Democrats spent years telling you that raising your kids the way you were raised makes you an abuser.
Now the Democrat running for Senate in Texas just got caught on tape saying exactly that.
And Texas Senate candidate James Talarico called your right to raise your kids abusive.
What James Talarico Actually Said On the Record
In 2019, during a Texas Legislature committee hearing, Talarico laid out his position without any ambiguity.
"I think there are some folks that would think that if you deny your child's gender identity, that's incredibly harmful," he said.
He kept going.
"Some of us I think really do consider this abusive behavior – an unwillingness to identify, acknowledge a child's gender identity. We consider that abusive to the child, abusive and destructive," he added.
That was Talarico arguing, in a formal legislative setting, that Texas parents who raise their kids according to biology are abusers.
The context makes it worse.
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The bill he was opposing – HB 1910 – simply stated that courts could not use a parent's refusal to "affirm" a child's gender identity as evidence against them in custody disputes.
That's it.
Talarico fought it because he refused to rule out that declining to call your son a girl could constitute child abuse under Texas law.
"My concern is ruling it out as not being abuse, I think, is dangerous and could certainly harm some of our most vulnerable kids in the state," Talarico said.
He was asking the Texas government to keep open the legal door to prosecuting parents for raising their own children.
This Is a Pattern, Not a Slip
Talarico's handlers have a ready answer for every resurfaced clip.
He "missed the mark."
He said that about claiming God is nonbinary.
He said that about claiming there are six biological sexes.
He said that about praising drag queens as the best in the nation.
He said that about his call to dismantle capitalism.
The campaign's own spokesperson told Fox News Digital that "James has already said he missed the mark on some of his past statements" – as if the sheer volume of those statements is just an unfortunate coincidence.
It isn't.
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He didn't accidentally stumble into calling Texas parents abusers.
He argued it deliberately, in a committee hearing, with the specific legislative goal of keeping the legal threat hanging over parents' heads.
Democrats Have Tried This Before
Talarico isn't the first Democrat to float the idea that parental disagreement equals child abuse.
Virginia Democrat Elizabeth Guzman pushed legislation that would have opened parents to felony prosecution for failing to affirm a child's gender identity – classifying that failure as inflicting a "mental injury."
California's AB 957 went further, writing into family law that non-affirming parents are acting abusively – a standard that custody judges across the state would have been required to enforce.
The Left's strategy is consistent: get the word "abuse" legally attached to normal parenting, then use that designation to strip custody from the wrong parent.
Talarico was openly endorsing that strategy from the floor of the Texas Legislature in 2019 – and his votes confirmed it.
He voted against the stronger parental rights bill when it finally passed in 2025, one of 59 nay votes, while also supporting an amendment that would have explicitly declared that "rejecting a child's gender identity or sexual orientation is abuse."
That amendment wasn't ambiguous.
Talarico knew exactly what he was voting for.
What This Means for Texas in November
The Texas Senate race is in a statistical dead heat with seven weeks left.
Talarico holds a massive cash advantage over Ken Paxton – he reported $21.5 million available compared to Paxton's $7.5 million – which means he has the resources to paper over his record with ads telling Texas parents he respects them.
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His campaign's response to the clip proves that strategy: "James believes parents have the most important say in decisions about their children."
That's what he's saying now.
In 2019, he was saying parents who make that decision wrong are abusive.
Texas hasn't sent a Democrat to the U.S. Senate since 1988.
Talarico is betting he can hide who he actually is long enough to change that.
Every clip that surfaces makes that bet a little harder to win.
Sources:
- Leo Briceno, "Unearthed clip shows Talarico calling parents 'abusive' for denying children's gender identity," Fox News, September 14, 2026.
- Brooke Taylor and Peter Pinedo, "Talarico says he 'missed the mark' as he backtracks on controversial woke statements," Fox News, September 9, 2026.
- "Ken Paxton pressed on potential electability concerns as he trails Talarico in Texas Senate race," Fox News, 2026.
- "Who leads 2026 Texas Senate race? Latest Paxton vs. Talarico polls," Fox 7 Austin, 2026.
- "Ken Paxton's campaign says he will debate James Talarico in Texas' U.S. Senate race," Fox 26 Houston, July 2026.
