From AI Attacks on Talarico’s Masculinity and Faith to Economic Populism, Texas’ Senate Race Is Becoming a Fight for Black and Latino Men
The race between James Talarico and Ken Paxton for Texas’ U.S. Senate seat was always going to be ugly.
Now it is getting personal.
With less than two months until November, the campaigns and their allies are increasingly fighting over something harder to put into a policy platform: manhood.
A new GQ profile of the race lays bare a cultural fight that has been building for months. Paxton and conservative groups have repeatedly portrayed Talarico as weak, strange or insufficiently masculine, using everything from his appearance to gender politics and Christianity as ammunition.
Talarico, meanwhile, has built much of his public identity around a different picture of masculinity — the former public-school teacher, Presbyterian seminarian and working-class populist who talks about faith, service and taking on wealthy political donors.
And underneath all of it is one of the biggest political fights in Texas: who wins the men who no longer vote predictably, particularly Black and Latino men.
Paxton’s Attacks Are About More Than Policy
One of the clearest examples arrived this week.
Paxton released an AI-generated advertisement depicting Talarico reading from a fictional “King James Talarico” Bible, using his previous comments about Christianity, gender and God to portray the Democrat’s theology as radical. Talarico responded that the advertisement placed words in his mouth and accused Paxton of using artificial intelligence to mislead voters.
The advertisement disclosed its use of AI, but its significance goes beyond artificial intelligence. It takes Talarico’s Christianity — one of the most important parts of his political identity — and turns it into an argument about cultural authenticity.
Another conservative advertisement went even further.
Citizens for Sanity circulated an AI-generated video showing Talarico wearing a dress and singing a parody about transgender children. PolitiFact reported that the advertisement distorted Talarico’s words and positions.
Related: James Talarico Leads Ken Paxton in Two New Polls
The attacks are not simply asking whether voters agree with Talarico on transgender policy. They place traditional ideas about gender, masculinity and sexuality at the center of the candidate’s image.
Paxton himself has leaned heavily on transgender issues and Talarico’s interpretation of Christianity while campaigning, including during this week’s Republican convention in Dallas.
Yet the politics of image have occasionally boomeranged back onto Paxton. Even President Donald Trump, while strongly endorsing the Republican nominee, has repeatedly joked publicly about Paxton’s appearance and presentation.
Texas politics, apparently, has entered its makeover-show era.
Talarico Is Selling a Different Version of Strength
Talarico’s answer has generally not been to imitate the Republican presentation of masculinity.
Instead, his campaign has tied Christianity to economic populism.
Talarico’s campaign biography emphasizes that he is an eighth-generation Texan, former middle-school teacher and Presbyterian seminarian. His stump message regularly casts politics as a struggle between working Texans and billionaire donors with outsized influence over government.
At a grocery giveaway Wednesday, Talarico contrasted the event with the Republican convention taking place in Dallas, describing the GOP gathering as a “billionaire ball.”
“Our campaign is all about serving others, loving thy neighbor,” Talarico said. “The other side is all about self-enrichment and accumulating wealth and power for themselves at the expense of working people.”
The contrast is becoming increasingly central to the campaign: Paxton presenting himself as the conservative fighter battling liberal culture, while Talarico presents himself as the Christian populist battling concentrated wealth and political corruption.
Even their definitions of toughness are colliding.
Black And Latino Men Could Decide Which Message Works
That fight matters because the political behavior of men of color has changed substantially.
Texas exit polling from the 2024 U.S. Senate election showed Republican Ted Cruz winning 62% of Latino men, compared with 37% for Democrat Colin Allred. Among Black men, Allred still dominated, 78% to 20%, but Republican support was considerably greater among Black men than Black women, only 7% of whom backed Cruz.
Donald Trump’s gains among Texas Latinos were similarly dramatic. Texas Politics Project researchers found that exit polling indicated Trump won 55% of the state’s Latino vote in 2024, up 13 points from four years earlier.
That makes the masculine imagery surrounding Talarico more politically relevant than campaign-trail trash talk.
The question is whether men who have moved toward Republicans respond to the familiar language of cultural combat — or to Talarico’s attempt to recast masculinity around work, faith, economic responsibility and service.
Talarico has already spent heavily trying to answer that question.
In June, his campaign launched an $800,000-plus Spanish-language advertising buy during World Cup matches. The ad emphasized his history as a teacher, support for Social Security and Medicare and proposal to raise taxes on billionaires.
Also Read: James Talarico Pledges $25 Million for Black Voter Outreach
For Black Texans, the campaign has made an even larger commitment.
Talarico pledged $25 million for Black voter outreach, including advertising, organizing, community events and direct voter contact after Black leaders and voters challenged him to invest more seriously in the community following his primary against U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett. His campaign later brought in Black senior advisers and Black-owned communications firms to expand that effort.
Publicly available reporting does not establish that Paxton’s major advertisements are being digitally targeted specifically to Black men, so that claim should not be made without campaign-ad targeting records. But Republicans plainly have reason to keep pursuing men of color after their recent gains, particularly among Latino men.
Faith, Masculinity And A Very Texas Definition Of Power
There is still plenty of conventional politics in this race.
Trump-aligned MAGA Inc. has committed $10 million to helping Paxton, including advertising portraying Talarico as supporting higher taxes while promoting Paxton’s proposed tax breaks.
But beneath fights over taxes, transgender policy and government spending sits a more visceral question.
What does a Texas leader look like?
One campaign ecosystem has repeatedly tried to turn Talarico’s appearance, theology and gender politics into evidence that he falls outside traditional masculine expectations. Talarico has responded by offering his own definition: a teacher and seminarian talking about serving neighbors, supporting families and confronting wealthy interests.
