James Talarico Is a Christian X-Ray

These days, I’m asked more about James Talarico than I’m asked about any politician not named Donald Trump.

Talarico is a 36-year-old Texas state representative and the Democratic Party’s latest and greatest hope for winning its first statewide election there in more than 30 years.

He’s also one of the most faith-forward politicians in the United States.

Talarico doesn’t just root his policies and ideology in his Christian beliefs, he’s a seminarian willing to dive deep into theology. When he’s arguing with the religious right about, say, Christian nationalism, he makes a specifically Christian argument to counter a poisonous Christian movement.

“Jesus liberates,” Talarico said in a sermon in 2023. “Christian nationalism controls. Jesus saves. Christian nationalism kills. Jesus started a universal movement based on mutual love. Christian nationalism is a sectarian movement based on mutual hate.”

The same thing applies to his discussions about specific government policies. Just as Christian conservatives often root their arguments about immigration and abortion in Scripture, so does Talarico.

For example, in an interview with my colleague Ezra Klein, Talarico criticized the evangelical focus on abortion and homosexuality in politics. “It’s remarkable to me,” Talarico said, “that you have an entire political movement using Christianity to prioritize two issues that Jesus never talked about.”

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David French is an Opinion columnist, writing about law, culture, religion and armed conflict. He is a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom and a former constitutional litigator. His most recent book is “Divided We Fall: America’s Secession Threat and How to Restore Our Nation.” You can follow him on Threads (@davidfrenchjag).

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