How the GOP Plans to Use Talarico's Christianity Against Him [View all]

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/how-the-gop-plans-to-use-talaricos-christianity-against-him.html

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Texas Democratic U.S. Senate nominee James Talarico has gotten a lot of positive (or at least curious) attention for his willingness to criticize Christian nationalism and champion church-state separation from a specifically Christian point of view. It is sort of his signature and is often thought to be central to his ability to reach out beyond the ranks of secular liberals and speak to swing voters and even MAGA folk in a religious vocabulary that is familiar to them.

But his outspokenness on providing a fresh and progressive interpretation of the gospel of Jesus Christ has invited a counterattack from the conjoined forces of the Republican Party and conservative Christianity. This earnest Presbyterian seminarian will likely be attacked not just as a woke liberal but as a heretic, a man pretending to be a Christian who actually worships false gods.

The first salvo of this religiopolitical offensive came on primary night, even before the race had been officially called for the Austin state legislator:

Meet James Talarico, Texas’ Democrat nominee for U.S. Senate.

He thinks “God is nonbinary.” pic.twitter.com/PTXKT6GdeK
— Senate Republicans (@NRSC) March 4, 2026

Though the use of the “woke” term “nonbinary” may have been novel, the idea that God is a supreme being beyond gender is not terribly new or (at least in nonfundamentalist circles) especially controversial. But both the idea and the term are shocking to religious conservatives and to secular folk, whose view of Christianity has been largely formed by the conservative Christians who have been so successful in dominating the “brand” in recent years. I have no idea if the National Republican Senatorial Committee operatives who put together the snarky little tweet above know a single thing about Christian theology, but they know a good attack line when they hear one.

*snip*