Republicans brazenly attack Democratic hopeful James Talarico

No time? blue News summarizes for you

• In the fall midterm elections, Republican Ken Paxton is running against Democrat James Talarico for a Senate seat.
• From the start, Paxton’s campaign has aimed to question Talarico’s masculinity. Now, bizarre AI videos featuring Talarico are meant to reinforce that message.
• Talarico counters with his own definition of masculinity. Meanwhile, Paxton’s former lawyer has defected to Talarico’s side.
• The Republican incumbent senator, whose seat is at stake, predicts that Trump will suffer a defeat in the midterm elections.

Summary created with

“If you had to make a list of 1,000 adjectives to describe this guy, ‘masculine’ wouldn’t be on it”: That’s how Texas Senator Ted Cruz describes his political opponent James Talarico.

“I mean, this guy: if a stiff breeze came along, it would blow him over like a feather,” Cruz continues: “And his campaign! He has a vegan, no-meat campaign. Because meat is destroying the world. He’s against oil and gas—that’s the Democratic Party.”

Talarico is running for Texas’s second Senate seat in the fall midterm elections, facing off against Republican Ken Paxton. John Cornyn currently holds this seat, but he was unable to defeat Paxton in his party’s primary. Because Cornyn did not receive Trump’s endorsement, he must step down after 24 years as a senator.

AI videos on Facebook and Instagram

Paxton set the tone immediately after his victory in the party primary: In his acceptance speech, the Republican referred to Talarico as “Tofu-Talarico,” “Six-Gender-Jimmy,” “James Tala-Freak-o,” or “Low-T-Talarico.” “Low T” stands for low testosterone.

Paxton vs. Talarico

Trump's man wins in Texas - and promptly lashes out at "six-gender Jimmy"

His Democratic opponent is a “vegan who believes God is non-binary.” Ted Cruz picks up on these clichés with his tirade—and Paxton’s supporters, who call themselves Citizens for Sanity , are amplifying this campaign with AI-generated videos of Talarico that are being shown to Texans on Facebook and Instagram.

Some of them still seem harmless at first glance—see above: A young woman tells another about the Talarico dictionary. The word for “parental rights” doesn’t exist in it. It goes on to say that Talarico’s word for “woman” is “neighbor with a uterus.”

AI-Talarico sings trans songs in a dress and frightens children

Some videos appear to imply that Talarico is homosexual. In another AI video, Talarico sings in a woman’s dress about how he wants to change the genders of all the viewers’ descendants. “Girls are stuffed full of hormones until they grow mustaches,” reads a line in this clip.

This AI video demonstrates how smoothly the collaboration between Team Paxton and the self-proclaimed Citizens for Sanity works: It picks up on the “Six-Gender Jimmy” narrative as Talarico supposedly appears on the TV show “Wheel of Fortune.”

“Jesus Christ was a radical feminist,” Talarico screams like a madman in the next AI video—wearing a sign around his neck that reads: “God is nonbinary.” Jesus helped him with his “whiteness” and his masculinity, the video continues.

“I’m not crazy. I’m James Talarico,” he roars as if out of his mind, while a blonde woman leads her two blonde daughters to safety. “Don’t look him in the eyes,” warns the AI mother.

This clip picks up on Paxton’s narrative that Talarico wants to roll out the welcome mat for immigrants. It’s about a quote taken out of context: The Democrat did indeed once speak of such a doormat in reference to the border with Mexico, but added that he would certainly lock the house up tight.

This explains the aggressiveness of the Paxton camp: In the latest Siena University poll, conducted from June 1 to 4, the Republican candidate is tied with his Democratic opponent at 46 percent.

Trump: “This Transgender Person”

This behavior isn’t limited to Paxton and his supporters—even Texas’s Republican governor can’t resist posting a picture of Talarico as a woman. In the Facebook post, Greg Abbott accuses the Democrat of advocating for the environment.

Donald Trump spoke about Talarico on “Fox News” in late May: “They won’t let men play in women’s sports. They won’t. You know, this transgender guy, this guy running in Texas—he says there are six genders. He wears a mask all the time. He’s a disaster of a candidate.”

“Even though no Democrat has won in Texas for decades, Republicans are still banking on specifically appealing to the ‘manosphere.’ These Joe Rogan types were a crucial voter group in Trump’s reelection,” analyzes the U.S. magazine “Time.”

But Talarico was also a guest on right-wing podcaster Joe Rogan’s show—and the two got along well. In the end, Rogan even laughed as he encouraged the Democrat to enter the presidential race. “Time” concludes with the sentence: “This could be the most revealing midterm election.”

This is how Talarico responds

And Talarico? What does the 37-year-old have to say about the attacks? “There’s been a lot of talk in this campaign about what it means to be a real man,” the Texan picks up the thread on the MS Now network. Then he talks about his adoptive father, Mark, who mowed the lawn every Saturday. Even for the elderly neighbor, without her ever asking.

“My dad never talked about it,” says Talarico. “He just did it. Because that’s what men do. A man takes responsibility. A man honors his commitment to family and neighbors. A man does the right thing, even when no one is watching.”

Then Talarico hits the ball back: “Here’s what real men don’t do: They don’t cheat and lie their way through life. They don’t sell their souls to the highest bidder. They don’t steal from others to enrich themselves. Real men serve others; weak men serve themselves.”

That’s why Talarico welcomes the debate: “I don’t think Paxton or Cruz are in a position to tell anyone what makes a real man.” Texans would suffer from high prices: The turf wars the Republicans have instigated would do nothing to change this problem.

Paxton’s former lawyer defects; the incumbent senator warns

“The fact that politicians, including our incumbent U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, are throwing around embarrassing, cheap nicknames for their political opponents instead of focusing on improving the lives of Texans shows everything that’s wrong with our politics,” says Talarico. “And that’s why people are so fed up with this broken system.”

The Republicans’ campaign could actually backfire. Ted Cruz, for example, is facing a lot of backlash, ridicule, and schadenfreude on social media following his “masculine” push. And now even the lawyer who represented Ken Paxton during his 2023 impeachment proceedings— when his own party ousted the attorney general—is jumping ship.

Bevorzugte Quelle

Jetzt kannst du blue News als deine bevorzugte News-Quelle auf Google hinterlegen.

Klicke auf den Button, setze das Häkchen hinter blue News – fertig!

Jetzt einstellen →

Talarico emphasizes that he wants to bring people together. “And that’s exactly why I support you,” says Paxton’s former lawyer, Dan Cogdell, in a conversation with the Democrat. “Ken has lost sight of his core goal—representing the people of Texas.” Talarico has what it takes to unite Democrats, Republicans, and independents. “And that’s what we need right now.”

Outgoing Republican Senator Johny Cornyn tells the “New York Times,” referring to Trump’s support for Paxton: “That will complicate matters, certainly make [the Republican campaign] more expensive in Texas, and make it harder across the country.” After all, his party could lose its majority in the Senate in the midterm elections.

The 74-year-old predicts the president will regret this move: “I’m not saying this out of any desire for revenge; I simply believe that’s how it will turn out: He’ll have the most miserable two years of his life in his final two years in office, I think. Because I believe November [with the midterms] will be a disaster.”

More videos from this section