Talarico, who once proclaimed, ‘God is nonbinary,’ leads Crockett in recent poll—but remains under 50 percent
Texas state representative James Talarico has praised illegal immigrants and ramped up his rhetoric against ICE as a new poll shows him taking a tenuous lead over his opponent in the Texas Democratic Senate primary, Rep. Jasmine Crockett.
Talarico, a former public school teacher and self-proclaimed devout Christian who infamously declared, “God is nonbinary,” during a 2021 speech in the Texas legislature, has said in recent interviews that illegal immigrants are keeping Social Security solvent while picking Americans’ fruit, and accused ICE of “terrorizing communities” and “kidnapping people off our streets without a warrant.”
It’s the sort of messaging that’s appealing to the Democratic base, and it’s showing in the polls, creating buzz in liberal circles that he could become the first Democrat in 30 years to defeat a Republican in a statewide race in Texas. His campaign raised $13 million by the end of 2025, and an Emerson College poll showed him with a 9-point polling lead over Crockett. The same poll found that 15 percent of primary voters remained undecided just one month before early voting opens in mid-February.
As for Crockett, a handpicked protégé of former vice president Kamala Harris, she told the Washington Post on Thursday that she isn’t concerned about winning the “mythical Republican crossover” vote and urged Democrats to rethink what it means to be electable in Texas. She responded to the Emerson College poll with her own internal polling showing her leading Talarico by 13 points, with 21 percent of voters remaining undecided.
During his appearance on the Jubilee podcast in December, Talarico called for a “path to citizenship” for illegal immigrants just seconds after he said he opposed amnesty. He said illegal immigrants are responsible for keeping Social Security solvent by paying into the program “through their I-10 numbers and they don’t take any benefits in return,” prompting a fact-check from the podcast noting that approximately one million illegal immigrants use stolen or fake Social Security numbers to work.
Those stolen identities have real victims, such as Dan Kluver, who told the New York Times in November that his life was effectively ruined because a Guatemalan immigrant had been working in the United States with his stolen identity. Kluver said his driver’s license was suspended, his wages were garnished, and the IRS harassed him for a decade with annual audits and tax bills seeking upwards of $22,000.
Talarico also suggested during his appearance on Jubilee that illegal immigrants are only working the sorts of jobs that American citizens refuse to do, such as construction and child care.
“These are some of the toughest jobs,” the Texas Democrat said. “Picking our fruit, taking care of our children and our elders, paving our highways. These are jobs that are difficult and the research shows that undocumented immigrants are really just competing against other recent immigrants … Native-born Americans will not sign up to mow our lawns.”
Talarico also attacked ICE as a “secret police force that is terrorizing communities” during his appearance on Jubilee, saying the force has abandoned its mission of doing immigration and customs enforcement under the Trump administration. He doubled down on his rhetoric against ICE during a town hall in January, promising he would haul ICE agents before the Senate, and accused them of “kidnapping people off our streets without a warrant.”
“No more secret police, no more disappearing people,” Talarico said.
Talarico’s polling momentum comes just weeks after a December poll found him trailing Crockett by 8 points. Crockett launched her Senate campaign in December after a National Republican Senatorial Committee shadow campaign commissioned polls showing she had a shot at winning the Democratic nomination.
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