Senate hopeful James Talarico is on the defensive after remarks resurfaced in which he lavished praise on Texas drag queens as "some of the best" in the country.Talarico, the Democrats' nominee in Texas’ hotly contested Senate race, made the comment in May 2023 while criticizing a bill in the state legislature banning "sexually oriented performances" on public property and in the presence of minors — a measure that would have likely restricted some drag shows.He voted "present" on the legislation at the urging of the Texas House LGBTQ Caucus after language explicitly referencing drag performers was stripped from an earlier version, arguing the revised bill would better protect their performances."I think Texas is obviously the best state in the nation and I think we produce some of the best drag queens in the nation," Talarico told The Texas Newsroom."And I didn’t want any legislation to target them or hurt that industry."Texas Democratic Senate candidate and Texas state Rep.
James Talarico speaks during the Hispanic Caucus at the Hilliard Center in Corpus Christi on June 26, 2026.(Katina Zentz/San Antonio Express-News via Getty Images)TALARICO SAYS HE 'HATES CHRISTIANITY' IN UNEARTHED INTERVIEW WITH TRANSGENDER 'LATINX' THEOLOGIANTalarico, a 37-year-old state legislator and seminarian, has repeatedly sparked controversy over past remarks on Christianity and gender issues in which he argued, "God is nonbinary," claimed there are six biological sexes and gushed over transgender children.The former middle school teacher also raised eyebrows in a resurfaced clip from 2022 in which he argued that scaling back meat consumption is "existential" to combating climate change and praised a left-wing activist group that advocated for dismantling the state’s massive oil and gas industry.Republican Senate nominee Ken Paxton’s campaign hammered Talarico’s drag queen praise in a statement to Fox News Digital."This is just one more addition to the long list of out-of-...