Updatedat 11:25 a.m. ET on April 24, 2026

While some mightpray for hope or peace in such dark times, others are praying for the death of Texas Democrat James Talarico, who is running for the U.S. Senate. During a recent episode of the right-wing Protestant podcastReformation Red Pill, host Joshua Haymes told the pastor Brooks Potteiger that he prays that “God kills” Talarico, given that the politician seems to be possessed by demons. Potteiger agreed, offering that Talarico should be “crucified with Christ.” Both Haymes and Potteiger later insisted that their remarks were not sincere expressions of violent intent, but rather metaphorical calls for Talarico, a Presbyterian seminarian, to find salvation in their brand of Christianity. Talarico shrewdly responded by offering forgiveness: “You may pray for my death, Pastor, but I still love you. I love you more than you could ever hate me.”

A cherubic and well-scrubbed 36-year-old state lawmaker, Talarico seems lately to invite such vitriol. This despite the fact that he has run a generally positive campaign. Born and raised in Texas, he is campaigning on a fairly standard Democratic platform: He supports higher wages, labor organizing, comprehensive immigration reform, and increasing firearm regulations. Talarico’s sermonic speeches are largely about inclusivity and justice.

What has made his candidacy so controversial is what he says about God. An avowed progressive, Talarico argues that the country’s powerful Christian conservatives have distorted the lessons of their faith. The words of Jesus, he insists, endorse policies the left embraces. In deep-red evangelical Texas, does his brand of Christian politics have a chance?

In a 2021 debate ontransgenderissues in the Texas House of Representatives, Talarico said that “God is both masculine and feminine, and everything in between. God is nonbinary.” In a 2025 conversation withJoe Rogan, Talarico argued that “this idea that there is a set Christian orthodoxy on the issue of abortion is just not rooted in Scripture,” explaining (somewhat confusingly) that because God sought Mary’s consent before the conception of Jesus, Christians ought to conclude that creation requires permission—and therefore that women should have access to legal abortion.

As soon as Talarico’s primary victory over Jasmine Crockett was certain,conservativescalled on those remarks and others to swiftly and uniformly deride his Christianity as blasphemous and insincere. “Talarico is a leftist atheist’s idea of a good Christian,” Allie Beth Stuckey, a Texas-based evangelical-conservative influencer,wroteinThe Daily Wire. She accused him of being “a progressive culture warrior in lockstep with the secular world” and “uninterested in foundational Christian principles like sin, repentance, or salvation.” A spokesperson for the conservative group Turning Point USAaccused Talaricoof speaking “the language of an evangelical while completely undermining the central truth claims of the Scripture.”

That such an even-tempered candidate would attract such attacks reveals just how much Republicans stand to lose if Talarico wins. Talarico’s candidacy not only threatens Republican control of Texas and Republican control of the Senate; it also signals an appetite for faith in politics beyond the confines of conservatism.

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An alliance with right-wing Christians has long played a valuable role for Republicans at the ballot box, most notably in the elections of Presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. Talarico, following in the example of progressive Christians from Martin Luther King Jr. to Raphael Warnock, seems determined to help break this monopoly by offering an alternative vision for Christians alienated by the right. His campaign is gaining momentum at a time when many of the administration’s steadfast Christian backers—alarmed by the president’s bullying campaign against Pope Leo XIV in recent weeks, among other heresies—have been rethinking their support. Talarico is essentially campaigning not only for a Senate seat in a red state, but to redefine who gets to be a good Christian in America.

Talarico has made it his mission to confront what he describes as the unbiblical, un-Christian brand of right-wing Christian nationalism rampant in the MAGA movement. He is particularly concerned about efforts to use the state to enforce this more punitive vision of Christianity. He has describedChristian nationalismas the worship of power instead of Christ, and “a betrayal of Jesus of Nazareth.”

Source: Drudge Report