It is an even-money bet that by November 2, James Talarico will have at least 90 percent national name recognition. The 36-year-old member of the Texas State House of Representatives won the Democratic nomination for Senate on Tuesday, handily defeating Rep. Jasmine Crockett. He's likely to become virtually a household name over the next eight months because the media have discovered something of a political unicorn: A modern Democrat who professes Christianity.
Talarico's "unapologetic embrace of his Christian faith sets him apart from other rising Democratic stars - and it could maybe even help reshape American politics," writes Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons for the cable news channel MS NOW. How Talarico can reshape politics is unclear. The U.S. Senate already includes two Democrats with divinity school degrees – Georgia's Raphael Warnock and Chris Coons from Delaware – so we'll have to watch and see whether and how Talarico's faith makes a difference.
It's fair to speculate that Talarico could cool the tempers of his party's voters, and one hopes he can. But any effort to shift a demonstrably angry Democrat base into a kinder, gentler coalition will have to overcome the likes of former Bill Clinton strategist James Carville and his nationwide call for "pure economic rage."
Talarico may be leaning into Carville's push for rage. Visitors to Talarico's campaign website are greeted with the statement, in very large type, "It's time to start flipping tables," a biblical reference to Jesus Christ upending the tables of money changers in Jerusalem's temple. Some Democrats have already taken Talarico's position to heart, perhaps not in the way he intended; students in Iowa and Illinois have been arrested for flipping the tables of Turning Point USA volunteers on college campuses.
The prospect of Talarico attracting voters to his campaign with an emphasis on loving God and loving our neighbor is very real. His stump speech also routinely mentions his grandfather, a Baptist minister. But it's also possible his campaign could collapse beneath the weight of hubris and duplicity, and Graves-Fitzsimmons provides an important tell in his MS NOW column, writing, "For decades, Democrats have ceded religious language to Republicans."
The political calculus of Talarico's messaging reflects that of Vladimir Lenin, who counseled his fellow Marxists in 1905 to "Recast all your propaganda and agitation, begin to speak to the workers and the entire people in new and different words, in language framed in a new and different way." Talarico is doing just that.
But there are also legitimate questions about Talarico's interpretation of Christian orthodoxy. He has claimed "God is nonbinary," so it's not clear how his brand of theology squares with Christ's prayer in the Sermon on the Mount, which begins, "Our Father, who art in Heaven." Under the misnomer of reproductive health, Talarico supports abortion because Jesus never talked about abortion, disregarding the Psalmist who praised God, writing, "you knitted me together in my mother's womb." Talarico also claims all religions have the same truth, another contradiction of Jesus, who taught, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
During his widely acclaimed interview with talk show host Stephen Colbert, Talarico said, "I've said before, 'Don't tell me what you believe, show me how you treat other people and I'll tell you what you believe.'" The kindest interpretation of this statement is that Talarico has the ability to look into one's heart and determine their belief, a rather hubristic presumption.
Talarico's campaign website makes no reference to whether he believes Jesus Christ is his Lord and Savior. It does, however, make a single reference to Jesus, whose name he invokes to attack Christians. Talarico said, "My faith in Jesus leads me to reject Christian Nationalism," which he defined in his Colbert interview as "the worship of power." It's a curious remark from a man who cast aside his seminary studies in pursuit of the power that comes with a seat in the United States Senate.
According to Talarico, Christ's message of salvation "was all about how you treat other people," but that's not what saves us. Works proceed from faith, not the other way around. The Epistle of James teaches, "Faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead," so Bible-believing Christians are certainly called to action. But there is no record of Talarico acknowledging the preeminent tenet of Christianity. The Apostle Paul wrote in his letter to the church in Ephesus, "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast."
What emerges is a portrait of a man who subscribes not to Christianity but to some man-made religion that portrays Jesus Christ as an instructor on how to behave, an example for faith rather than the object of faith. Christians don't worship Jesus the teacher, or the "barefoot rabbi," as Talarico often refers to Him. Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the Savior who came to Earth to offer salvation from sin. Only through faith in Him may we obtain the grace of God's free gift of salvation. That is the Christ Christians worship. It is Christianity 101.
Unlike Talarico, I cannot tell him what he believes based on how he treats people, but it will be fascinating to see how he treats his Republican opponent in the general election campaign. Perhaps he really does believe in the orthodox practice of Christianity and the truth of being saved by grace through faith, but just hasn't said so yet. Whether he and his staff decide that doing so will appeal to the Code Pink, No Kings, Pro-Palestinian, and related components of his base is an unknown.
This is James Talarico's time, and he got what he asked for: The Democratic nomination for the Texas Senate raceWe'llll now see whethehe's’s gotten what he wants.