James Talarico has spent September trying to redraw the boundaries of his record on transgender issues.
Now, undercover footage is putting those new boundaries under a much brighter light.
The Texas Democrat and U.S. Senate candidate recently told Fox News that he would oppose transgender athletes competing in girls’ sports when participation threatens safety or fairness. Just days later, footage obtained by The Daily Wire showed Talarico telling a purported supporter that his position “hasn’t changed” and that he would continue fighting for transgender children in the Senate.
The contrast is striking because Talarico's earlier record is not exactly a blank page.
At a September 13 campaign appearance at Houston’s Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church, a woman asked Talarico whether she could count on him to defend her transgender niece and her ability to compete in women’s sports.
“Always,” Talarico responded.
“The way I fought for trans kids in the legislature is how I will fight for them in the U.S. Senate. And my position hasn’t changed.”
Talarico then described transgender sports policies as matters that should be decided locally and individually.
“I still think these should be local decisions, sport by sport, athlete by athlete, and I think I have the most inclusive policy of any candidate who’s running,” he said. “So I know things are getting clipped and stuff, but my views, my position hasn’t changed.”
Four days earlier, however, Talarico had offered a notably different formulation during a Fox News interview.
“Every sport has to be safe and fair,” he said. “As a former public school teacher, I care a lot about our student athletes. And so, I will oppose trans athletes playing in girls’ sports if it risks safety or fairness.”
That interview was part of a broader effort by Talarico to address controversial statements and positions from his years in Texas politics.
He acknowledged that some of his previous comments “missed the mark” and walked back his earlier statement that there are six sexes as well as his 2021 declaration that “God is non-binary.” He also said he would support a national ban on gender-transition surgeries for minors.
But his legislative record provides another piece of the picture.
In 2021, Talarico voted against Senate Bill 29 while serving on the Texas House Public Education Committee. The bill sought to require public-school athletes to compete according to the sex listed on their birth certificate. He later voted against legislation restricting transgender-related medical procedures for minors in 2023.
That history helps explain why his latest comments have attracted scrutiny.
The question is not simply whether Talarico has changed his mind. Politicians change positions. The more specific question is what he means when he says his position “hasn’t changed” while simultaneously presenting a formulation that sounds more restrictive than his earlier legislative record.
And the undercover footage makes that question harder to ignore.
The footage does not establish what Talarico privately believes beyond what he says in the recorded conversation. But his words are clear: he told the woman that the way he fought for transgender children in the Texas Legislature is the way he would fight for them in the Senate.
There is also evidence from other undercover recordings that Democratic activists involved in Texas politics have described his recent messaging as an effort to broaden his appeal.
Jennifer Miranda, a manager with Texas Together and the Texas Democratic Party, was recorded saying Talarico was trying to become more “palatable to Republicans” and “target a wider net.” She also said, “I think that from the character he’s shown us, he does believe the things that he’s said before.”
Separately, Rev. Babs Miller, a minister at Talarico’s longtime Austin church, was recorded saying she believed he would return to his previous positions if elected. “I can guarantee you that once he gets elected, he’ll change his tune back to where he was,” Miller said.
Those statements are opinions from political figures and do not independently establish Talarico’s future intentions. But alongside Talarico’s own recorded comments, they add another layer to an increasingly complicated campaign narrative.
His public record already includes several positions that have become central issues in the Senate race. In a 2019 legislative hearing, for example, Talarico said that denying a child's gender identity could be “abusive for sure.”
Now he is presenting voters with a different formulation: sports should be safe and fair, restrictions on medical procedures for minors should be supported, and some of his earlier statements went too far.
At the same time, when speaking directly to a supporter concerned about transgender rights, he says his position has not changed.
That tension is unlikely to disappear.
For voters, the important question is ultimately a straightforward one: which version of James Talarico's position should they expect to govern from the Senate — the candidate emphasizing restrictions based on safety and fairness, or the candidate promising that he will continue fighting for transgender children the way he did in the Texas Legislature?
The answer will have to come from Talarico himself. But with the campaign increasingly defined by old statements, new positions and newly surfaced recordings, the distinction between a genuine policy evolution and a change in political messaging is becoming one of the central questions surrounding his Senate bid.
