Texas Dem nominee James Talarico invokes faith to defend abortion rights, ‘The Bible is silent on abortion'

Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico used his faith to defend abortion during an interview on the Jamie Kern Lima show published on Monday. 

"I don't believe it's a place for politicians," Talarico told Lima, who defeated Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, for the Democratic Senate nomination.

"I don't believe it's a place for the state," Talarico continued. "And that's a belief I hold not despite my faith, but because of my faith. Jesus never talks about abortion. The Bible is silent on abortion. And when that happens with a social issue as important as abortion, we Christians have to take scripture as a whole." 

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Texas state Rep. James Talarico, D-Austin, a Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate, speaks during an event in Austin, Texas, on March 3, 2026. (Eric Gay/AP)

"And we've got to try to make some kind of ethical determination," Talarico continued. "Right now in Texas, we have the most extreme abortion ban in the country. No exception for rape. No exception for incest. We have girls as young as 10 years old who are assaulted, who are raped, who are victims of incest, and who can't access basic reproductive care, who aren't able to make the decision about whether or not they are going to create."

Talarico, who was first elected to the Texas House of Representatives in 2018 at the age of 29, has a history of making provocative statements about faith and biology. 

In a 2021 video taken on the Texas House floor in Austin where he was opposing a bill to ban men from women’s sports, Talarico said that "God is non-binary."

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Texas Senate candidate James Talarico. (Mark Felix/Getty Images)

"God is both masculine and feminine and everything in between," Talarico said. "God is non-binary," adding, "Trans children are God’s children, made in God’s own image."

Talarico has also said that "sex is a spectrum"  saying, "The point is that biologically speaking, scientifically speaking, sex is a spectrum, and oftentimes can be very ambiguous."

Polling shows hypothetical tight races between Talarico and Republican Texas Sen. John Cornyn and Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton. Cornyn and Paxton are in a runoff to see who will be the GOP nominee for the Senate seat, which will be crucial to determining control of the chamber in the 2026 midterms.

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State Rep. James Talarico is the Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate in Texas. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images; Mike Simons/Getty Images)

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Talarico is trying to become the first Democrat to win statewide office in Texas in decades. No Democrat has won a U.S. Senate race in Texas since 1988.