and 90 percent by 2050. That bill died in committee. 

His current platform still lists climate action and faster renewables while stressing all-of-the-above energy and partnership with the oil-and-gas industry. These accompany endorsing a $15 federal minimum wage, universal childcare so families pay no more than 7 percent of income for pre-K for 3 and 4-year-olds, paid family leave, canceling medical debt, and permanently expanding the child tax credit.

But where has he been for the last two weeks?

Talarico reemerged Friday at the Austin City Limits music festival, ending a roughly nine-to-thirteen-day absence from the campaign trail that began after he disclosed a supposed flu diagnosis on September 30 following an urgent-care visit in Dallas. 

His campaign attributed the gap to a “nasty case of the flu,” noting that his Type 1 diabetes can prolong recovery, and a spokesperson dismissed “conspiracy theorists” while posting video of him meeting voters. 

Unsubstantiated theories on social media claimed he had been at the Lindner Center of Hope mental-health facility in Mason, Ohio (linked to speculation based on private-jet tracking websites), suffered a nervous breakdown, or received other undisclosed treatment. Just the News was not able to confirm these statements. Meanwhile, his absence generated some pundits to float joking claims about pregnancy or menstrual issues. 

Amanda Head is White House Correspondent for Just the News. You can follow her here.