In 2022, it was Beto O’Rourke’s “Hell yes, we’re going to take your AR-15” — a vow he made in the wake of the El Paso shooting that would later haunt his gubernatorial bid.

Four years later, the GOP is working to blow up James Talarico’s now viral 2021 declaration that “God is nonbinary.”

Immediately after winning his primary, Republicans began plastering the quote and others from Talarico’s archives across social media, casting the Democratic standard bearer as far left and wildly out of step with most Texans. Eager to highlight his progressive views on topics ranging from race and gender to border security and Christianity, Republicans have seized on his footprint on the same online platforms that propelled him from the Texas House to political prominence to try and undermine the crossover appeal he has sought to project throughout his campaign as his means to statewide victory.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee on Wednesday launched a digital ad depicting a pseudo Talarico, generated by artificial intelligence, reading aloud his old social media posts that Republicans have recirculated over the past week, including in 2021 when Talarico said “radicalized white men are the greatest domestic terrorist threat in our country” while discussing recent mass shootings. The ad also highlighted Talarico’s past post touting his Texas House office’s effort to add pronouns to staffers’ business cards as “a small way to tell trans Texans: You are welcome here.”

“James Talarico is the most radical, woke Democrat Texas voters have ever seen, and voters will reject his extreme statements praising transgenderism, twisting Christian beliefs and advocating for open borders,” said NRSC Regional Press Secretary Samantha Cantrell.

Talarico’s campaign declined an interview and to answer questions, pointing The Texas Tribune to his victory speech last week in which he said he was “running against the broken system and the powerful people who broke it. They’re scared of the movement we are building. They’re going to throw everything they have at us.”

He’s previously said that his comment that God is nonbinary was intended to be “provocative,” but his point was that “God is beyond gender.”

The immediacy and volume of the GOP attacks marked a bit of whiplash for Talarico coming out of a primary election against U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett that was wracked with accusations from his critics that he was insensitive to racial politics and identity issues. Now, Talarico finds himself being assailed by Republicans painting him as anti-White, obsessed with gender and inadequately masculine.

In an interview with The New York Times after the primary, Talarico suggested he would communicate some of his views differently today, but stood by the principles behind the comments Republicans are using to tar him as an extreme liberal.

“The principles that I was articulating — that racism is immoral and wrong, that trans people deserve dignity and equality — those are certainly principles and values that I still hold, and that stem directly from my faith,” he said. “But I probably would have said them differently.”

Democrats see an opportunity to make inroads in Texas this election cycle, hoping that backlash to the Trump administration and the prospect of hard-right, scandal-ladden Attorney General Ken Paxton becoming the GOP Senate nominee will boost their candidates all along the ballot. Paxton is locked in a May runoff election for the nomination against incumbent U.S. Sen. John Cornyn after neither cleared 50% of the vote last week.

Matt Angle, a Democratic strategist in Texas, called the Republican attacks on Talarico “entirely predictable, only more panicky than we’ve seen in the past.”

“Texas Republicans need to be in a constant culture war to both keep the hate wing of their party enraged and to avoid the election being about high insurance premiums, high utilities costs, low wages and their billionaire benefactors,” Angle said. “Talarico is a particular problem for them because he talks about his faith with passion and authenticity that conflicts with Texas Republicans’ pray and hate model.”

Gov. Greg Abbott especially has sought to tie Talarico’s progressive views to downballot Democrats running in competitive seats, arguing at a GOP campaign event in Manor on Tuesday that Talarico and the “rest of the [Democratic] slate are going to be annihilated in the upcoming election.” As Abbott launched into a tirade against Talarico, a member of the audience shouted, “he’s the Antichrist!”

Here’s a deeper look at how Republicans are weaponizing Talarico’s past statements.

What Talarico said: “God is nonbinary,” Talarico, a seminarian and aspiring Presbyterian minister, said on the Texas House floor in 2021.

What the GOP is saying: “Beto O’Rourke may have been a total FREAK, but even he didn’t say something as bizarre as ‘God is nonbinary,’ like James Talarico. Texans should not be fooled. Talarico might not have BLUE HAIR, but that doesn’t mean he’s not a full-on RADICAL LEFTIST!!” said U.S. Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Amarillo.

The context: Talarico was opposing legislation requiring students to play on K-12 sports teams matching their biological sex, drawing from Scripture in his speech to condemn his Republican colleagues for what he cast as twisting Bible passages to “justify hurting children” — ”a special kind of sin.”

“God is both masculine and feminine, and everything in between,” Talarico said, citing a passage from the Book of Genesis. “Trans children are God’s children made in God’s own image. There’s nothing wrong with them, nothing at all.”

He’s since defended the remark.

“As the Apostle Paul says in Galatians: ‘In Christ, there is neither male nor female,’” he said in a statement to the Tribune last month. “So if someone has a problem with that, they shouldn’t take it up with me, they should take it up with the Apostle Paul.”

What Talarico said: “Modern science obviously recognizes that there are many more than two biological sexes — in fact, there are six.”

What the GOP is saying: “Can’t wait to hear the Democratic Party’s newest star explain the other four [sexes] to the voters in Texas,” said U.S. Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Flower Mound.

“Which of the six genders is Talarico?” said White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller.

The context: Talarico made the comment in April 2021 during a committee debate of a bill that would have required public school students to play on athletic teams corresponding to their sex according to their birth certificates. (A version of this bill was passed into law later that year.)

Talarico was asking the bill author, state Rep. Cole Hefner, R-Mt. Pleasant, how the legislation would affect intersex children, who are born without traditional sex traits and would not have fit neatly into the bill’s assumption of two biological sexes.

“Modern science obviously recognizes that there are many more than two biological sexes — in fact, there are six, which, honestly, Representative Hefner, surprised me, too,” Talarico said, before listing chromosomal variations that describe intersex people. “The point is that biologically speaking, scientifically speaking, sex is a spectrum and oftentimes it can be very ambiguous.”

What he said: “Radicalized white men are the greatest domestic terrorist threat in our country,” Talarico posted on social media in 2021.

What the GOP is saying: “A large majority of Texas voters are against your crazy DEI mandates. Also, taking race or sex into consideration when hiring, directly violates the Texas Constitution. When Texans and Americans learn about your Bernie Sanders voting record, you will be toast,” Abbott posted.

“Great ad copy,” Chris LaCivita, who leads a pro-Cornyn super PAC and served as a senior adviser on President Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign.

The context: Talarico was commenting on three recent mass shootings that had targeted Black, Latino and Asian Americans. His ensuing tweet linked to a CNN article about a report conducted by the Department of Homeland Security during Trump’s first term finding white supremecist extremists the deadliest domestic terror threat in the country.

In that same thread, Talarico, a former public school teacher, said that he was leading state legislation to “explicitly teach ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ in our schools” and to require school districts over a certain size to hire a DEI officer.

“There but for the grace of God go I,” he wrote. “As a white man, I’m susceptible to the same radicalization. Thankfully, I was exposed to diversity at a young age and explicitly taught the values of equality, inclusion and justice. But not every young white boy is so lucky.”

Online platforms “stoke hate for profit,” Talarico wrote in the posts. “Their algorithms quickly escalate content from funny memes to white nationalist propaganda. As an educator, I believe our public schools must act.”

What he said: “White skin gives me and every white American immunity from the virus,” Talarico wrote. “But we spread it wherever we go.”

What the GOP is saying: “Left-wing zealots are very, very different from ordinary Americans. Among other things, they are open racists,” U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz said.

“Texas Democrats have once again chosen a Far-Left liberal who is wildly out of step with Lone Star voters,” Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC associated with Senate GOP leadership, said.

The context: In a series of posts from May 2020, Talarico backed the Black Lives Matter movement and decried the killings of Black Americans by “the virus of racism.”

“The only cure is diagnosing the virus within ourselves and taking dramatic actions to contain the spread,” he added. “The first small step is proclaiming loudly and unequivocally that #BlackLivesMatter.”

What he said: “Our border should be like a front porch — it should have a welcome mat out front and a lock on the door,” Talarico has said throughout his Senate campaign.

What the GOP is saying: “From supporting open borders and defunding the police to forcing sex change surgeries on kids and saying ‘God is nonbinary,’ James Talarico is a walking bingo card for the radical liberal agenda,” Republican National Committee spokesperson Zach Kraft said.

The context: On immigration, Talarico frequently draws from Scripture to explain his policy positions.

He has condemned the deadly immigration crackdown under the Trump administration, arguing that Immigration and Customs Enforcement should prioritize deporting criminals over community members and that federal agents who abuse their power should be held accountable before Congress. Talarico has also said he supports reforming the asylum system, modernizing ports of entry to better detect potential threats and creating pathways to legalization for some unauthorized migrants.

“We can both welcome the stranger, and we can keep people out who mean to do us harm,” Talarico says on his campaign website.

What Talarico said: “After the murders of George Floyd and Javier Ambler, our campaign proudly donated to a well-respected civil rights organization in our community that champions educational equity, economic opportunity, and police reform,” Talarico posted on social media in October 2020. “Because we believe #BlackLivesMatter.”

What the GOP is saying: “He’s been exposed for all the leftist policies that he stood for. He’s maybe one of the far most radical leftist in the United States. He makes Tim Walz look normal,” Abbott said on The Sean Hannity Show. “He’s voted to defund the police, voted for open border policies, voted for boys in girls sports.”

The context: Republicans are trying to tie Talarico to the “defund the police” movement that arose in 2020 after the police killings of George Floyd and other Black Americans, but which proved politically unpopular for Democrats who embraced the call in election cycles afterward.

The New York Post reported Monday that Talarico’s state House campaign donated $2,500 to the Austin Justice Coalition in 2020, a group that advocated for reallocating funds from the Austin Police Department toward social programs.

“We did it publicly, and asked our supporters to match our donation,” Talarico said on social media at the time in response to a yard sign paid for by the Williamson County Republican Party accusing him of using his campaign money to help defund the police.

Talarico spokesperson JT Ennis told The New York Post that Talarico “does not support defunding the police, and has consistently voted to allocate billions to fund police.”

Talarico has voted in favor of additional funding for law enforcement several times in the Texas House, and his first bill passed renamed a piece of US Highway 79 after fallen police officer Sgt. Chris Kelley.

“While John Cornyn, Ken Paxton, and the billionaires who prop them up try to deceive voters by presenting a false choice between funding law enforcement and funding crime prevention services, James will continue building a people-powered movement that takes on this broken political system,” Ennis said.

What Talarico said: “The antithesis of Trump is not Biden, it’s not Warren, it’s not Harris, it’s not Castro, it’s not even President Obama. The clearest anti-Trump we have is Jesus of Nazareth,” Talarico said in a sermon at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in September 2019.

What the GOP is saying: “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves,” said U.S. Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Flower Mound.

“Progressivism will hollow out your religion and wear it like a skin suit. That’s exactly what James Talarico does,” said Josh Howerton, pastor of Lakepointe Church, a Dallas megachurch.

The context: Talarico has long pointed to his progressive read of Christianity as the foundation of his politics, consistently citing Jesus’ commandment to love thy neighbor as the fundamental basis of his policy views. His faith is at the forefront of his political identity and his Senate campaign, where he has used the language of religion to envision a populist politics and appeal to independent and right-leaning voters.

His sermon in 2019 was titled, “Searching for Humanity.” His remark that “the clearest anti-Trump we have is Jesus” came as he was discussing the “radical love” and inclusiveness of Jesus’ movement.

“His teachings demonstrate a new way of living, of thinking, of interacting and of being based in radical love,” Talarico said. “The current President of the United States embodies the opposite path through his character, his actions and his values. This is not a personal critique of the president. He’s merely the most prominent and striking example of the destructive human instincts that live within each of us.”

“It’s easy to condemn Trump and his character and his values and his actions — it’s harder to acknowledge the ways in which we all share those things in ourselves,” Talarico continued. “Trump and Jesus are two sides of the same very human coin.”

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