One day after Ken Paxton toppled longtime Sen. John Cornyn in the Texas GOP primary runoff, Democratic nominee James Talarico went on television and conceded what Republicans had already been hammering for weeks: some of his old public statements were, in his own word, "cringey."
The admission, made during an NBC News interview on Wednesday, sets the tone for what promises to be one of the most combative Senate contests in the country. Talarico, a four-term state representative, now faces a general election opponent who has already turned those past remarks into a centerpiece of his campaign, and a president who has publicly savaged the Democrat as "the worst TEXAS candidate I have ever seen."
For Texas conservatives, the question is straightforward: Can a Democrat who once told the state legislature there are "six biological sexes" and who posted that "white skin" gives every white American "immunity from the virus" of racism talk his way out of his own record? Talarico is betting he can redirect the conversation to Paxton's legal troubles. Whether Texas voters buy that pivot will define the race.
The comments in question span several years. During a 2021 debate in the Texas Legislature over a bill targeting transgender athletes, Talarico declared: "Modern science recognizes that there are many more than two biological sexes, in fact, there are six." That statement became instant ammunition for Republicans and has followed him ever since.
Then there are his 2020 posts on X, written after the killing of Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia. In one, Talarico wrote:
"White skin gives me and every white American immunity from the virus. But we spread it wherever we go, through our words, our actions, and our systems. We don't have to be showing symptoms, like a white hood or a Confederate flag, to be contagious."
He also posted images of Black individuals in connection with those remarks. The posts have resurfaced as Paxton and his allies build the case that Talarico is far outside the Texas mainstream.
In the NBC interview, Talarico did not dispute the statements. Instead, he tried to reframe them as old news and shift attention to his opponent's record. He told NBC News:
"I'll be the first to admit that I missed the mark on some of those old statements, but what Ken Paxton is doing is clipping my cringey comments to distract from his career of corruption."
It was a notable concession from a candidate who has otherwise projected confidence. But "missed the mark" is doing a lot of work in that sentence. Telling a state legislature that six biological sexes exist is not a slip of the tongue. It is a policy position, one that put Talarico squarely on the progressive side of a fight most Texans have strong feelings about.
At his Tuesday night victory rally, Paxton made clear he intends to make Talarico's past statements the defining issue of the general election. The newly minted GOP nominee referred to his opponent with a string of mocking labels, "Tofu Talarico," "Six-gender Jimmy," "James Tala-freako," and "Low T Talarico", while denouncing Talarico's positions on gender-affirming care, immigration, energy, and religion.
The nicknames are blunt, and some will find them over the top. But they signal a campaign strategy built around cultural contrast, not policy white papers. Paxton is betting that in a state like Texas, a Democrat who publicly claimed there are six sexes and compared whiteness to a contagious virus cannot survive a general electorate, no matter how many bipartisan bills he cites.
President Trump amplified that message from Truth Social after Paxton's victory. He described Talarico as "a strong Open Borders advocate" who "is WEAK ON CRIME, believes there are 6 genders, is insulting to Jesus Christ, will never support the Military, was a big Mask Wearer until recently, and is a Vegan who dislikes meat, not exactly a good way to be if your wanting to win an Election in Texas."
Talarico, for his part, denied the vegan accusation during a Tuesday interview with MeidasTouch, reportedly bringing up Paxton's past indictment in the process. The dietary dispute may seem trivial, but in Texas politics, it doubles as a cultural proxy, and Talarico clearly understood the risk enough to push back on it immediately.
Talarico's strategy is clear: make the race a referendum on Paxton's legal baggage, not on progressive cultural positions. He told NBC News bluntly:
"Ken Paxton has a criminal record; I have a legislative record."
He also called Paxton "the most corrupt politician in America" and described corruption as "the rot at the core of this broken political system that we're running against." The Democrat touted his four terms in the Texas House and claimed credit for passing 60 bipartisan bills covering property taxes, teacher pay, housing costs, childcare, and prescription drug prices including insulin.
The corruption line has some factual basis. Paxton faced an indictment that was ultimately dismissed after he participated in a diversion program. In 2023, the Republican-led Texas House voted to impeach him on charges that included using his public office to benefit a donor. The Texas state Senate acquitted him. Those proceedings were a major flashpoint in Texas Republican politics and divided the party's base from its establishment wing.
Cornyn and his allies had argued during the primary that nominating Paxton would put the seat at risk. That argument failed decisively on Tuesday night. NBC's Steve Kornacki noted in his analysis that "you don't see incumbents lose by this kind of margin every day", though the actual vote totals and margin were not specified in the report.
Trump's endorsement of Paxton earlier in May clearly played a role. In a state where the former and current president commands enormous loyalty among Republican primary voters, Cornyn's tenure and seniority were not enough to overcome the grassroots energy behind Paxton's candidacy.
Talarico's challenge goes well beyond damage control on past statements. No Democrat has won a statewide race in Texas in decades, and the party's internal struggles have not made the path easier. Senate Democrats are dealing with their own leadership turmoil nationally, which does nothing to help a candidate trying to project strength in hostile territory.
His pitch, bipartisan legislator, corruption fighter, common-sense Texan, is designed to thread a very narrow needle. He needs to hold progressive base voters who liked the "six biological sexes" line while convincing enough moderates and independents that he is not the caricature Paxton is drawing.
That is a tall order when the caricature is built from the candidate's own words.
Talarico's legislative record may be real, but 60 bipartisan bills in the Texas House do not carry the same weight when voters are watching clips of a candidate making claims about biological sex that contradict what most people learned in high school science class. Democrats across the country are learning that progressive cultural positioning from a few years ago has become a serious liability in competitive races.
The 2020 X posts present a different but related problem. Comparing white skin to a contagious disease, even metaphorically, even in the emotional aftermath of a hate crime, is the kind of rhetoric that alienates the broad middle of the electorate. In Texas, where the electorate skews right and cultural populism runs deep, those words land especially hard.
Several open questions will shape this race in the months ahead. Paxton's legal history is a genuine vulnerability, and Talarico will pound it relentlessly. But how much does it matter to voters who just chose Paxton over a sitting senator by what Kornacki called an unusual margin? Republican primary voters already knew about the indictment and the impeachment. They voted for Paxton anyway.
The specifics of Talarico's 60-bill claim also remain unverified, no bill numbers, no independent confirmation appeared in the NBC report. If Paxton's team digs into that record and finds exaggeration, it could undercut Talarico's credibility on the one front where he is trying to build it.
Meanwhile, Texas Democrats have had a rough stretch of public moments that have drawn bipartisan criticism, and Talarico cannot afford to be lumped in with the party's more polarizing figures if he wants to compete statewide.
Trump's involvement adds another dimension. His Truth Social broadside against Talarico was not a passing comment, it was a detailed, point-by-point indictment of the Democrat's positions on borders, crime, gender, religion, the military, and even diet. That kind of sustained presidential attention in a Senate race is a powerful force in a state Trump carried comfortably.
Cornyn's defeat also raises broader questions about the direction of Senate Republican politics and whether establishment incumbents can survive in an era when grassroots voters prioritize combativeness over seniority.
Talarico's "missed the mark" admission is the kind of half-concession politicians make when they know the original statement is indefensible but cannot bring themselves to fully repudiate it. He did not say he was wrong about six biological sexes. He did not retract the comparison of whiteness to a virus. He said he "missed the mark", a phrase designed to sound humble while conceding nothing of substance.
Paxton has baggage of his own, and Talarico will make sure voters hear about every indictment and every impeachment article. That is fair game. But in a state where cultural issues drive turnout and where the sitting president has personally targeted you by name, "I missed the mark" is not a rebuttal. It is an admission that the mark was there all along.
Texas voters will decide whether they care more about a politician's legal record or his own words. In a state that prizes plain talk, the candidate who said what he meant may have a harder time than the one who got indicted.
