James Talarico Stands By Defense of Trans Youth: "Focus on the Real Problem"https://www.them.us/story/james-talarico-trans-youth-focus-on-the-real-problem 🔗Abby Monteil (10 March 2026)
Texas State Rep. and Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico is standing by his defense of trans youth.
During a March 9 interview on MS NOW, formerly known as MSNBC, the politician remarked that although he's had "a lot of interviews with national media" since winning Texas' Democratic Senate primary, he hasn't been asked about issues like "the cost of housing" and "the cost of prescription drugs."
"The only thing the media wants to ask me about are trans athletes," he said. "What I would say is that the only minority destroying this country is the billionaires."
"We are all focused on the wrong 1%," he continued. "Trans people aren't taking away our healthcare. Undocumented people aren't defunding our schools... It's the billionaires and their puppet politicians. And so we need not only the media, but all of us, to focus on the real problem at hand."
This isn't the first time that Talarico has been outspoken in support of the LGBTQ+ community. In 2023, a TikTok video of Talarico speaking out against a Republican bill attempting to require Texas public schools to display the Ten Commandments went viral.
"Why is having a rainbow in a classroom indoctrination and not having the Ten Commandments in a classroom?" he said at the time. "Every time on this committee that we try to teach students values like empathy and kindness, we're told we can't because that's the parents' role... But now you're putting religious commandments — literal commandments — in our classroom, and you're saying that's the state's role. Why is that not the parents' role?"
