Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico on Wednesday backtracked on his support for transgender athletes playing in women’s sports, as his campaign fights to coalesce support in the red state ahead of the general election this fall.
The state representative has long pushed for athletes to play on teams that correspond to their gender identity, instead of their biological sex. During his time in the state legislature, Talarico opposed two bills that Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) signed into law that required athletes to play on teams corresponding to their biological sex in K-12 and collegiate programs.
In the face of sweeping attacks from his rival, state Attorney General Ken Paxton, on the issue and polls indicating a razor-thin race, Talarico said he opposes “trans athletes playing in girls’ sports if it endangers safety or fairness,” publicly echoing comments his spokesperson made last month.
“Every sport has to be safe and fair,” Talarico said Wednesday during the Fox News interview. “As a former public school teacher, I care a lot about our student athletes; I care a lot about our students. And so I will oppose trans athletes playing in girls’ sports if it risks safety or fairness.”
In August, Talarico cast the debate over transgender-identifying women playing in female sports as “culture war fights that are designed to tear us apart, designed to get us angry,” during an MS Now interview.
The same month, his spokesperson told Spectrum Local News: “As a former public school teacher, James cares about our student athletes – that’s why he opposes trans athletes playing girls’ sports when it jeopardizes safety or fairness. At the same time, he’ll always stand against discrimination, especially when the most powerful politicians in the country bully students to score political points, because his faith teaches him that every child is made in the image of God.”
Talarico voted against House Bill 25 in 2021 and Senate Bill 15 in 2023. Abbott signed both pieces of legislation into law, making it a requirement for K-12 students and college athletes to play on teams that corresponded to their biological sex. Talarico also voted against a bill to ban sex change surgeries for children, asserting that “gender-affirming care is not child abuse.”
Talarico emerged as a key critic of the sports legislation when he gave a speech protesting the “hateful” bill in 2021, saying “God is nonbinary” in an attempt to back up his support for transgender athletes playing on teams that correspond to their gender identity. He drew from Scripture in his speech to condemn his Republican colleagues for what he cast as twisting Bible passages to “justify hurting children” — ”a special kind of sin.”
“God is both masculine and feminine and everything in between. God is nonbinary,” he said. “Trans children are God’s children made in God’s own image. There is nothing wrong with them.”
At the time, Talarico accused Abbott of filling the legislature with “far-right conspiracy theories about trans children causing problems on sports teams, which we know does not occur in the state of Texas,” during an interview with Fox 7 Austin.
Talarico also called the issue of transgender athletes in sports “a manufactured problem.” He said the only reason Republicans were backing legislation requiring athletes to play on teams corresponding to their biological sex is that they “want to brag to their far-right voters that they hurt trans kids.”
“There’s no other purpose of this bill other than to hurt kids, and I didn’t come here to hurt kids, and I don’t think any of you came here to hurt kids,” Talarico said during a speech condemning a bill similar to HB 25. “If we vote for this bill, I fear it’s a stain we can’t remove.”
Talarico said in 2023 that he doesn’t believe lawmakers should be involved in deciding the sports issue. He said he believes organizations like the NCAA and University Interscholastic League should work with “experts to determine what is fair for all participants,” in comments to Reporting Texas.
During an interview with Newsweek in September 2025, Talarico said that the “God is nonbinary” comment was “provocative,” but argued he was just citing what the Bible teaches.
“I don’t think, theologically speaking, any of my fellow believers would disagree that God is beyond gender,” he said. “I recognized how I phrased it, probably raised some eyebrows, but the idea that in Christ, in God, there is neither male nor female, that is not coming from me.”
Last September, Talarico made a statement on “fairness” in sports similar to his latest Fox News interview.
THE GOP’S TEXAS-SIZED KEN PAXTON DILEMMA
“We should appreciate the nuance and the shades of gray in this conversation rather than trying to use it to beat each other over the head in a political debate,” he said.
“We should treat every Texan and particularly every child with dignity and with respect. We should also ensure that every sport is fair and safe,” Talarico added. “We want to trust our sports leagues, our sports officials, to be able to make common-sense decisions about what is required to keep a sport safe and fair. And that will include sensible limits on which sports athletes can play in, but it should be done sport by sport, athlete by athlete.”