Texas Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico is embracing Attorney General Ken Paxton’s taunting nickname of “Talafreako” as the general election starts.
In recent weeks, Paxton has taken a page out of President Donald Trump’s book and begun testing out nicknames for Talarico: “Tofu Talarico,” “Six-gender Jimmy,” “Low T Talarico,” and “James Talafreako.” The Democratic nominee is adopting the latter, unveiling a new line of T-shirts sold by his campaign emblazoned with the words “I’m a Talafreako.”
Republicans have been hammering Talarico since he won the Democratic nomination over previous comments he made that “God is nonbinary” and his claim that there are “six sexes.” Talarico himself admitted that some of his prior comments were out of touch with Texas voters but that they were also being weaponized to distract from Paxton’s ethical issues.
“I missed the mark on some of those old statements, but what Ken Paxton is doing is clipping my cringey comments to distract from his career of corruption,” Talarico told NBC in an interview.
The Texas Democrat has also made it a point to reject the GOP claim that he is a vegan running in a state known for its barbecue.
WHAT HAS TALARICO DONE WITH HIS TWO MONTHS AS THE ONLY OFFICIAL TEXAS SENATE NOMINEE?
“They’ve even called me a vegan,” Talarico said at his Houston rally this week. “And those are fighting words in the state of Texas. I’m an eighth-generation Texan. I’ve been eating barbecue since before Ken Paxton’s first indictment.”
Talarico raised more than $3 million in the 24 hours following the GOP nomination of Paxton on Tuesday.