Within an hour of capturing an upset of a nomination over incumbent Republican Sen. John Cornyn, Paxton was doing his best to channel Trump’s name-calling bluster. “Six-Gender Jimmy,” and “James Tala-freak-o” both came from the podium as the state Attorney General with a fat oppo file pivoted to general-election mode.
Even though a Democrat hasn’t won statewide in Texas in decades, Republicans are still making something of a bet that the smart play is a narrow appeal to the manosphere. These Joe Rogan-types were a crucial voting bloc in Trump’s re-election bid. But it’s a strategy that risks backfiring against a candidate like Talarico, a white cisgendered man who held his own last year on Rogan’s podcast, so much that the host urged him to run for President.
To be sure, Talarico, a seminarian and state lawmaker, has been trying to walk back some of his past comments that have given Paxton and others fodder. Yes, Talarico previously said God is non-binary and that there are, in fact, six genders in terms of chromosomal combinations. Talarico has not softened on his support for transgender rights but has said his other comments were “cringey” in hindsight.
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