Paletta compares Talarico’s approach to Vance’s 2024 strategy
James Talarico, the 37-year-old Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Texas, is leading Republican Ken Paxton in many Texas polls despite a series of past controversial comments, according to an analysis in The Wall Street Journal’s Politics newsletter.
WSJ Washington coverage chief Damian Paletta wrote that Talarico has acknowledged some of his past statements are “cringey” and is “essentially asking for Texans’ understanding” — owning the remarks rather than attempting to walk them back.
Among the resurfaced comments, Paletta identified as one of Talarico’s biggest eyebrow-raisers a 2021 statement in which Talarico said “God is both masculine and feminine and everything in between. God is nonbinary.” Earlier in 2026, Talarico told CBS he had been “intentionally provocative with that statement.”
“There are some statements that I made that I certainly regret,” Talarico said in the CBS interview, according to Paletta. “Statements that I’ve made where I’ve missed the mark.”
Paletta compared the approach to one used by Vice President JD Vance during the 2024 campaign, when past television and podcast comments resurfaced, including the “childless cat ladies” remark. During that year’s vice presidential debate, both Vance and Democratic vice presidential nominee Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz acknowledged having said things they would rather have back, Paletta wrote, though whether the approach worked for Walz was unclear. “Sometimes it works (politically). Sometimes it doesn’t,” Paletta observed of the approach.
The strategy carries risk, Paletta noted. Republicans in 2004 used the “flip flops” line against Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry, and politicians more broadly are “notorious for opportunistically changing their views on things,” he wrote, pointing to “the current data center freakout” as one example of politicians shifting positions.
The same edition of the newsletter covered several other developments. The Supreme Court begins its new term on Monday, and as the high court returns, President Trump has renewed his periodic attacks on the justices’ integrity, Paletta reported. Leading Democrats, eyeing the 2028 election, are embracing proposals to blunt the court’s conservative bent by adding more members. The court’s approval rating is underwater, and there are signs of friction between the high court and the lower courts it supervises, according to the newsletter.
Paletta also reported that Democrats are working to fend off challenges in blue states. Senate seats in states Trump won comfortably are now seen as tossups, and House seats he carried by double digits are in danger of flipping. At the same time, Democrats are struggling to coalesce around an ideological platform and face a steep financial disadvantage to Republicans, while in some blue-leaning states Senate GOP candidates are staging strong challenges.
The newsletter also reported that the U.S. has removed all of its B-1 bombers from Britain’s RAF Fairford air base due to “security concerns over suspected plots to attack the facility.” A dozen B-1s had been stationed at the base, which the U.S. had used as a hub for launching bomber strikes in Iran.
Other items in the edition included President Trump’s scheduled policy meetings at the White House and a midterm rally in Grand Island, Nebraska, on Monday.