Texas Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico is attempting to put distance between himself and several controversial comments from his past as he campaigns against Attorney General Ken Paxton in the 2026 U.S. Senate race, as reported [1] by The Blaze.
One statement in particular has become a focal point of criticism from Republicans and conservative commentators after resurfacing during the campaign.
During a 2021 Texas House floor and committee debate involving transgender-related issues, Talarico made comments about God and gender that continue to draw attention years later.
“God is both masculine and feminine and everything in between. God is nonbinary,” Talarico said at the time.
I FOUND IT!
Here’s the video of democrat James Talarico calling God non-binary.
“God is both masculine & feminine & everything in between.”
In the same breath, Talarico said, “[Trans children] are perfect, beautiful, & they are sacred.”
No, Talarico. God isn’t non-binary. pic.twitter.com/RnS21b8TeH [2]
— ThePersistence (@ScottPresler) May 31, 2026 [3]
He continued by citing scripture while discussing transgender-identifying children.
“In Genesis 1:26, God speaks of God’s self in the plural, saying, ‘Let us make human beings in our image to be like us.’ That’s the infinite multitude of God. The masculine, the feminine, and everything in between,” Talarico said.
“Trans children are God’s children made in God’s own image. There’s nothing wrong with them. Nothing at all. They are perfect. They are beautiful, and they are sacred.”
The remarks have repeatedly resurfaced during the Senate campaign, with Paxton and other Republicans pointing to them as evidence of what they describe as Talarico’s views on gender and religion.
As the general election campaign has intensified, Talarico has offered a different explanation of the comments.
During a recent interview with CBS News correspondent Ed O’Keefe, Talarico acknowledged the statement generated controversy and said he intended to attract attention with the remark.
“I was being intentionally provocative with that statement. But what it means is that God can’t be defined by human categories. The apostle Paul in his letter to the Galatians says that in Christ there is neither male nor female,” Talarico said.
He also accused Paxton of using the comments for political purposes, saying the attorney general was “intentionally clipping [his] cringey comments to distract from his career of corruption.”
Talarico made similar comments during an interview with CNN anchor Jake Tapper.
“I understand that that comment is a little provocative. I said it on the House floor when the extremists in the Republican legislature were picking on school kids who were different. But I don’t think it’s controversial theologically. Most Christians would acknowledge that God is beyond gender,” he said.
The issue became a topic of discussion on BlazeTV’s “Pat Gray Unleashed,” where host Pat Gray and his panel criticized Talarico’s explanation and his attempt to shift blame to Paxton.
Co-host Keith Malinak questioned Talarico’s defense of the comments.
“Oh, so it’s Ken Paxton’s fault that you’re twisting the word of God?” Malinak said, later describing Talarico as “insufferable.”
The discussion also expanded to broader debates surrounding women’s sports and policies involving transgender-identifying athletes.
Gray argued that athletic competition should be organized according to biological sex and suggested alternative approaches for transgender-identifying athletes.
“If they want to play sports, let’s come up with a way to let them engage in sports. Like with their own biological gender, they could compete, or we create a separate category for trans people,” Gray said.
“But you don’t stick them against the females. It doesn’t make any sense.”
The controversy comes as the Texas Senate race continues to draw national attention, with Republicans highlighting Talarico’s previous statements while the Democratic nominee seeks to explain comments that have become a recurring issue on the campaign trail.