James Talarico, the Democratic Senate nominee in Texas, claimed Thursday that the &#8220;undocumented students&#8221; he previously taught were the &#8220;most patriotic.&#8221;
Talarico, who previously taught sixth-grade language arts at Rhodes Middle School in San Antonio, made the remarks during a live taping of The Bulwark podcast in Dallas with host Tim Miller, where he also criticized Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as a &#8220;secret police&#8221; force.
&#8220;I taught a lot of undocumented students, and those students tended to be my most patriotic students,&#8221; Talarico said.
&#8220;They understood something about this country that a lot of us who are native born forget. That this is supposed to be the land of opportunity, that this is supposed to be the place where dreams come true, and they believed that in their bones. And they believed in this country even when this country didn&#8217;t believe in them,&#8221; he added.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
James Talarico claims his illegal immigrant students were more patriotic than American-born ones:
“I taught a lot of undocumented students. Those students tended to be my most patriotic students.”
This is apparently the message he’s going with to Texas parents. <a href="https://t.co/jBWwv7P5F1">pic.twitter.com/jBWwv7P5F1</a>
— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) <a href="https://twitter.com/WesternLensman/status/2034802607726727377?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 20, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Talarico has made similar comments glorifying illegal immigration in the past. In a resurfaced clip from a January Democratic primary debate, he said the U.S. southern border should function like a &#8220;front porch.&#8221;
“Our southern border should be like our front porch; there should be a giant welcome mat out front and a lock on the door,” Talarico said.
Talarico&#8217;s campaign website also states: “Most of us agree on what should happen. Our border should be like a front porch — it should have a welcome mat out front and a lock on the door.”
It adds: “We can both welcome the stranger — refugees, asylum seekers, and folks who want to contribute to our economy and pursue the American dream — and we can keep people out who mean to do us harm.”
In another past clip, Talarico said individuals who commit violent crimes &#8220;should be deported immediately,&#8221; while arguing that law enforcement resources should not be focused on &#8220;hard-working members of our community.”

Raging Moderates Live with James Talarico

Talarico Says Illegal Immigrant Students Are The ‘Most Patriotic’

Democrat

illegal immigrants

James Talarico

Senate

Texas

When I was in college, I passed the César Chávez statue every day on my walk to class at the University of Texas. Now, César Chávez is the name of the road I take to work. 
For years, Chávez was presented as the figurehead for Mexican Americans, a symbol we were expected to revere. But he represented a collectivist ideology that perpetuated ethnic tribalism. After the New York Times broke the story of his sexual abuse of young girls, this false idol is finally toppling. My only hope is that he is not replaced by another.
Chávez has long been celebrated as a symbol of the Civil Rights era and as a champion of labor unions in America. He co-founded the United Farm Workers (UFW) union to fight for better conditions for migrant laborers. But in truth, he exploited the very people he claimed to protect, while tying Mexican Americans to socialist ideology. He carefully crafted a public image as a family man devoted to Catholic social teaching, but the reality was much darker.
Chávez’s philosophy echoes Marxist rhetoric about the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. At a UFW convention in 1981, Chávez <a href="https://reason.com/2013/07/30/harvest-of-power/#:~:text=Some%20of%20these%20features%20include:%20*%20the,under%20the%20ALRA%20subject%20to%20ALRB%20regulations.">proclaimed:</a> 
<blockquote>I would not take one cup of coffee from a grower [farmer]… There&#8217;s not a good one. I hate them. A few presents, a little talk, then the noose. That’s how capitalism works.</blockquote>
It isn’t just his rhetoric that sounds alarm bells. Early in his career, he worked with Saul Alinsky (the community organizer who defined the modern leftist playbook in “Rules for Radicals”). Chávez and the UFW later implemented Alinsky’s tactics, fostering confrontational, divisive organizing.
Then, there is the recent revelation of his <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/left-wing-icon-accused-of-serially-sexually-abusing-young-girls?author=Nathan+Gay&amp;category=undefined&amp;elementPosition=15&amp;row=3&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+News&amp;rowType=Vertical+Carousel&amp;title=Left-Wing+Icon+Accused+Of+Serially+Sexually+Abusing+Young+Girls">extensive sexual abuse</a> of minors. The behavior is not distinct from other far-Left figures. From Josef Stalin to Mao to Kim Jong-il, communist and socialist leaders often share a troubling connection to sexual predation. We should not be surprised that evil ideology attracts evil people.
If the warning signs around Chávez have existed for decades, why did he become the face of an entire ethnicity in America? Partly, because he was effective at mobilizing Mexican Americans in California, using rhetoric that created a lasting “us vs. them” mentality. But how did that ideology extend to Texas?
Chávez never belonged in Tejano heritage the same way he does in Chicano culture. The Chicano culture and movement are a direct outgrowth of the California Hispanic labor movement in the ‘60s and ‘70s. On the other hand, the Tejano culture traces back to the Mexican settlers of Texas prior to Texas Independence and is a component of what created the Texas identity. 
That history is also tied to farming and a cowboy ethos that is incompatible with Chávez’s ideology. Texas agriculture thrived because of ranchers like my ancestors, who embraced a free-market approach, not because of unions or collectivist movements.
Before the New York Times exposé, one could argue that Chávez fought for Mexican Americans and deserved gratitude. Yet his legacy has encouraged a troubling mindset: To be loyal to one’s Hispanic heritage, one must embrace left-wing ideology. On campus, I was often labeled a “race traitor” at conservative events, accused of “wanting white approval,” or dismissed as “too white-passing” to comment on border and immigration issues.
The type of tribalism promoted by Chávez is just like any other kind of identity politics, limiting and stereotyping the people it is intended to empower. In a political climate in which Texas Hispanics are considering Republicans on the ballot, it is clear why the Left is feeling threatened.
So why is a street in Austin named after César Chávez? Why did his statue watch me as I walked to class? The answer is clear: ethnic tokenism. It was fitting for Bill Clinton to award him a Presidential Medal of Freedom and for Joe Biden to display his bust in the Oval Office. Chávez represents the Hispanic worker the political Left wishes we all were: obedient to a union boss and beholden to collectivist ideology.
The UFW announced it will not be celebrating César Chávez Day this year amid the allegations. The idol all Hispanics were once expected to adore is finally falling from his pedestal. My hope is that we do not replace him with another.
* * *
Ariana Guajardo is the Video Production Manager at the Texas Public Policy Foundation. She is the creator and host of &#8220;The Sweet Tea Series&#8221; and co-host of &#8220;The Hard Country,&#8221; where she and Joshua Treviño examine the history and modern tensions shaping U.S.–Mexico relations.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

United Farmer Workers Union Distances Itself From Founder Cesar Chavez After “Troubling Allegations”

The Left Hid César Chávez’s Rapes And Turned Him Into A Saint

The Left Hid César Chávez's Rapes And Turned Him Into A Saint

California

Civil Rights

Farming

Hispanics

Labor Unions

Leftists

Mexico

Opinion

Rape

I was playing poker on a Tuesday morning at the Texas Card House Social, the other big poker house in the Austin area, when the word came down: the Texas Alcohol and Beverage Commission had raided The Lodge. Rumors flew around as to why this might have been. People floated underage drinking, illegal private games, maybe a pedophile lurking in the player pool, but that all seemed pretty unlikely. The Lodge is a big business that recently hosted a major World Poker Tour tournament series. It’s not Goodwill Industries, but there’s hardly some sort of secret agenda lurking.
About an hour later, displaced Lodge players started to trickle into Texas Card House. The TABC had frozen all assets and confiscated all tournament chips. One guy, who’d been at The Lodge to play “The Daily Kickoff,” a $50 entry tournament representing the absolute lowest stakes possible in live poker, said TABC had made players put their hands on the table and then checked all their IDs before confiscating their tournament chips. No one knew exactly what was going on, save one basic fact: Texas poker was in trouble.
Well, now we know what was going on. Poker News has obtained the search and seizure affidavit that TABC served against The Lodge. In 2024, an agent named Douglas Bell received a &#8220;confidential report of some questionable financial activity&#8221; at The Lodge and began staking it out, even though the club occupies a huge storefront, as big as a Circuit City, that’s clearly visible from I-35 in Round Rock. TABC requested Lodge bank records, and then began sending agents in to play cards. They also inquired about hosting a private poker game at the club, a service that The Lodge does provide.
Poker News columnist <a href="https://x.com/ChadAHolloway">Chad Holloway</a> tweeted out the following: 
<blockquote>Additionally, a public complaint (#3824166) was filed with TABC on 04/03/2024 which referenced a 2005 opinion written by then Attorney General Greg Abbott that stated a business that holds an On-Premise alcoholic beverage permit could not hold poker tournaments where real money was at risk by participants.</blockquote>
Breaking news: some people, though usually not the successful ones, have a drink while playing poker. 
What does it all add up to? As we say in the Texas poker world: This is some bullsh*t.
Technically, gambling is illegal in Texas, unless it’s the state lottery. But for the better part of a decade, the poker industry has skirted the rules through a loophole that says private clubs can offer poker games if they don’t charge rake, a percentage of winnings taken out of each pot. Instead, they charge daily, yearly, or monthly membership fees, an hourly “seat fee” for cash games, or a percentage of the buy-in for tournaments.
Some risk-takers opened the first club in Texas, the Texas Card House, in a trailer in South Austin in 2014. That room which, as of this writing, still operates as a club called Bullets, moved its operations into a room next to a tire store in North Austin a few years later, and gradually turned into a palatial chain that operates several houses, large and small, throughout the state. In 2024, it expanded in 2024 into a huge room down the street from the tire store next to a locally-owned aquarium that’s far more seedy than most poker rooms. TCH Social is scheduled to host a World Series of Poker Circuit series in Austin later this spring.
The Lodge opened in a small storefront next to a Mexican restaurant in 2018, but by 2021 had moved into a much larger room next door. It brought in celebrity investors like poker vloggers Doug Polk, Brad Owen, and Andrew Neeme. Mostly through Polk’s incessant promotional efforts, it became one of the most desirable poker rooms in the world, hosting big-money tournaments, high-stakes YouTube cash games, and players from all over the world who came to Texas to see about the fuss. Maybe, given the legal Twilight Zone in which The Lodge and clubs like it were operating, the fuss was a little excessive.
The complaint against The Lodge lists five allegations. Three of them: &#8220;Promotion of gambling,&#8221; &#8220;keeping a gambling place,&#8221; and &#8220;possession of gambling devices, equipment, and paraphernalia,&#8221; are indisputable. Poker isn’t slots or roulette. There’s a major skill component. But let’s not fool ourselves.
The other two, more serious, allegations, &#8220;money laundering&#8221; and “engaging in organized criminal activity” are absolute nonsense. The Lodge is a nice place, with nice, hardworking employees, and (mostly) nice players. Unfortunately, because gambling is illegal in Texas, it might be in trouble anyway. One agent says that The Lodge never &#8220;asked about providing proof of, or the need to purchase a membership while inside the club.” Given that the club will not let me, or anyone, play in a tournament, not even The Daily Kickoff, without an active membership, that seems highly unlikely. But it’s also the least of The Lodge’s problems. The law has set its sights on the biggest card room in the country. Hundreds of people are out of a job. And poker players with tens of thousands of dollars, or more, in chips stored in private lock boxes stand to lose a life’s fortune, or, at the very least, several years of hard-earned profit.
I’ve logged thousands of hours at The Lodge, all day and night. On one memorable (at least to me) Sunday night four years ago, it hosted my biggest poker score ever, by far, when I took home $60,000 for finishing second in an obscure tournament which had cost $600 to enter. I paid substantial taxes out of that money, but I also paid for a couple of vacations and bought a used car that I drive around in to this day. Also, even though there have been plenty of wins (and losses) since then, I’m still playing poker with that money. So The Lodge is important to me, as it is to anyone who plays poker in Texas, and beyond.  But that’s of no concern to the state government.
It’s been a wild decade in the Texas poker boom. Great fortunes have been won and lost, and a lot of people have had a lot of fun. Now, it appears to be in serious danger.
* * *
Neal Pollack, is the author of 12 semi-bestselling books of fiction and nonfiction and is a three-time Jeopardy! champion.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Poker game

You Gotta Know When To Fold ’Em: Inside The Late Night Poker Raid In The Lone Star State

gambling

An Iraqi-born man who was arrested after entering a Texas elementary school clad in tactical gear and carrying a gun has been released back onto the streets.
Kyle Najm Chris, also known as Muhi Mohanad Najm, showed up at Zwink Elementary School in Spring, Texas, last Tuesday and walked into the front office with a load-bearing vest, a taser, and a holstered firearm, according to court records. Chris, who became a naturalized United States citizen in 2022, was arrested Wednesday and charged with possession of a prohibited weapon, a third-degree felony.
The 39-year-old has since posted his $75,000 bond and was released from custody Sunday, according to court records.
Chris allegedly walked into the school&#8217;s front office in tactical gear with a holstered firearm after another visitor failed to close the door behind them. A school employee asked Chris how he got in, and he told her the door was unlatched.
Chris also asked if there was armed security on school property, according to court documents.
He was asked to provide an ID, but didn&#8217;t give one, nor did he identify himself. Chris soon left the school and drove away.
Chris had a private investigator license and a Texas concealed handgun license, but did not have any ties to the school, <a href="https://www.khou.com/article/news/crime/man-enter-spring-elementary-school-armed-court-docs-show/285-941acaf7-09c3-4666-b479-0a8dafed017b" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to local news outlet KHOU.
Chris is required to be under 24-hour house arrest with a GPS monitor and is banned from going near any Klein ISD property, <a href="https://www.fox26houston.com/news/klein-isd-school-man-armed-gun-arrest-2026-march" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to Fox 26.
The incident comes amid a string of terror attacks on United States soil that have allegedly been committed by naturalized citizens.
Last Thursday, Mohamed Bailor Jalloh, a naturalized citizen born in Sierra Leone, opened fire at Old Dominion University, killing a decorated service member. Jalloh was an ex-National Guard soldier previously convicted of terrorism charges after he tried to join ISIS.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
BREAKING: <a href="https://twitter.com/FoxNews?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@FoxNews</a> has obtained a photo of the Austin, TX mass shooter, armed &amp; wearing a sweater that says “Property of Allah”. He has not been identified by authorities, but multiple federal law enforcement sources tell FOX he is a 53-year-old naturalized US citizen who was… <a href="https://t.co/YjyT8sIuBr">pic.twitter.com/YjyT8sIuBr</a>
— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) <a href="https://twitter.com/BillMelugin_/status/2028171028900266261?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 1, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Hours later, Ayman Mohamad Ghazali rammed a vehicle into a Michigan synagogue and opened fire on the building before he was taken out. Ghazali was born in Lebanon and became a naturalized United States citizen in 2016.
The alleged shooter who opened fire on an Austin bar on March 1 was also a naturalized United States citizen born in Senegal. Ndiaga Diagne, 53, was donning clothes with the Iranian flag design and the words “Property of Allah&#8221; when he fired the shots that killed three people.
The pattern of attacks has resulted in calls to reform the legal immigration system, which makes denaturalization difficult, even in cases where crimes have been committed. In most situations, federal authorities would have to find evidence of fraud tied to their immigration cases in order to pursue denaturalization, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/what-happens-when-a-naturalized-citizen-commits-terror-in-america?author=Jennie+Taer&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=1&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=What+Happens+When+A+Naturalized+Citizen+Commits+Terror+In+America%3F">experts recently told The Daily Wire</a>.
“We’re not talking about a crime, we’re talking about an immigration law violation,” immigration attorney Matthew Kolken said.
“Even though the United States wants to denaturalize somebody because they engaged in an act of terrorism and murdered people in this country, the way that you would effectuate a denaturalization is if you discover a fraud that was not disclosed in furtherance of their immigration journey,” Kolken added.
FBI Director Kash Patel said on X Tuesday that &#8220;current law makes revoking citizenship extremely difficult unless fraud in the naturalization process can be proven,&#8221; adding that it creates a &#8220;gap&#8221; that &#8220;leaves serious national security concerns, and it’s a reality we have to confront head on.&#8221;

Soldier in gloves holding miltary armor vest.

Iraqi-Born Man Released From Jail After Showing Up To Elementary School In Tactical Gear With Gun

Crime

Immigration

School Shooting

U.S.

A man shot and killed by Dallas police during a SWAT standoff this week had previously served as a security guard for Rep. Jasmine Crockett, according to multiple law enforcement sources.
Dallas police tracked the suspect, who went by different aliases — but was going by the name Mike King — to a parking garage at Children&#8217;s Medical Center Dallas late Wednesday night, Dallas Police Chief Daniel Comeaux said during a press conference Thursday morning.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
OIS at 1900 Medical District Drive <a href="https://t.co/cWOeKf0akr">https://t.co/cWOeKf0akr</a>
— Dallas Police Dept (@DallasPD) <a href="https://twitter.com/DallasPD/status/2031981226597499119?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 12, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Officers located the man barricaded inside a vehicle in the garage. After deploying tear gas to force him out, police say the suspect emerged and pointed a gun at SWAT officers.
Officers opened fire, killing the suspect at the scene.
Multiple law enforcement sources have confirmed to <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/news/dallas-police-killing-raises-questions-about-congresswoman-security/">CBS News</a> that the suspect had been operating under several aliases and was known publicly as Mike King. He allegedly ran a company called “Off Duty Police Services,” which connected North Texas police officers with off-duty security jobs. The Daily Wire reached out to a company of that name in the Dallas area for comment to confirm the claim, but did not receive a response.
Sources say the man was wanted for allegedly impersonating a law enforcement officer and had claimed to be one while operating the business. <a href="https://x.com/CollinRugg/status/2032621347978068016">Images</a> obtained by reporters show King standing close to Crockett at public events and on the campaign trail during her recent run for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate seat.
Law enforcement sources also said King oversaw teams of security officers working at several downtown Dallas hotels and events, and that he frequently drove a replica undercover police vehicle. Authorities say the vehicle allegedly used stolen license plates taken from cars outside a military recruiting office.
Federal Election Commission receipts <a href="https://www.fec.gov/data/disbursements/?data_type=processed&amp;committee_id=C00795450&amp;two_year_transaction_period=2026&amp;disbursement_description=security">reviewed</a> by The Daily Wire show that a person identified as Mike King received payments from Crockett for “security services” as recently as last year.
Crockett’s office has declined to comment on the situation. The Dallas Police Department has also said it will provide additional information as the investigation continues.
The Texas Democrat, first elected to Congress in 2023, has been a prominent left-wing voice in the House and a frequent critic of Donald Trump and Republican lawmakers.
The incident raises questions about how the suspect, who authorities say had a criminal background and was using multiple aliases, was able to operate a business placing officers in off-duty security work and secure a role providing protection for a sitting member of Congress.

police car at night

Man Killed In Dallas SWAT Standoff Worked As Security For Jasmine Crockett: Report

Congress

Dallas

Jasmine Crockett

A recurring theme throughout Scripture is that those who are not following the Lord, who are, in fact, in open rebellion against him, will nevertheless claim to be his standard bearers in the hopes of harnessing his power for their cause.
We see it in 1 Samuel 4-5 when disobedient Israel decides to carry the Ark of the Covenant into battle, believing its presence will guarantee their victory.
We see it in Jeremiah 7 when the Israelites are sure that the Lord is on their side, despite their idol worship, because they possess the temple.
We see it in Acts 19 when seven men who know nothing of Christ try to cast out demons in his name and are left naked, bloody, and fleeing for their lives.
And we see it today in the Senate candidacy of James Talarico, the Democrats’ great white hope for convincing Texas voters that they, too, are representing Jesus in the public square.
The significant electoral advantage Republicans enjoy with Christians — colloquially known as the “God Gap” — has been an acknowledged problem for the Left since the 1990s. But after years of being broadly antagonistic toward faith, including <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/09/democrats-shift-language-on-israel-remove-god-given-from-platform" target="_blank" rel="noopener">removing</a> <a href="https://cbn.com/news/politics/exclusive-democratic-convention-meetings-omit-under-god-pledge-allegiance" target="_blank" rel="noopener">references</a> to God from their party platform and from the Pledge of Allegiance during caucus meetings, Democrats are suddenly realizing they may find more success if they don’t alienate every voter who ever darkened the door of a church.
To some degree, the most successful Democrats have always done this. Bill Clinton regularly trotted out his born-again bona fides. Barack Obama, too, referenced his church membership to allay concerns that he was hostile toward religion. And, of course, black candidates like Raphael Warnock not only use the language of faith to win votes, they use actual pulpits in Sunday services.
But Talarico, a member of the liberal mainline Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), is doing something different. And it has the legacy media cheering.
Vox <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20260303235619/https:/www.vox.com/politics/480894/james-talarico-jasmine-crockett-faith-love-healing-texas-voters-senate-primary-democratic-religion-left" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reports</a> that he is “reclaim[ing] Christianity from the Right” by teaching Democrats a “better way to talk about faith.” MS NOW (formerly MSNBC) <a href="https://www.ms.now/opinion/james-talarico-wins-senate-democratic-primary-christian-faith" target="_blank" rel="noopener">says</a> that his “unapologetic embrace of his Christian faith sets him apart from other rising Democratic stars.” And the New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/09/us/politics/talarico-christian-religion-texas-senate.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">crows</a> that he “poses a new kind of threat to Republicans” through his “matter-of-fact critique of how faith has come to be expressed in the American church.”
What they mean by all of this is that Talarico is doing more than the time-honored tactic of simply claiming Christian identity to woo faith-friendly voters. He’s out on the campaign trail teaching doctrine. False doctrine.
In one heavily political sermon, Talarico <a href="https://x.com/Protestia/status/2029269294362628217?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noopener">appealed to</a> a heretical Gnostic text, the Gospel of Thomas, to claim that Jesus is a “<a href="https://x.com/Protestia/status/2029264646167728143?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noopener">radical feminist</a>” and Christianity is a “feminist religion.” He <a href="https://www.facebook.com/HerzogFoundation/videos/james-talarico-is-a-democratic-member-of-the-texas-house-of-representatives-who-/1259722596098165/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">has described</a> God as &#8220;nonbinary” to explain his support for providing transgender surgeries and puberty blockers to children. On the Joe Rogan Experience, he cited Luke 1, in which the Angel Gabriel tells Mary that she will conceive the Messiah, to defend policy proposals like up-to-birth abortion, infanticide for babies who survive abortion, and opening abortion clinics in federal buildings.
&#8220;I say all this in the context of abortion,” Talarico <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jOGPvMftb8" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told Rogan</a>, “because before God comes over Mary, and we have the incarnation, God asks for Mary’s consent … 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.”
He added that Genesis 2:7 (“Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being”) — means that &#8220;life starts when you take your first breath.”
For someone who claims the mantle of Christ for his candidacy, Talarico shows remarkably little loyalty to him. On Ezra Klein, he <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sa6fiO2EgJ4" target="_blank" rel="noopener">endorsed universalism</a>, saying, “I believe Christianity points to the truth. I also think other religions of love point to the same truth. I think of different religious traditions as different languages.” In fact, Talarico doesn’t seem to view Jesus as a savior at all. During his appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, he <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiTJ7Pz_59A" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told the audience</a> one need not even be a Christian to get into Heaven.
&#8220;Jesus in Matthew 25 tells us exactly how you and I are going to be saved,” he said. “By feeding the hungry, by healing the sick &#8230; Nothing about going to church &#8230; nothing about even being a Christian.&#8221;
Anyone with even a passing familiarity with Scripture will instantly spot how grossly Talarico distorts God’s word. The problem is, in a country where <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/survey-find-major-gaps-in-americans-religious-knowledge" target="_blank" rel="noopener">fewer than half</a> of Americans can identify the four gospels, most don’t have that passing familiarity and can be easily duped.
Whether it be John Cornyn or Ken Paxton, Talarico’s Republican opponent in this race will certainly try to poke holes in his religious assertions, as will conservative pundits. But if it is only other politicos warning against him, the impression onlookers will very likely have is that these are simply political disagreements. That would be disastrous for the spiritual education of a public <a href="https://www.barna.com/research/belief-in-jesus-rises/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">increasingly interested</a> in Christianity. Because it is not political arguments he is making, but theological ones. And that is why the most public rebukes of Talarico must come from pastors.
The Bible gives clear commands in passages like Titus 1:9-11, Ephesians 5:11, and Jude 3 that shepherds must oppose false teachers and expose their errors to protect the flock. It also offers plenty of examples to follow.
From Jeremiah publicly condemning the false prophet Hananiah in the temple courtyard for making the people “trust in a lie,” to the Apostle Paul sarcastically calling out the Judaizers, to Jesus himself ferociously reproving the Pharisees, Scripture gives us picture after picture of watchmen on the walls sounding the alarm against false teaching. The need for that alarm is no less just because the false teaching happens to occur in the context of an election.
Many high-profile conservative pastors have shown little reticence in calling out President Donald Trump for <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lW9MCulXr1w" target="_blank" rel="noopener">misusing Scripture</a> on occasion, and they are right to do so. They are often less eager to “punch left” for fear of being seen as too political.
Yet the Left’s most sacredly held social positions — abortion on demand, sexual perversion as a protected identity — are in direct conflict with a text that tells us God knew us in the womb and calls it an abomination for a man to pretend to be a woman. It is not that the American church is becoming too political; it is that our policies have become so immoral that the church cannot stay silent.
Left-wing actors twisting Scripture out of all recognition to give spiritual legitimacy to their positions is a growing problem that shepherds will have to contend with in order to faithfully discharge their duties, no matter how Talarico’s race turns out.
Just last month, Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQIlDy_dBgI" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> that he vetoed a bill to protect children from transgender procedures because he’s a Christian and he’s following Christ’s command to love his neighbor. In July, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) <a href="https://www.facebook.com/RepJeffries/videos/the-scripture-teaches-us-to-care-for-the-poor-the-sick-and-the-afflicted-%EF%B8%8F-matth/710975971700116/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">invoked</a> Matthew 25 in a floor speech opposing the budget bill.
Even the agitators who invaded Cities Church in St. Paul, profanely screaming in the faces of crying children about their white privilege, claimed they were following the model of Christ in turning over tables in the temple.
Before his death last year, John MacArthur, one of the foremost preachers of our era, did not hesitate to confront California Governor Gavin Newsom when he misused Scripture to defend his policies. In 2022, when Newsom began rolling out billboards that cited Matthew 25 to promote abortion, MacArthur issued an <a href="https://www.gty.org/blogs/B220928/an-open-letter-to-governor-newsom" target="_blank" rel="noopener">open letter</a>:
<blockquote>Almighty God says in His Word, “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people” (Proverbs 14:34). Scripture also teaches that it is the chief duty of any civic leader to reward those who do well and to punish evildoers (Romans 13:1–7). You have not only failed in that responsibility; you routinely turn it on its head, rewarding evildoers and punishing the righteous…
In mid-September, you revealed to the entire nation how thoroughly rebellious against God you are when you sponsored billboards across America promoting the slaughter of children, whom He creates in the womb (Psalm 139:13–16; Isaiah 45:9–12). You further compounded the wickedness of that murderous campaign with a reprehensible act of gross blasphemy, quoting the very words of Jesus from Mark 12:31 as if you could somehow twist His meaning and arrogate His name in favor of butchering unborn infants. You used the name and the words of Christ to promote the credo of Molech (Leviticus 20:1–5). It would be hard to imagine a greater sacrilege.</blockquote>
Charles Spurgeon didn’t hesitate either.
In the 19th century, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels were making inroads by selling the British working class on their theories. Though these were in the political realm, they crossed over into the religious. Thus Spurgeon, the most famous preacher of that era, felt duty-bound to address them, warning that embracing socialism would leave “all society shattered, and men wandering like monster icebergs on the sea, dashing against each other, and being at last utterly destroyed.” He then added a point, highlighting that the religious and the political often overlap: “Those who love the Church of God feel heavy at heart because the teachers of the people cause them to err. Even from a national point of view, men of foresight see cause for grave concern.”
Much more than any other Western nation, America is still broadly Christian, if not always in individual devotion, at least in cultural allegiance. The silver lining of moments like this, when false doctrine is being spread from such high places, is that it offers preachers of the truth an opportunity to gain new hearers.
I cannot remember a time when Christianity was being discussed and debated so broadly. The problem is, too much of that talk is not profitable and requires a sound teacher to offer a rebuttal. And pastors should be jealous of their territory, over which Caesar holds no authority or intimidation. If the wolf is a senator rather than a seminarian, you still confront and expel the wolf.
If you don’t, don’t be surprised when it devours a few of your sheep.

Texas State Representative Talarico Holds Primary Election Night Event

Pastors Have A Duty To Rebuke James Talarico

Christianity

Churches

Nine defendants in the anti-ICE Prairieland Detention Center riot last Independence Day in Texas were convicted in federal court on Friday.
The defendants were convicted on a range of charges including rioting, “providing material support to terrorists,” “conspiracy to use and carry an explosive,” and &#8220;using and carrying an explosive&#8221; in the North Texas Antifa Cell attack that left a local police officer shot in the neck.
In a <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndtx/pr/antifa-cell-members-convicted-prairieland-ice-detention-center-shooting" target="_blank" rel="noopener">statement</a>, FBI Dallas Special Agent in Charge R. Joseph Rothrock described the incident as a “coordinated attack” on the facility where illegal immigrants were being held before deportation from the United States.
Two individuals were also convicted of “conspiracy to conceal documents.”
According to the Department of Justice, Benjamin Song was considered the attack’s “leader,” who gave out firearms and recruited people for the effort. Song was convicted of attempted murder of federal officers for the “unlawful attempt to kill with malice aforethought the Alvarado Police Officer” and for unlawful discharging of a firearm in “the attempted murder of two correctional officers and an Alvarado Police Officer,” as he was the one who shot the officer in the neck.
Song successfully fled the scene but was arrested on July 15, 2025, while law enforcement arrested most of the other individuals involved “shortly after,” the DOJ <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndtx/pr/antifa-cell-members-convicted-prairieland-ice-detention-center-shooting">said</a>.
Song could face up to life behind bars, with a minimum of 20 years, according to a Department of Justice press release. Seven of the individuals could get 10-60 years in prison, and Daniel Rolando Sanchez Estrada could be sentenced to up to 40 years in prison.
“These guilty verdicts and convictions rightly reflect the vicious, armed attack that these Antifa cell members planned and executed against law enforcement and detention center officers on the night of July 4 last year,” U.S. Attorney Ryan Raybould said in a statement.
“Their terrorist acts, attempted murder, vandalism, and explosives launched at a detention facility were a far cry from some peaceful protest or First Amendment expression. Because of the prompt action of first responders that night and tenacious work of our law enforcement partners in tandem with the prosecutors in my office, sixteen people have been brought to justice for these violent acts and their attempts to conceal them. We will continue in this mission to hold others accountable who perpetrate such violence and fund these ANTIFA groups in the Northern District of Texas.”
Notably, the attackers used &#8220;monikers&#8221; in group chats to plan the riot. The attackers also used fireworks and committed acts of vandalism, including spray-painting “F*ck You Pigs” on a building.

Portland Antifa

America’s First Antifa Terrorism Trial Just Reached A Verdict

Antifa

Courts

Department of Justice

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)

Texas Senate Democratic nominee James Talarico is facing scrutiny over social media posts from his time as a teacher in a public middle school, including assignments in which students were instructed to write &#8220;Obama memoirs” and encouraged to watch the Democratic National Convention.
Facebook posts reviewed by The Daily Wire from Talarico&#8217;s teacher page during the 2011 and 2012 school years show the then-sixth-grade language arts instructor incorporating his own political perspectives at Jeremiah Rhodes Middle School in San Antonio.
In a November 13, 2012, post, days after President Barack Obama defeated Republican Mitt Romney, Talarico <a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=530403600320566&amp;set=pb.100066594441728.-2207520000&amp;type=3">posted</a>: “Today, we finished writing our Obama memoirs. We&#8217;ve been learning about narrative non-fiction writing like memoirs for the past 2 weeks.”
“Students wrote a memoir of Election Night from the point of view of a member of the Obama family. Awesome job, Wildcats!” he added. A photo accompanying the post showed a student essay beneath the word, &#8220;Victory!!!!!!&#8221;
&nbsp;
<div id="attachment_1058609" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1058609" class="size-medium wp-image-1058609" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/Screenshot-2026-03-12-at-8.57.19-AM-300x166.png" alt="Texas Senate Democratic nominee James Talarico had his students write &quot;Obama memoirs.&quot; " width="300" height="166" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/Screenshot-2026-03-12-at-8.57.19-AM-300x166.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/Screenshot-2026-03-12-at-8.57.19-AM-1024x566.png 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/Screenshot-2026-03-12-at-8.57.19-AM-768x424.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/Screenshot-2026-03-12-at-8.57.19-AM-1536x849.png 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/Screenshot-2026-03-12-at-8.57.19-AM-2048x1132.png 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Texas Senate Democratic nominee James Talarico had his students write &#8220;Obama memoirs.&#8221;</div>
In another <a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=531684123525847&amp;set=pb.100066594441728.-2207520000&amp;type=3" target="_blank" rel="noopener">post</a>, Talarico highlighted the student memoirs on a classroom wall alongside images of the Obama family and the Obama campaign logo.
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<div id="attachment_1058611" style="width: 410px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1058611" class=" wp-image-1058611" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/Screenshot-2026-03-12-at-8.57.45-AM-300x137.png" alt="Talarico’s wall of “Obama memoirs.”" width="400" height="183" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/Screenshot-2026-03-12-at-8.57.45-AM-300x137.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/Screenshot-2026-03-12-at-8.57.45-AM-1024x467.png 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/Screenshot-2026-03-12-at-8.57.45-AM-768x350.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/Screenshot-2026-03-12-at-8.57.45-AM-1536x700.png 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/Screenshot-2026-03-12-at-8.57.45-AM-2048x933.png 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px" />Talarico’s wall of “Obama memoirs.”</div>
Other posts show students participating in “debate bingo” during the presidential and vice presidential debates and being asked which candidate they thought won.
On September 4, 2012, Talarico <a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=497685506925709&amp;set=pb.100066594441728.-2207520000&amp;type=3" target="_blank" rel="noopener">encouraged</a> his students to watch then-San Antonio Democratic Mayor Julian Castro deliver the keynote address at the DNC.
“Tonight, our own San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro will give the keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention!” Talarico wrote. “Mayor Castro grew up near Rhodes Middle School although he went to Tafolla MS. You can watch his speech tonight at 9pm on WOAI or KENS 5.”
&nbsp;
<div id="attachment_1058613" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1058613" class="size-medium wp-image-1058613" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/Screenshot-2026-03-12-at-8.56.54-AM-300x170.png" alt="Talarico encouraging his students to watch then-San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro’s speech at the 2012 Democratic National Convention. " width="300" height="170" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/Screenshot-2026-03-12-at-8.56.54-AM-300x170.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/Screenshot-2026-03-12-at-8.56.54-AM-1016x576.png 1016w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/Screenshot-2026-03-12-at-8.56.54-AM-768x435.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/Screenshot-2026-03-12-at-8.56.54-AM-1536x871.png 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/Screenshot-2026-03-12-at-8.56.54-AM-2048x1161.png 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Talarico encouraging his students to watch then-San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro’s speech at the 2012 Democratic National Convention.</div>
Photos from the classroom also show a “free thinker” wall featuring public figures including Obama, Castro, leftist activist Dolores Huerta, Cesar Chavez, Bill Gates, and Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, and various writers and artists, according to a September 2011 <a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=275448369149425&amp;set=pb.100066594441728.-2207520000&amp;type=3" target="_blank" rel="noopener">post</a>.
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<div id="attachment_1058615" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1058615" class="size-medium wp-image-1058615" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/Screenshot-2026-03-12-at-8.55.48-AM-300x126.png" alt="Talarico’s “free thinker” wall highlighting numerous liberal leaders. " width="300" height="126" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/Screenshot-2026-03-12-at-8.55.48-AM-300x126.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/Screenshot-2026-03-12-at-8.55.48-AM-1024x430.png 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/Screenshot-2026-03-12-at-8.55.48-AM-768x322.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/Screenshot-2026-03-12-at-8.55.48-AM-1536x645.png 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/Screenshot-2026-03-12-at-8.55.48-AM-2048x859.png 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Talarico’s “free thinker” wall highlighting numerous liberal leaders.</div>
The Daily Wire reached out to Talarico&#8217;s campaign and the San Antonio Independent School District for comment.
Republicans have commented on the resurfaced posts.
“From these Facebook posts it is clear he was pushing a partisan political message to middle school students in a deeply inappropriate way,&#8221; said Matt Mackowiak, a senior advisor to incumbent Sen. John Cornyn&#8217;s campaign. &#8220;It makes you wonder what he was teaching those kids in class behind closed doors.”
Cornyn and Attorney General Ken Paxton are headed to a May 26 runoff in the Republican primary, as both campaigns hope to earn the endorsement of President Donald Trump. The winner will face Talarico in November. The Cook Political Report currently rates the general election as &#8220;Likely Republican.&#8221;

James_Barack

The ‘Obama Family POV’ Assignment Dem James Talarico Had Students Write

Julian Castro

The effort to get the SAVE America Act to President Donald Trump’s desk intensified on Wednesday, when Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) released an op-ed highlighting that he would back “whatever changes to Senate rules” were deemed necessary in order to pass the bill.
Cornyn’s op-ed comes as he and Attorney General Ken Paxton are battling for Trump&#8217;s endorsement in the heated Texas Republican Senate primary that is already headed to a May 26 runoff election.
The president has said that the SAVE America Act is his top legislative priority, even vowing not to sign any other legislation until he sees it on his desk, and some Republicans have suggested using the “talking filibuster” — or ending the filibuster altogether — in order to get around Democratic obstruction. The measure would require documentary proof of citizenship for voter registration and voter ID at the ballot box.
“For many years, I believed that if the U.S. Senate scrapped the filibuster, Texas and our nation would stand to lose more than we would gain,” Cornyn wrote in his op-ed for the <a href="https://nypost.com/2026/03/11/opinion/sen-cornyn-why-the-save-act-matters-more-than-the-filibuster/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">New York Post</a>.
“My fellow conservatives and I have proudly used the 60-vote threshold to protect the country from all sorts of bad ideas and dangerous policies,” he added, saying that “when the reality on the ground changes, leaders must take stock and adapt.”
“Today, Democrats are weaponizing the Senate’s rules to block the SAVE America Act, defund the Department of Homeland Security and hurt the American people — all to spite President Donald Trump. But they say openly that if these same rules ever get in Democrats’ way, they won’t hesitate to rip them up,” he said, noting how many Democrats have sought to get rid of the filibuster in the past.
Critics of using a “talking filibuster” — or ending the practice altogether — have warned that it could open the floodgates to certain legislative proposals that the Democrats, and perhaps a small number of Republicans, could pass.
“A lot of that is, it&#8217;s in that kind of, you know, paid influencer ecosystem,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune told <a href="https://x.com/brennanleach/status/2031083867503743376?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NBC News</a> on Monday.
“What people don’t realize, I think, is that’s unlimited debate but it’s also unlimited amendments,” Thune has previously warned, according to <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5777802-talking-filibuster-gop-debate/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Hill</a>.
Attorney General Ken Paxton used Cornyn&#8217;s op-ed as an opportunity to attack the incumbent senator, reminding everyone that he had posted on X one week prior that he “would consider dropping out of this race if Senate Leadership agrees to lift the filibuster and passes the SAVE America Act.”
“John Cornyn did exactly what I predicted. In one week, I&#8217;ve made him more conservative than in the past 24 years,” Paxton posted Wednesday. “The historic flip-flop&#8217;s great and all, but why aren&#8217;t you calling out your buddies like McConnell opposing the bill? Tell the American people who&#8217;s opposing this.&#8221;
The Republican primary has taken a strikingly personal tone as the runoff approaches, with the Cornyn campaign releasing a commercial on Friday regarding Paxton’s personal scandals and accusing the sitting attorney general of breaking several of the Ten Commandments.
Democrats have begun coalescing around state Sen. James Talarico, who defeated Rep. Jasmine Crockett in the primary last week — but according to the Cook Political Report, the general election race still skews “Likely Republican.”

Sen. John Cornyn

The Fight Over Proof Of Citizenship To Vote Reaches Boiling Point

2026 midterm

election integrity

John Cornyn

Ken Paxton

When asked to name something he loved other than his family or friends, the Democrat hoping to turn a Texas Senate seat blue said “trans children.”
James Talarico, a state lawmaker who won the Democrat primary in Texas last week, listed &#8220;trans children&#8221; as the “something that&#8221; he loved &#8220;that’s not family or friends” during an August 2023 podcast <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CligU7twvE" target="_blank" rel="noopener">appearance.</a> The clip, unearthed by The Daily Wire, highlights the radical record Talarico has attempted to downplay as he fights to win a Senate seat in a state President Donald Trump won by almost 14 points in 2024.
“I love, I&#8217;m just saying this because it&#8217;s all on my mind, the trans children who showed up yesterday at the state capitol to advocate for their humanity. They shouldn&#8217;t have to, but it was an inspiration to watch,” he said on the “A Superbloom” podcast.
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<iframe style="aspect-ratio: 16/9; max-width: 100%; width: 100%; margin: 20px auto 5px; border: 0;" src="https://player.mux.com/rOVpWXMjgf00cW3h6J9Nqik3VEkZdY5Z3?metadata-video-content-type=embed_video&amp;metadata-video-id=c3acc7b0-1ac3-47ae-9c51-285501068557&amp;metadata-video-stream-type=on-demand&amp;metadata-video-title=2026-03-09%3A%20James%20Talarico%20Transgenderism&amp;poster=https%3A%2F%2Fdailywireplus-v2.imgix.net%2Fimages%2Fembedded-videos%2Fefeb6469-f2a2-44e3-8579-8059a1fe647a.png&amp;autoplay=false&amp;accent-color=%23DB3D3B&amp;primary-color=%23ffffff&amp;secondary-color=%23000000" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
Credit: Superbloom Podcast
</div>
Talarico, who defeated Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett in a contentious Democrat primary last week, has a history of pushing transgender ideology in the Texas state legislature and opposing legislation that would protect kids from transgender procedures. He <a href="https://journals.house.texas.gov/HJRNL/88R/PDF/88RDAY63FINAL.PDF" target="_blank" rel="noopener">voted against</a> a 2023 law that protected kids from transgender surgeries and cross-sex hormone procedures.
Talarico will face either incumbent Senator John Cornyn or Attorney General Ken Paxton, who are headed to a runoff election after a contentious Republican primary in May. Both have opposed transgender procedures on kids.
Talarico once claimed during a committee hearing that there are more than two sexes.
“The one thing I want us to all be aware of is that modern science obviously recognizes that there are many more than two biological sexes,” he <a href="https://nypost.com/2021/04/26/texas-lawmaker-sparks-backlash-for-arguing-there-are-six-sexes/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>, pointing to genetic abnormalities. “In fact, there are six.”
The Republican party says the video demonstrates that Talarico is a &#8220;sick freak.&#8221;
&#8220;James Talarico is a sick freak obsessed with talking to kids about sex changes,&#8221; GOP spokesman Zach Kraft told The Daily Wire. &#8220;I am not sure which one of his six genders he &#8216;identifies&#8217; as, but he needs to keep that to himself and stay away from children.&#8221;
The Democrat lawmaker, who has attempted to center his persona around his Christian faith, has claimed that parents who don’t “affirm” their children’s gender confusion are abusive. During an April 2019 hearing, he spoke out against a bill that would clarify the definition of abuse to make sure it would punish parents who didn’t accept their child’s so-called gender identity.
Talarico <a href="https://house.texas.gov/videos/5129" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> he considered “unwillingness” to “acknowledge a child&#8217;s gender identity” as “abusive” or “destructive” to the child.
“I say that because if that&#8217;s our belief, a foundational belief, then the idea of being neutral on any kind of abuse seems worrisome to us, at the very least,” he said. “ And any idea about keeping it private also seems worrisome, because abuse is not something to be kept private or to be neutral on.”
“There&#8217;s only one person who can determine a child&#8217;s gender identity, and that&#8217;s the child,” Talarico said, <a href="https://house.texas.gov/videos/5129" target="_blank" rel="noopener">claiming</a> that accepting a child’s perception of his or her gender was a “life and death issue” and that parents could be pushing their kids to commit suicide if they don’t affirm their confusion.
Talarico also <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CVD-Gi-FbWh/?hl=en&amp;img_index=3" target="_blank" rel="noopener">attacked</a> Republicans for passing a bill in October 2021 keeping males out of female sports.
“Texas Republicans have passed their anti-trans bill. Over and over, Christians used scripture to justify bullying trans kids,&#8221; he said at the time. &#8220;I told them in my faith, God is non-binary.&#8221;

MixCollage-09-Mar-2026-01-04-PM-2287

WATCH: James Talarico Says He Loves ‘Trans Children’ In Unearthed Clip

2026 Midterms

Transgender

Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales of Texas said Thursday that he will end his re-election campaign just one day after admitting to having an affair with a former staffer who died by suicide last year. 
Gonzales said in a statement that “after deep reflection,” he has decided not to seek re-election in Texas’s 23rd Congressional District. His announcement comes after he was forced into a GOP primary runoff by challenger Brandon Herrera and calls from fellow Republicans to drop out of the race. 
“After deep reflection and with the support of my loving family, I have decided not to seek re-election while serving out the rest of this Congress with the same commitment I’ve always had to my district. Through the rest of my term, I will continue fighting for my constituents, for whom I am eternally grateful,” he <a href="https://x.com/RepTonyGonzales/status/2029772094481842245">said</a>. 
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA), Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN), and GOP Conference Chairwoman Lisa McClain (R-MI) all called on Thursday for Gonzales to end his campaign. 
“The Ethics Committee has announced an investigation into Congressman Tony Gonzales’s conduct, and we urge them to act expeditiously,” the Republicans said. “In the meantime, Leadership has asked Congressman Gonzales to withdraw from his race for re-election.”
That call came after Gonzales <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/after-admitting-affair-with-staffer-texas-rep-faces-gop-calls-to-end-re-election-bid?author=Zach+Jewell&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=2&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=After+Admitting+Affair+With+Staffer%2C+Texas+Rep+Faces+GOP+Calls+To+End+Re-Election+Bid">admitted</a> to an affair with former staffer Regina Santos-Aviles, a 35-year-old married mother who died in September 2025 after dousing herself in an accelerant and setting herself on fire at her home in Uvalde, Texas. 
Gonzales said on Wednesday that his affair with Santos-Aviles ended in the summer of 2024, more than a year before Santos-Aviles committed suicide. Text messages <a href="https://www.expressnews.com/news/article/tony-gonzales-santos-aviles-affair-husband-21360950.php">published</a> last month by the San Antonio Express-News appear to show Gonzales making sexual requests to Santos-Aviles.
On Tuesday, Gonzales was forced into a GOP runoff after Herrera took 43.3% of the primary vote to Gonzales&#8217;s 41.7%. Herrera, a YouTuber and gun manufacturer, thanked Gonzales for dropping out. 
“I appreciate Tony Gonzales for making the appropriate decision,” he said. “I look forward to being the voice of TX23 that our district deserves. From the border, to oil theft, water rights, data centers, and many other issues. It’s an honor to be chosen and together we will make Texas proud.”

House Republicans Hold News Conference On Border Security

Texas Republican’s Affair With Staffer Derails Re-Election Campaign

Mike Johnson

Politics

“Before we go further, we need to acknowledge that our trans community needs abortion care, too.” That’s what Texas Democratic Senate candidate and State Representative James Talarico <a href="https://x.com/Protestia/status/2029225998416245095">claims</a> in a video circulating on X, in which he preaches at a church about the intersection of transgenderism and abortion. To further his argument, Talarico claims that “our neighbors with a uterus” have become “the property of the state” via laws protecting unborn life.
This isn’t the kind of thing that Texas Christians hear in their churches, unless they’re going to one whose orthodoxy is determined by the Democratic Party.
Other bangers from that same <a href="https://www.facebook.com/watch/?mibextid=wwXIfr&amp;v=422454413430414&amp;rdid=dVHm68J8e6TVbN9U">sermon</a> include: “Being Christian and being pro-choice are absolutely consistent, because Christianity is a feminist religion”, and “Did they teach you in Sunday school that Jesus Christ Himself was a radical feminist?”
It’s as if Democratic consultants who have no idea what a Christian believes asked an A.I. to create their perfect candidate. He’s clean-cut, well-mannered, and he’s out there on Sundays bringing the heresy.
Talarico is a leftist atheist&#8217;s idea of a good Christian: a progressive culture warrior in lockstep with the secular world and uninterested in foundational Christian principles like sin, repentance, or salvation.
The idea that it’s possible — and normal — for a person to change sexes, and that such a person deserves the right to murder her child, is theologically beyond the pale. It’s also political insanity in a state like Texas.
But we shouldn’t underestimate the possibility that Talarico’s lies could have some appeal among young people desperately searching for meaning in life.
While Bible-believing Christians will easily see that Talarico’s representation of Christianity is incompatible with Scripture, Americans less familiar with God’s Word are at risk of falling for his heresy hook, line, and sinker. Democrats are counting on this — and the only thing it will cost the people who listen is their souls.
For them, it’s a small price to pay to turn Texas Blue.
Unfortunately, Talarico has had help in spreading his gospel of manipulation to the masses — including via the most famous spiritual seeker in America, Joe Rogan. 
On a July 18, 2025, episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, Talarico claimed that his pro-abortion views are informed by Mary’s choice to bear Jesus. The angel Gabriel, Talarico says, asked Mary “if this was something she wanted to do,” which apparently denotes the importance of consent to pregnancy.
If Mary had said no, presumably Jesus is destined not for the manger but for the same ash heap Talarico would consign so many other children.
Of course, the lawmaker’s presentation of the passage is entirely inaccurate. The angel asks Mary no such thing. Talarico’s attempt to use Mary’s acceptance of Jesus’s conception to justify legally poisoning and dismembering babies before birth isn’t idiotic; it’s intentionally and absurdly evil. Viewing Jesus’s advent in this way perverts the gospel: His miraculous arrival was a rescue mission to save us from our sin, not a politically convenient allegory about bodily autonomy.
In 2021, reacting to Texas’ ban on transing minors he <a href="https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1016410325787907">said</a>, “Texas Republicans have passed their anti-trans bill.  Over and over Christians used scripture to justify bullying trans kids. I told them in my faith, God is non-binary.”
God refers to Himself repeatedly in the scriptures as King, Father, and Lord. The Creator of all things made us male and female (Gen. 1:27), making gender fluidity and “transitioning” genders both a scientific and Biblical impossibility.
Getting this wrong means misunderstanding both human nature and God Himself. And Talarico is smart enough to know he is getting it wrong on purpose.
On the political side, the outcomes of such positions are disastrous. Encouraging men, women, boys, and girls to mutilate their bodies and lie about their biology leads to the possibility of lifelong <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6626312/">sterility</a>, <a href="https://www.jahonline.org/article/S1054-139X(24)00123-4/fulltext">mental instability</a>, and increased rates of <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40250154/">suicide</a>. The insistence that males can become female and vice versa has set itself up as an enemy of free speech, parental rights, and child protection.
Abortion murders an innocent human being, and no one, including women who believe they’re men, should have the right to kill a baby.
In the Texas House, Talarico <a href="https://justfacts.votesmart.org/candidate/key-votes/177454/james-talarico">voted</a> against every measure to protect unborn babies, gender-deceived children, and parental rights. He is on the record supporting the abolition of prisons. “It’s hard to imagine a world without prisons,” he remarked. “But just because it’s hard doesn’t mean you shouldn’t.”
Talarico is a radical in every sense, an unmitigated prophet of falsehood who seeks to twist the language of faith to serve his evil aims. That’s why the spiritual angle of Talarico’s platform is even more troubling than his politics. Not only does he defend extreme views, but he also weaves them into Christian theology, presenting a progressive form of Christian Nationalism wherein his newfangled interpretation of the Bible informs the law of the land.
See, Democrats don’t have a problem with the Bible, so long as they can just revise it and re-read it to support whatever they currently think about anything. That’s what you get with a candidate who knows just enough about Christianity to try to exploit it.
Unfortunately, Talarico’s pleading pastoral tone could prove persuasive to many — not only to voters, but to spiritual seekers. He claims to hold to Jesus’s words, but rejects all the words that conflict with his worldview. In Talarico’s framing, Jesus is not our Savior from sin and King of the universe; He is reduced to a mascot for left-wing causes, a means by which people can be manipulated into supporting Democrats’ policies.
In &#8220;Screwtape Letters,&#8221; C.S. Lewis warns against using Christianity as a means to the end of social justice. Screwtape, a demon, encourages this misuse of the faith, knowing it leads people away from Jesus, not toward Him:
“We do want, and want very much, to make men treat Christianity as a means; preferably, of course, as a means to their own advancement, but, failing that, as a means to anything — even to social justice. For the Enemy [God] will not be used as a convenience.”
Talarico’s campaign must be defeated by voters and politicians, yes. But even more importantly, his message must be opposed by pastors and Christians. As toxic as his policies are for our country, the bigger threat is his theology, which is damning to our souls.
* * *
Allie Beth Stuckey is a conservative commentator, host of the podcast “Relatable,” and New York Times bestselling author of “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Toxic-Empathy-Progressives-Christian-Compassion/dp/0593541944/ref=sr_1_1?crid=UANYF7F4G527&amp;dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.SR4Z9YTZBiD-LIyJWIe2NqrPQSJrs7v_SeJwqdKhprgz4bRzXt9yi_yz87GrsiKreKNDkh5cktyvWqnwYqCvq-AAWTJyW9idmKxIIFSxmJU.Q-uGoH9skFCMDxfjq4I70mRhShGY4nULiXDRrFrj1Nw&amp;dib_tag=se&amp;keywords=Toxic+Empathy%3A+How+Progressives&amp;qid=1749579102&amp;sprefix=toxic+empathy+how+progressives%2Caps%2C55&amp;sr=8-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Toxic Empathy: How Progressives Exploit Christian Compassion</a>“
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

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Democrat Strategists Asked ChatGPT To Create A Christian Candidate. They Got James Talarico.

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