on election night Republicans suffered heavy defeats in key House and Senate races across the country, even in once-deep red Texas, in a campaign in which they adopted a familiar outrage tactic: fear-mongering about transgender rights.
Democrats fled the Longhorn State’s political wilderness on Tuesday night, with Democrat James Talarico defeating Republican Ken Paxton — despite the far-right attorney general’s relentless attacks on the transgender community and his party’s claims that Democrats will advance so-called “transgenderism” as an ideology.
The huge upset came with a victory for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Gina Hinojosa, who defeated Republican incumbent Gov. Greg Abbott shortly after Talarico’s Senate race began.
In Dallas, Paxton constituent Rachel Fuller told The Intercept she was appalled by Talarico’s support for “far-fetched” ideas, such as “giving kids the power to make decisions and having their parents abuse them for not letting them transition.”
Her comments suggest that some of the $78 million Republicans have spent on anti-trans attack ads in Texas is working. But that hasn’t been enough to help Republicans retain power in Texas, a state that hasn’t had a Democratic senator since the 1990s.
Those ads accounted for nearly half of all pro-Paxton ad spending, according to an analysis by Puck using AdImpact data.
Overall, these ads blatantly spread misinformation about Talarico’s record.
Texas PAC, a political action committee largely funded by billionaire Elon Musk, produced an infamous $29 million ad claiming Talarico supported jailing parents who did not support gender-affirming surgeries for minors. A woman in the ad ominously warns: “Every mom in Texas should be worried that if parents don’t support the surgical reassignment of their children, James Talarico will send them to jail.”
The attack, which had been viewed 1.9 billion times as of October, according to Puck, did seem to get Texans’ attention — even if voters ultimately backed Talarico.
Julius Ishola, a lobbyist for Black TOP, a group that targets black voters under the Texas Organizing Project, told The Intercept that he often hears from black voters concerned that Talarico intends to incarcerate their parents.
“I’ve gotten a lot of bad feedback about James Talarico,” Isola told The Intercept. He said many constituents cited concerns about “gender changing and potentially suing parents who object to it… and allowing transgender people in women’s restrooms.”
As a state legislator, Talarico opposed bans on transgender athletes from participating in youth sports and famously said that God is “non-binary,” earning him derision from Republicans, who nicknamed the Senate candidate “Tararicho.” In the face of these attacks this round, Talarico has appeared to back down on the issue, telling Fox News in September that he supported banning transgender children from participating in sports if there were “safety or fairness” risks, without clarifying what that meant.
His wavering didn’t appear to affect many voters.
“I’ve always voted Republican. That’s my fear of Talarico joining,” said Carol Billings, a voter at Living Waters Church in Dallas County who voted for Paxton. Like Fuller, she sees Democratic candidates’ transgender policies as a major source of concern.
Still, Talarico is rarely mentioned by many voters in the black districts that were crucial to Talarico’s victory.
“The bottom line,” said Dallas Jones, a Democratic political strategist in Houston whose firm focuses on African-American voter engagement and supports Talarico, “is that people care more about their day-to-day lives than trans-Americans who are just trying to get by.”
Some voters told The Intercept they were more concerned about affordability. “I just wish we could get gas prices down,” Fort Worth voter Daryl Moore said.
This is a developing story and will be updated. Akela Lacey reported from Dallas, Texas.