After he defeated Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas), State Rep. James Talarico (D-50th District) has become Democrats’ Great White Hope to turn one of the Lone Star State’s Senate seats blue. It’s easy to see why: He’s young, eloquent, and telegenic.
The thing about Talarico is that he continues to reveal his radical leftism, which is out of touch with the vast majority of Texans. A few years ago (as the stupid mask on his face can attest), he declared that his campaign would go vegan. In Texas.
🚨James Talarico goes FULL VEGAN:
“Our campaign has officially become a non-meat compaign…We’re only buying VEGAN products…!”
Is this guy TRYING to lose Texas voters?pic.twitter.com/XrKsqsxSZA
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) March 17, 2026
Talarico also likes to highlight his Christian faith, which is heretical progressive Christianity. Seriously, the man needs to repent of a lot.
Related: James Talarico Used Gnostic Fan Fiction to Rewrite Jesus
Pastor Brooks Potteiger, whom some people describe as a “spiritual adviser” to Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, discussed Talarico’s false Christianity on a recent episode of the Reformation Red Pill podcast with host Joshua Haymes. Potteiger called Talarico a “wolf” and bluntly described the danger of Talarico’s beliefs.
“He is presenting himself as a Christian in order to distort what Christianity is and to lead people away from Christ towards the teachings of demons,” Potteiger said. He also quoted 2 Timothy 4:3 to refer to Talarico; that verse reads in the ESV, “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions…”
Haymes referred to Talarico as “an enemy of God, who is wearing Christianity as a skin suit and bringing dishonor and shame to the name of my Savior.”
But it’s an exchange near the end of the podcast that’s getting a lot of attention:
Haymes: …even in the debate, I think you might’ve seen it, that I had on campus the other day, “I pray that God kills him.”
Potteiger: Mm.
Haymes: Ultimately, that means killing his heart and raising him up to new life in Christ.
Potteiger: Right. Yeah.
Haymes: That’s the first thing.
Potteiger: We want him crucified with Christ.
Haymes: That’s exactly right.
Potteiger: I want him to be, I think, the Saul of Tarsus — Talarico of Tarsus.
Naturally, the left is having a field day with all of this. Headlines about how “Pete Hegseth’s pastor” is calling for someone to kill Talarico abound. Leftists on X are on their fainting couches:
This is the pastor Pete Hegseth brought into the Pentagon during working hours to lead a prayer service. Will Hegseth disavow him now? Of course not, because Hegseth is a fanatical Christian nationalist. pic.twitter.com/FJAFfhDttg
— James Surowiecki (@JamesSurowiecki) March 24, 2026
Talarico also responded not by clarifying the theology of Potteiger’s and Haymes’ statements, but by picking up the left-wing narrative and running with it.
Jesus loves. Christian Nationalism kills.
You may pray for my death, Pastor, but I still love you.
I love you more than you could ever hate me. https://t.co/ejQg3U2Yq6
— James Talarico (@jamestalarico) March 25, 2026
These leftists ignore the fact that, earlier in the episode, Haymes said, “I love James Talarico. I want him to repent and believe the gospel.” Leftists are also displaying their ignorance of scripture. A common metaphor for surrender to Jesus is the idea of death to self.
Here’s a sampling (including the verse that Potteiger refers to):
Galatians 2:20 (ESV): “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me”.
Romans 6:6 (ESV): “We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin”.
Luke 9:23 (ESV): “And he said to all, ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me'”.
John 12:24 (ESV): “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit”.
Romans 6:11 (ESV): “So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
2 Corinthians 5:15 (ESV): “And he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.”
Yes, Potteiger and Haymes used language that was meant to provoke, but the theology behind it is elementary Christianity, not a murder plot. The left either doesn’t understand that or is pretending not to, and Talarico was more than happy to climb aboard the bad-faith narrative.
That may play nicely on social media, but it doesn’t change the bigger problem: Talarico keeps dressing up radical politics and false teaching in the language of Christianity, and Texans ought to see through it. I pray he repents and finds the real Christ. I also pray voters send him home in November.
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