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Texas’ Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico dismissed his past comments referring to God as “nonbinary” and using the Bible to justify his pro-choice stance on abortion during a Wednesday night CNN town hall.
Participating in a “Jubilee”-style town hall in which voters confronted him one-on-one, Talarico met with a fellow Christian from Texas who pressed him on his past statements.
“You’ve said some concerning things in the past kind of related to faith and social issues. Things such as God is nonbinary, questions about how many genders there really are and your justifications using the Bible for abortion,” Sarah Gardner, a small business owner, said to Talarico.
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“And so, I think that’s led a lot of Christian voters to question the authenticity of your faith. And I wanted to ask you a very direct question. Do you believe that the Bible is the absolute source of truth and God’s final authoritative word, even when our culture says otherwise?” she asked.
State Representative James Talarico poses for a portrait at his campaign headquarters after launching his campaign for the seat currently held by Senator John Cornyn in Austin, Texas, on September 9, 2025. (Callaghan O’Hare for The Washington Post via Getty Images)
“Yes,” Talarico replied. “And I think it’s important to remember that even the early church, the disciples who actually knew Jesus of Nazareth, the early church, we often talk about as a singular body when, in reality, was more like early churches because there was a lot of disagreement, there was a lot of debate.”
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Talarico then went on to explain his past comments as being “provocative,” drawing a parallel to his own interpretation of scripture to Charlie Kirk’s.
Democrat candidate for US Senate James Talarico speaks during a rally in San Antonio, Texas, on May 29, 2026. (Photo by RONALDO SCHEMIDT/AFP via Getty Images)
“I actually want to clarify a few of the things that you said, because I know that this has been used in these attack ads all over the state,” he began.
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“The first comment about God not being defined by gender, when I said that I was being provocative. And I want to admit that and come clean about that. But I think what I was saying is actually not controversial theologically. The idea that we can’t define God using human categories, not only did I say that, but the late Charlie Kirk said that, the late Pope Benedict said that. And so, yes, I was doing it, maybe in an annoying way, I can admit that,” he said.
State Representative James Talarico, a Democrat from Texas and U.S. Senate candidate, during a debate at the 2026 Texas AFL-CIO COPE Convention in Georgetown, Texas, on Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026. (Bob Daemmrich/The Texas Tribune/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Talarico, a state senator in Texas, previously said, “God is both masculine and feminine, and everything in between. God is nonbinary. In Genesis 1:26, God speaks of God’s self in the plural, saying, ‘Let us make man in our image.'”
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He also dismissed the notion that the Bible refers to abortion.
“The idea that there is a set Christian orthodoxy on the issue of abortion is just not rooted in Scripture,” he said during a 2025 appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience.
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Fox News Digital reached out to the Talarico campaign for further comment.