James Talarico has a new answer on transgender athletes, and it is noticeably different from the one he gave Texas voters a few years ago.
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The Democratic U.S. Senate nominee said Wednesday that he would oppose trans athletes competing in girls’ sports “if it endangers safety or fairness.” Coming from someone who previously voted against Republican restrictions on trans student-athletes, that is a pretty significant shift — and one that LGBTQ+ Texans are understandably paying attention to.
“Every sport has to be safe and fair,” Talarico said on Fox News. “As a former public school teacher, I care a lot about our student athletes, I care a lot about our students. And so I will oppose trans athletes playing in girls’ sports if it risks safety or fairness.”
“I oppose trans athletes playing in girls sports if it endangers safety or fairness.”
Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico is changing his tune on biological men in women’s sports.
Pressed by Fox News’ @Brooketaylortv on where he stands, Talarico said he would oppose trans… pic.twitter.com/o7JdCirul2
— Fox News (@FoxNews) September 9, 2026
So, do we agree with Talarico? Well, this is where things get complicated.
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Talarico’s position has clearly moved
As a Texas House representative, Talarico voted against Republican bills that would have restricted transgender student-athletes from competing on sports teams consistent with their gender identity.
At the time, he was considerably more outspoken in his opposition. He argued that the proposals amounted to an attempt to “police people’s private parts” and would harm “the least of these.”
In 2021, he also said, “Some things are more important than perfectly fair competition in sports.”
His argument now is that those bills were simply too broad.
During his Fox News appearance, Talarico said he supported amendments that would have narrowed the restrictions, including proposals that would have left eligibility decisions to local school boards, applied restrictions only to individual sports and limited the prohibition to schools with professional licensed counselors.
“I supported amendments that would have given the power to make these decisions to local communities — like conservatives used to believe,” Talarico said. “I think that the people closest to these problems are best equipped to make decisions for themselves, not politicians in Austin, not politicians in Washington. I trust local officials and local communities to make these decisions, and that’s what I voted for.”
His explanation is essentially that voting against a bill does not necessarily mean opposing every possible restriction within that bill.
“As a lawmaker, my job is to try to kind of sift through everything the bill does,” he said Wednesday. “And sometimes there’s stuff that is really harmful, and I have no choice but to oppose the bill as a whole.”
That is a reasonable distinction to make about legislative voting. But it doesn’t make the political reversal any less noticeable.
The trans-athlete question has followed him into the Senate race
Republicans have been more than happy to remind voters about Talarico’s old positions. Attorney General Ken Paxton, the Republican Senate nominee, has made transgender sports a major part of his effort to portray Talarico as too progressive for Texas. Republican campaign ads and conservative media have also highlighted Talarico’s previous opposition to restrictions on trans athletes.
So when Talarico appeared on Fox News and explicitly said he would oppose trans athletes playing in girls’ sports when he believes safety or fairness is at risk, it was difficult to miss the political significance.
And this isn’t entirely a brand-new position. Earlier in his Senate campaign, Talarico said decisions involving trans athletes should be made by local school and sports officials.
“I’m here to have that conversation about how we maintain safety and fairness in sports when it comes to trans athletes,” Talarico said on The Ezra Klein Show in January. “There are going to be rules where sometimes it’s not allowed. That’s actually how you solve a public policy problem with love for trans folks but also for our athletes, who need a fair shot at competition.”
His campaign spokesperson, JT Ennis, made a similar argument in August, saying Talarico opposes trans athletes playing girls’ sports “when it jeopardizes safety or fairness,” while also saying he would oppose discrimination.
So Wednesday’s statement is less a sudden 180-degree turn than a much more explicit declaration of where he now draws the line.
And yes, there is another walk-back
The Fox News interview also brought another old Talarico comment back into the spotlight. In 2021, during a Texas House committee debate, Talarico said there were six genders. Asked Wednesday whether he still believed there were six sexes, he answered, “No.”
“I missed the mark on some of my past statements, I’ll be the first to admit it,” Talarico said. “What I meant is there are two sexes and there’s a small percentage of people with genetic abnormalities. Obviously I didn’t say it correctly. There are not six sexes, there are two.”
Talarico has previously acknowledged that some of his older comments were mistakes, telling CBS earlier this year, “There are some statements that I’ve made that I certainly regret.”
His broader political pitch has increasingly focused on economic populism, arguing that cultural battles distract voters from the influence of wealthy donors and billionaires.
“The only minority destroying America is the billionaires,” Talarico said at his campaign kickoff. “The culture wars are a smokescreen. So many of the divisions in this state and in this country are manufactured by billionaires who want us fighting each other instead of fighting them. They want us looking left and right at our neighbors instead of looking up at them.”
Which is a compelling argument if you’re trying to tell voters that the culture war isn’t the main event. Unfortunately for Talarico, the culture war appears to have bought a ticket anyway.
But what does this mean for trans kids?
This is where the conversation gets much less tidy than a campaign strategy. Brad Pritchett, CEO of Equality Texas, criticized Talarico’s comments and said his organization “expect[s] better” from the candidate and his campaign.
“When did people of moral standing decide to use Texas children as a political football?” Pritchett said. “Fairness in school sports must include trans kids. Trans kids deserve the opportunity to play sports as much as their peers.”
That gets to the heart of why LGBTQ+ voters may have a harder time shrugging off Talarico’s new position as ordinary campaign repositioning.
For trans students, sports aren’t simply an abstract argument about competitive fairness. They’re also about whether a young person gets to participate in school life alongside their classmates.
At the same time, Talarico is making a distinction between opposing discrimination and believing that some sporting competitions can have eligibility rules. His stated position is not that trans people should be excluded from sports altogether. It’s that safety and fairness can justify restrictions in some circumstances.
Whether that distinction feels convincing probably depends on where you land on the underlying question.
So, do we agree with Talarico?
The easiest answer is: it depends on what you think “fairness” should mean — and who should get to define it. Talarico is clearly trying to occupy a middle ground. He wants to tell conservative voters that he isn’t automatically opposed to restrictions involving trans athletes, while assuring LGBTQ+ voters that he still opposes discrimination. Politically, you can understand the calculation.
For LGBTQ+ people watching, though, the question is whether this is a thoughtful evolution in his position or simply a candidate adjusting his language because the Texas Senate race demands it.
His previous record doesn’t disappear because his current answer is more carefully worded. And his current answer doesn’t necessarily mean his old votes were secretly votes for unrestricted participation, either.
What we do have is a candidate who once strongly opposed Republican restrictions, now saying some restrictions are appropriate, while insisting that the earlier bills were too broad.
That leaves voters with a rather important question: Is Talarico finding a genuinely nuanced position on a complicated issue, or is he trying to make an old progressive record more palatable to a Texas electorate that has moved in the other direction?
And for trans Texans, particularly young people who are actually affected by these policies, that’s not exactly a theoretical question.
Source: Texas Tribune