Texas Democrats thought they had a real shot at flipping a Senate seat this year.
James Talarico spent months trying to convince voters he was something new — a Democrat who could win in Texas by sounding moderate on the issues that matter most to parents.
And now a conservative PAC just spent $10 million to make sure nobody forgets what his record actually says.
The Ad That Has Talarico Scrambling
The American Principles Project PAC kicked off a $10 million ad campaign featuring AI-generated footage depicting Texas Democrat Senate candidate James Talarico as a surgeon performing a sex-change operation on a young girl, according to the New York Post.
American Principles Project PAC is spending $10 million on ads featuring AI-generated footage depicting Texas Senate Democrat candidate James Talarico as a surgeon performing gender surgery on a child.
The timing is no accident. The ad lands in a race where Talarico holds roughly a 1-point edge over Republican Ken Paxton in polling. Every dollar of that $10 million is aimed at one thing: making sure Texas voters know exactly who they would be sending to Washington, DC.
This is not the first time AI-generated ads have targeted Talarico. It follows a previous video posted by the Senate GOP’s official social media channels featuring an AI rendering of Talarico reading what they described as “extreme statements” he had previously made on X discussing his views on religion and support for the LGBTQ+ community. The American Principles Project PAC is simply betting bigger.
Terry Schilling, president of American Principles Project PAC, has told NBC News that the “explosion of gender ideology” is “one of the biggest threats” to American families. A $10 million investment in Texas suggests he means it.
The Voting Record Talarico Wants Voters to Forget
Talarico’s campaign calls the ad a lie. His campaign points to a June 2026 podcast appearance where he said plainly, “I oppose gender reassignment surgeries for minors.”
But that statement did not age well. Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico is facing questions after fundraising with a “female-to-male” top surgeon who previously operated on minors shortly after saying that he does not support sex-change surgeries for children.
Days after that podcast, he participated in an Austin “Pride for Talarico” fundraiser that featured Dr Dustin Reid, a female-to-male breast surgeon who confirmed with Fox News Digital that he previously operated on minors in “rare” cases prior to Texas banning the practice. Reid said that “in the past, on a case-by-case basis, I would do that [female-to-male surgeries on minors] but not since they made it illegal in Texas.”
And the fundraiser was not just one surgeon. Talarico’s pride fundraiser also saw the participation of the Human Rights Campaign’s political action committee, which has endorsed his Senate run. The Human Rights Campaign has spent years fighting Texas laws that protect children from these procedures.
There is also the matter of his actual legislative record. Talarico was one of 56 Democrats to vote against a 2023 bill to prohibit transition surgeries for minors or the taxpayer-funding of such procedures. Talarico went as far as to call the bill “the most dangerous bill that’s being heard on this floor this session.”
That bill was Texas Senate Bill 14. Clips from the Texas House floor during the 2023 debate over SB 14 show Talarico arguing against the bill he ultimately voted against. The legislation was described as “relating to prohibitions on the provision to certain children of procedures and treatments for gender transitioning, gender reassignment, or gender dysphoria and on the use of public money or public assistance to provide those procedures and treatments.”
Lone Star Liberty PAC spokesman Gregg Keller did not mince words. Keller criticized Talarico, telling Fox News Digital he “is lying to Texans” by “claiming he doesn’t support child genital mutilation surgeries after fighting for them his entire political career.”
And then there is the quote that Republicans have been circulating for months. In a 2023 podcast interview, Talarico said, “I love — I’m just going to say this because it’s on my mind — the trans children who showed up yesterday at the state Capitol to advocate for their humanity.”
God Is Nonbinary, and Other Things Texans Did Not Ask For
The gender surgery issue is not the only thing chasing Talarico around the campaign trail. During a 2021 debate in the Texas legislature on whether biological men should be allowed to compete in women’s sports, Talarico declared that “God is both masculine and feminine and everything in between. God is nonbinary.” Talarico now says that he was just being provocative.
That explanation did not satisfy many Texans. The statement was made from the floor of the Texas legislature, not in some late-night social media post. Immediately after winning his primary, Republicans began plastering the quote and others from Talarico’s archives across social media, casting the Democratic standard bearer as far left and wildly out of step with most Texans.
The Republican National Committee put it plainly. RNC spokesperson Zach Kraft said, “From supporting open borders and defunding the police to forcing sex change surgeries on kids and saying ‘God is nonbinary,’ James Talarico is a walking bingo card for the radical liberal agenda.”
And there is more. Citizens for Sanity released another AI-generated ad that portrayed Talarico as a disheveled preacher standing in the middle of the street, with a sign around his neck that read, “God is nonbinary.” “Jesus Christ was a radical feminist. He helped me reckon with my whiteness, my masculinity,” Talarico appears to proclaim in the ad as a woman hurries three children past, warning them not to make eye contact.
Those are not invented lines. Talarico has asserted that “gender is a spectrum,” echoing his earlier claim during a 2021 Texas House public education committee meeting that “modern science” recognizes “six” biological sexes.
Talarico has tried to walk back several of these positions as the general election heats up. But the record keeps following him — because it is the record. Voting against SB 14. Fundraising with a surgeon who performed these procedures on children. Telling the Texas House floor that God is nonbinary. None of that was taken out of context. None of it was fabricated.
The American Principles Project PAC is betting $10 million that Texas parents have not forgotten any of it — and that they will not forget it by November either.
Ken Paxton has his own baggage. The race is genuinely competitive. But Talarico’s attempt to reinvent himself as a moderate on children’s medical procedures while fundraising with a surgeon who performed them on minors is the kind of contradiction that does not disappear, no matter how much money comes in from the Human Rights Campaign.
Texas is watching.
Sources: New York Post, Unbiased Headlines, Fox News Digital, Daily Caller, Townhall, Breitbart, American Thinker, Poynter
