If you live in Texas right now, you can’t escape it. Turn on the TV, open your phone, or check the mailbox, and there’s another ad about the Senate race. One tells you James Talarico is a man of faith who wants to clean up a corrupt system. The next tells you he’s a radical who will throw open the border. Both cost millions of dollars. Both want your vote before you ever look at the record for yourself.
So I did the homework. I went through his campaign money, his platform, and his voting record in the Texas House. Here’s what I found. I’ll lay out the facts, and you can weigh them.
Scripture
“By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.”
Matthew 7:16 and 17 (NIV)
How I Understand This Scripture
Jesus spoke these words in the Sermon on the Mount, warning about people who come looking like sheep but aren’t what they appear to be. The way I understand it, words and appearances can be dressed up, but fruit can’t. A pattern of actions over time tells you what’s really growing on the inside.
This isn’t a license to condemn anyone. It’s a call to discernment. Anyone who asks for our trust should expect us to check the fruit. That goes double for anyone who asks for that trust in the name of faith.
My Reflection: Checking the Fruit
Who he is. James Talarico is a former middle school teacher from the Austin area, a Presbyterian seminarian, and a Texas House member since 2018. He beat Jasmine Crockett in the Democratic primary and faces Ken Paxton on November 3.
Where the money comes from. His campaign has raised more than $134 million, a national record. The campaign says about 97% of donations were $100 or less, and he takes no corporate PAC money. That part is real.
But the main super PAC backing him, Lone Star Rising PAC, tells another story. LinkedIn billionaire Reid Hoffman alone has given it over $10 million. Other donors include hedge fund and private equity billionaires and a Hyatt hotel heir. It also took $3.75 million from a group funded by the Sixteen Thirty Fund, a Democratic dark money network that doesn’t disclose its donors. So some of the money behind him can’t be traced at all.
Talarico campaigns on banning super PACs and ending billionaire influence. His answer is that he won’t “unilaterally disarm” while Republicans do the same thing. To be fair, they do. Elon Musk is a top donor to the super PAC backing Paxton.
What he says he’ll do. His “New American Dream” plan includes:
- Raising the minimum wage and expanding overtime pay
- Repealing Trump’s tax cuts for the top 1% and using the money for a cost of living tax cut
- Universal childcare, paid family leave, and canceling medical debt
- Down payment help for first time homebuyers and cutting red tape to build homes faster
- An “all of the above” energy plan that includes oil and gas
- Banning super PACs, corporate PACs, gerrymandering, and stock trading by members of Congress
How he actually voted. Here’s where the fruit gets tested.
On education, his record matches his words. He voted against private school vouchers every time, pushed for teacher raises, and supported teacher pensions. He also voted for the school cell phone ban and for giving teachers more power to remove disruptive students.
On the border, his words and record don’t line up. Today he calls himself a “border security Democrat.” But in the Texas House he voted against:
- $1.8 billion for border security in 2021
- Creating a Texas Border Protection Unit in 2023
- Making illegal entry a state crime in 2023
- Tougher penalties for human smuggling and stash houses in 2023
- Letting local police assist with federal deportations in 2025
In fairness, he did author one bill to add X ray inspection systems at border crossings.
On crime, he voted against tightening bail for violent and sexual offenses, against limiting bail for certain child sex crimes and human trafficking, and against penalizing cities that defund police.
On faith and culture, he voted against putting the Ten Commandments in classrooms, against school chaplains, against the Parents’ Bill of Rights, against school library book restrictions, and against requiring students to play on sports teams matching their biological sex.
He also left the state twice to break quorum, in 2021 over an election bill and in 2025 over redistricting.
Where he has shifted. In a January debate, he said it was time to “tear down” ICE. Now he says, “We need Immigration and Customs Enforcement.” He once said God is non-binary and has since walked that back. He filed bills on gun control in 2019 and an aggressive climate bill in 2021, and now says he’s not interested in taking anyone’s guns and wants to partner with oil and gas. People can change. But voters have every right to ask whether this is a change of heart or a change of strategy.
The faith question. Talarico says his faith drives his politics, and he has said the Bible is silent on abortion. At a recent town hall, a Catholic woman pushed back by pointing to “You shall not murder.” That’s a claim every believer should take to Scripture and test for themselves, not take from any politician, of any party.
My bottom line. On schools, what he says and how he voted match. On the border, crime, money, and some cultural issues, there’s a real gap between the candidate on the campaign trail and the lawmaker in the record. And the same test belongs on his opponent too. Don’t vote for the ad. Vote for the fruit.
Prayer
Lord, You see past every ad, every speech, and every slogan straight to the heart. Give us the wisdom to look for fruit, not just words. Keep us from being led by fear or by flattery. Help us test everything against Your Word and hold on to what is good. Guide the leaders of Texas and of this nation, whoever they turn out to be, and let us be people who pray for them, not just argue about them. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
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Please share this post with as many people as you can. Election Day is November 3, and too many people will vote based on a 30 second ad. Send this to your family, your church, and your friends. Help them check the fruit before they vote.
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