James Talarico Has A Favorite Drag Queen – And He Likes Grooming Kids

James Talarico has a favorite Texas drag queen — and it’s a performer who has built a career around grooming young children.

The Democratic Texas Senate nominee immediately named Alyssa Edwards when asked at a recent campaign event to name his favorite Lone Star drag performer.

“Mr. Talarico, so nice to meet you. I was there when you defended the drags,” a man gushed to Talarico in a viral video circulating on social media.

“Who’s your favorite drag queen in Texas?” the man then asked.

“Oh my gosh, probably Alyssa Edwards,” Talarico responded with a smile and without hesitation.

The awkward exchange offers a fresh glimpse into Talarico’s long-standing support for drag performers, drawing White House attention as faith, gender, and transgender issues take center stage in his Senate race against Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton.

“Talafreako is a deeply sick and disturbed individual,” White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller said on X.

Edwards, the stage name of Justin Dwayne Lee Johnson, owns a Texas dance studio where he trains children and starred in the Netflix reality series “Dancing Queen,” which documented his work and close mentorship with young dancers.

Clips from the Netflix series reviewed by The Daily Wire show Johnson grooming a young boy into becoming a child drag queen, including referring to the minor as his “mini-me.”

Credit: Netflix

“JJ’s got it all. Oh, I cannot wait to see what his future holds for him. Although I see my mini-me, Justin Johnson, in a million years never could have been that at 9 years old,” he said, comparing the boy to his younger self.

Johnson has long taught drag at his Beyond Belief Dance Company and has deep ties to the Rose Room, the Dallas drag venue where he first performed in drag and later returned to perform alongside his young students.

On the record, Johnson has opened up about how much he loves working with children as part of his drag career. In a 2023 interview with Out, he described himself as “a drag performer that works with children” and blushed about sharing the stage with minors.

“I’ve incorporated my students in a lot of my work, and I’m very proud of that. I remember being at World Pride in New York a few years back and sharing the stage with my dance students, one of the most powerful moments of my life,” Johnson said.

The Texas native also bragged about helping mainstream drag and influencing the next generation. 

“I’ll tell you something: you know drag has really made it when the drag shows aren’t necessarily at 11 pm or midnight in a small cabaret theater underground anymore. No, no, no. We’re now going on [at the same time] when there’s Sunday church going on. We’re now on ‘Good Morning America,’ ‘America’s Got Talent.’ We’re now mainstream, we’re now in the White House. That’s when you know we made it,” Johnson told the outlet. 

“I’m not just teaching dance, I’m mentoring the youth of today that will be the future of tomorrow,” Johnson added in the interview. “I pride myself in being a positive role model in and out of drag and the best mentor that I can be for these young artists.”

Talarico’s instantaneous embrace of Johnson is particularly notable given the Texas Democrat’s history of defending drag performers from state scrutiny.

In 2023, Talarico criticized legislation regulating sexually explicit performances in the presence of minors. At the time, he warned that the legislation could harm drag performers and said Texas was home to “some of the best drag queens in the nation,” according to Fox News. Johnson also opposed similar legislation in 2022 and defended drag as an art form.

The law, Senate Bill 12, prohibited explicit performances on public property and in the presence of minors. A federal judge struck down the law last month, declaring it unconstitutional and permanently blocking Texas from enforcing it. Attorney General Paxton has vowed to appeal the ruling.

The controversy comes as Talarico has faced backlash over past comments on gender and Christianity, including his emphatic view that there are “six” biological sexes and declaring “God is nonbinary.”

Now, the Senate hopeful is attempting to recast his record with striking policy reversals, including a vow to oppose transgender athletes competing in girls’ sports if he believes it threatens safety or fairness. The Daily Wire, however, recently obtained undercover footage in which a Texas Democratic Party organizer described Talarico’s shift as an effort to broaden his appeal — not a genuine change of heart.

The unearthed footage shows Jennifer Miranda, a manager with Texas Together and the Texas Democratic Party, discussing Talarico’s efforts to appeal to a broader group of Texas voters while standing by his previous statements supporting the most extreme elements of the LGBT movement.

“I would say right now he’s trying to target a wider net, which unfortunately means being more palatable to Republicans here in Texas,” Miranda said in the video. “He really needs to win those Texans over.”

“You talk to some Republicans, and they’re very Republican, especially here in Texas … very, very to the Right,” she added.

Talarico has also faced criticism over the Austin religious organization where he has delivered eyebrow-raising sermons. St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, which Talarico attends, maintains a library of “banned books” accessible to children, including titles containing sexually explicit material and transgender themes.

The church’s collection includes “Gender Queer,” “All Boys Aren’t Blue,” “This Book Is Gay,” and “Trans Kids, Our Kids,” according to The Daily Wire’s review.

In August, The Daily Wire also uncovered a sermon in which Talarico said “God is not a Christian” and compared evangelism to forcing alcohol on young children.

With 48 days to go, Talarico’s warm embrace of a drag queen is giving Republicans fresh ammunition as they seek to paint the Democrat as out of step with Texas voters. At the Republican National Committee’s midterm convention in Dallas, Vice President JD Vance unloaded on Talarico’s fixation on transgender youth, whom the Texas Democrat has said he “loved” more than anyone outside his family and friends.

“I gotta say, a guy that age who is so obsessed and focused on transgender children. I don’t know about you, but I never want to see that guy’s web browser history,” Vance said. “It’s not a good place.”

The Daily Wire reached out to Talarico’s campaign for comment.