The reversal, on Fox News

Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico said Wednesday he opposes trans student-athletes in girls' sports "if it endangers safety or fairness." It was his first explicit backing of such a ban.

“Every sport has to be safe and fair.”

Why that venue matters

He chose a network with a heavily conservative audience while Republicans held a midterm convention in Dallas. His campaign is chasing right-leaning voters.

The prize he's chasing

No Texas Democrat has won statewide since 1994. Talarico is betting that crossover voters, not base turnout, are the path.

What he used to say

As a state representative he voted against GOP bans, calling them a push for government to "police people's private parts" and a harm to "the least of these."

“Some things are more important than perfectly fair competition in sports.”

He once invoked Jackie Robinson logic

Talarico compared the genetic-advantage and safety arguments for bans to the reasoning once used to keep Black athletes out of professional sports.

His explanation for those votes

He now says the bills were "overly broad," and that he backed amendments to narrow them: local school board control, individual sports only, campuses with licensed counselors.

“I supported amendments that would have given the power to make these decisions to local communities.”

The all-or-nothing defense

Republicans rejected his amendments, so he says he had to vote the whole bill down. A lawmaker sifts a bill, and some parts are too harmful to swallow.

“Sometimes there's stuff that is really harmful, and I have no choice but to oppose the bill as a whole.”

He also dropped "six genders"

Asked if he still believed there are six sexes, a line from a 2021 House committee debate, he answered no. He said he meant two sexes plus rare genetic abnormalities.

“I missed the mark on some of my past statements, I'll be the first to admit it.”

Paxton pounces

Ken Paxton, the Republican nominee, has built his campaign on painting Talarico as too progressive, and called the new comments proof of a pattern.

“This is just the latest episode in James Talarico's long saga of lies and flip-flops.”

Talarico's counterpunch

He has said he regrets some old remarks but accuses Paxton of clipping "cringey" moments to draw attention away from his own corruption record.

The culture war as smokescreen

His campaign runs on Christian-inflected economic populism, arguing the fight over trans kids is a distraction from billionaire influence.

“The only minority destroying America is the billionaires.”

LGBTQ groups say no

Equality Texas CEO Brad Pritchett said the group expects better, and that fairness in school sports has to include trans kids.

“When did people of moral standing decide to use Texas children as a political football?”