Talarico tackles abortion, faith and ‘conspiracy theories’: Takeaways from the CNN & Jubilee town hall

Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico appealed face-to-face to skeptical Republicans and independents Wednesday night in a joint town hall hosted by CNN and Jubilee, framing the election in populist terms and insisting he is willing to break with his own party if doing so benefits the state.

“I’m a proud Texas Democrat, but I already have a religion and I already have a sports team,” he said. “So, I have no problem sharing hard truths with my party if it’s what’s best for Texas.”

Talarico faces Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton in one of the most important Senate races of November’s midterm elections. Democrats need a net gain of four seats to claim the Senate majority, and flipping a GOP-held seat in Texas would be a significant boost to that effort. Paxton has not accepted a similar invite to a town hall.

Talarico, a former seminary student, peppered his remarks with references to his “spiritual heroes” and made references to the last three popes. He said he felt he could find common ground with conservatives — in part by looking to solutions to the problems that fuel cultural divides, rather than treating those divides as a political hammer with which to “beat each other over the head.”

And as he campaigns for the votes of independents and moderate Republicans in Texas, where Democrats haven’t won statewide in three decades, he attempted to frame the election in populist terms — regular Americans against wealthy individuals and corporations.

“The only minority destroying America is the billionaires,” Talarico said.

Here are takeaways from Talarico’s town hall:

Talarico repeatedly sought to reach out to the Republican and independent voters he’ll need to win in deep-red Texas, emphasizing that there is common ground to be found — an effort that was on display when he was challenged by a woman who opposes abortion rights.

Talarico told the woman that “it’s OK that you and I come to different conclusions” about the moral and theological questions surrounding the issue.

“What I think we can do is actually come together on reducing the number of unplanned pregnancies and the number of abortions,” he said. “Because if we treat this issue as a public health problem and not a culture war problem, then we can actually make progress together.”

It was one of several ways Talarico looked to make appeals across the aisle on Wednesday night. He also emphasized his willingness to break with the Democratic Party. He called the national debt “an emergency” and said policymakers should seek to run the federal government more efficiently. He broke with progressives’ calls for aggressive breaks from fossil fuels to combat climate change, emphasizing his support for Texas’ oil and gas industry and declaring that he endorses an “all of the above energy strategy.”

He also declared himself “a border security Democrat” and criticized former President Joe Biden’s administration’s management of the US-Mexico border.

Asked if he supports abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement — a position held by many progressives within his party — Talarico quickly responded: “No, and I never have.” He then argued that President Donald Trump’s mass deportation efforts have gone too far, and that the president has deployed ICE as a “secret police force.”

“We don’t want federal agents murdering our neighbors before our very eyes,” he said.

Talarico opened the town hall by addressing his recent absence from the campaign trail that lasted more than a week and fueled Republican attacks that at times veered into debunked conspiracy theories. Talarico returned to making public appearances on Friday.

Talarico reiterated that he had a “nasty case of the flu” and said he now feels “much better.” Looking back, he said he would not have handled the absence differently,

“I think the responsible thing to do when you have something like the flu is stay at home and not get other people sick,” Talarico said, adding that he was able to work remotely.

Talarico knocked Paxton and the “conspiracy theorists” for their attacks over his absence, calling them a distraction from issues that are more important to voters.

“Conspiracy theories don’t put food on the table,” Talarico said.

Talarico sought to clarify a number of comments he has made in recent years that have drawn scrutiny as he runs for Senate.

One of those comments came in 2020 during a Sierra Club event where he called capitalism an “oppressive system.” Talarico took issue with the media’s characterization of the remark and said he was referring to a “crony capitalism” that disproportionately benefits the wealthy.

“What I’m trying to get back to is OG capitalism where we actually reward work instead of wealth,” Talarico said.

Talarico was also asked about a Senate primary debate in January where he criticized Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He said at the debate that it was “time to tear down this secret police force and replace it with an agency that actually is going to focus on public safety.”

Talarico said he does not support abolishing the agency.

“We need Immigration and Customs Enforcement in this country, but that’s not what we’re seeing,” Talarico said. “What we’ve seen over the last year is a secret police force, and that’s what we don’t want in this country.”

Later, Talarico was confronted again about his 2021 comment that “God is non-binary.” He reiterated that he was “being provocative” when he said it.

Talarico has framed his entire campaign around his willingness to take on big business and wealthy interests — and used the emotional story of his own diabetes diagnosis as he laid out one example of how he said he wants to do so.

The 37-year-old Talarico choked up briefly as he explained that in 2018, during his first campaign for the state legislature, he walked 25 miles across his district in one day — and then fell ill and slept for 36 hours. He was hospitalized and diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.

Talarico said when he went to Walgreens to pick up his prescribed insulin for the first time, he learned the cost was $684 — money he did not have at the time.

That was the impetus behind his successful push to cap insulin copays in Texas at $25 per prescription, he said.

If he is elected to the Senate, Talarico said he would push to similarly cap costs across the nation for other medical necessities, including cancer drugs and EpiPens. He also said he would seek to roll back cuts in Affordable Care Act spending imposed by congressional Republicans and Trump in 2025, and would push for a new “public option” that would allow Americans to purchase health insurance coverage from a government-run program.

“These for-profit corporations are making billions of dollars in profit off our pain,” Talarico said. “If you’re willing to take on this corrupt system, then you can actually make change for people.”

At least two voters challenged Talarico on his liberal interpretations of the Bible — and the candidate sought to find common ground with them.

One of those voters was a Catholic Texan who described herself as a “one-issue” voter on abortion. Talarico told her that some of his “spiritual heroes,” such as Pope Leo, are “pro-life” and that he “can respect anyone like you who is consistently pro-life.”

“We’re both Christians, and the Bible is silent on the issue of abortion,” Talarico said. “It means you and I both have to look at different scriptures to try to come to a conclusion. But what I think we can do is actually come together on reducing the number of unplanned pregnancies and the number of abortions.”

The voter disputed Talarico’s claim that the Bible does not address abortion, pointing to the Ten Commandments, one of which says, “Thou shalt not kill.” Talarico responded sympathetically, saying it was “OK that you and I come to different conclusions about that.”

Another voter, a Republican named Sarah Gardner, also raised issues with how Talarico has used his faith to argue the Democratic position on social issues. She said people “need to be careful using modern cultural terms when talking about God.”

Talarico agreed, saying it was a “very fair criticism.”

德克萨斯州民主党参议员候选人詹姆斯·塔拉里科周三晚在 CNN 和 Jubilee 联合举办的市政厅会议上，与持怀疑态度的共和党人和独立人士面对面地呼吁，他以民粹主义的措辞来阐述选举，并坚称如果这样做有利于该州，他愿意与自己的政党决裂。

“我为自己是德克萨斯州的民主党人而感到自豪，但我已经有了自己的宗教信仰和支持的球队，”他说。“所以，如果这对德克萨斯州最有利，我并不介意与我的党内成员分享一些残酷的真相。”

塔拉里科将在11月中期选举中与共和党籍总检察长肯·帕克斯顿展开一场至关重要的参议院席位争夺战。民主党需要净增四个席位才能夺回参议院多数席位，而拿下德克萨斯州一个共和党把持的席位将极大地助力民主党的努力。帕克斯顿尚未接受类似的市政厅会议邀请。

塔拉里科曾是神学院的学生，他在讲话中不时提及他的“精神偶像”，并提到了最近三位教皇。他说，他觉得自己可以与保守派找到共同点——部分原因在于，他们寻求解决加剧文化分歧的问题，而不是将这些分歧当作政治武器，用来“互相攻击”。

在德克萨斯州争取独立选民和温和派共和党人的选票时，他试图用民粹主义的语言来描述这次选举——普通美国人对抗富有的个人和企业。德克萨斯州已经三十年没有民主党赢得过全州范围的选举了。

“唯一正在摧毁美国的少数群体是亿万富翁，”塔拉里科说。

以下是塔拉里科市政厅会议的要点：

塔拉里科反复试图争取共和党人和独立选民的支持，以赢得深红州德克萨斯州的选票，强调双方存在共同点——当他受到一位反对堕胎权的女性的质问时，这种努力就得到了体现。

塔拉里科告诉这位女士，“你我对于围绕这一问题的道德和神学问题得出不同的结论是可以理解的”。

他说：“我认为我们真正能做的，是携手减少意外怀孕和堕胎的数量。因为如果我们把这个问题当作公共卫生问题，而不是文化战争问题来对待，那么我们就能真正共同取得进展。”

这是塔拉里科周三晚间试图争取跨党派支持的几种方式之一。他还强调自己愿意与民主党决裂。他称国家债务是“一场危机”，并表示政策制定者应该寻求更高效的联邦政府运作方式。他反对进步派呼吁大幅减少化石燃料的使用以应对气候变化，强调自己支持德克萨斯州的石油和天然气行业，并宣称他支持“能源多元化战略”。

他还自称是“边境安全民主党人”，并批评了前总统乔·拜登政府对美墨边境的管理。

当被问及是否支持废除移民和海关执法局（这是他所在党派中许多进步人士的立场）时，塔拉里科迅速回答说：“不，我从来没有支持过。”随后，他辩称唐纳德·特朗普总统的大规模驱逐出境行动已经走得太远，而且总统已经将移民和海关执法局当作了“秘密警察部队”。

“我们不希望联邦特工在我们眼前谋杀我们的邻居，”他说。

塔拉里科在市政厅会议上首先谈到了他最近一周多未出现在竞选活动中的情况。这段时间里，他一直缺席，共和党人对他发起攻击，其中一些攻击甚至涉及已被证伪的阴谋论。塔拉里科于周五重返公众视野。

塔拉里科重申他得了“重感冒”，并表示现在感觉“好多了”。他回顾往事时说，如果可以重来，他不会改变缺席的方式。

“我认为，当你得了流感之类的疾病时，负责任的做法是待在家里，不要传染给其他人，”塔拉里科说，并补充说他可以远程办公。

塔拉里科抨击帕克斯顿和“阴谋论者”对他的缺席进行攻击，称这些攻击分散了选民对更重要问题的注意力。

“阴谋论并不能解决温饱问题，”塔拉里科说。

塔拉里科试图澄清他近年来发表的一些言论，这些言论在他竞选参议员期间引起了密切关注。

其中一条评论发表于2020年塞拉俱乐部的一次活动上，当时他称资本主义是“压迫性的制度”。塔拉里科对媒体对该言论的解读提出异议，并表示他指的是一种不成比例地使富人受益的“裙带资本主义”。

“我想要回归的是原始的资本主义，在这种资本主义中，我们真正奖励的是劳动而不是财富，”塔拉里科说。

塔拉里科还被问及一月份参议院初选辩论中他对移民和海关执法局的批评。他在辩论中表示，“是时候解散这支秘密警察部队，并用一个真正专注于公共安全的机构取而代之了。”

塔拉里科表示，他不支持废除该机构。

“我们国家需要移民和海关执法局，但我们看到的却不是这样，”塔拉里科说。“过去一年我们看到的是一支秘密警察部队，而这正是我们国家不希望看到的。”

后来，塔拉里科再次被问及他在 2021 年发表的“上帝是非二元性别的”言论。他重申，他当时发表这番言论只是“挑衅”。

塔拉里科的整个竞选活动都围绕着他愿意对抗大企业和富人利益集团展开——他还以自己被诊断出患有糖尿病的感人故事为例，说明了他打算如何做到这一点。

37岁的塔拉里科哽咽着解释说，2018年，在他第一次竞选州议员期间，他一天之内​​步行25英里走遍了选区——然后就病倒了，睡了36个小时。他被送往医院，并被诊断出患有1型糖尿病。

塔拉里科说，当他第一次去沃尔格林药店取处方胰岛素时，他得知价格是 684 美元——而他当时并没有这笔钱。

他说，正是这种动力促使他成功地推动德克萨斯州将胰岛素处方自付费用上限设定为每张处方 25 美元。

塔拉里科表示，如果他当选参议员，他将推动在全国范围内对其他医疗必需品（包括癌症药物和肾上腺素自动注射器）的价格设定类似的上限。他还表示，他将努力撤销国会共和党人和特朗普在2025年实施的《平价医疗法案》支出削减，并推动一项新的“公共选项”，允许美国人通过政府运营的项目购买医疗保险。

“这些营利性公司靠我们的痛苦赚取数十亿美元的利润，”塔拉里科说。“如果你愿意挑战这个腐败的体制，那么你就能真正为人们带来改变。”

至少有两名选民对塔拉里科的《圣经》自由主义解读提出质疑——这位候选人试图与他们找到共同点。

其中一位选民是一位来自德克萨斯州的天主教徒，她自称在堕胎问题上只关注一个议题。塔拉里科告诉她，他的一些“精神英雄”，例如教皇利奥三世，都是“支持生命权”的，而且他“尊重像你这样始终支持生命权的人”。

“我们都是基督徒，而圣经对堕胎问题保持沉默，”塔拉里科说。“这意味着你我必须分别查阅不同的经文才能得出结论。但我认为我们真正能做的，是共同努力减少意外怀孕和堕胎的数量。”

这位选民反驳了塔拉里科关于《圣经》没有提及堕胎的说法，并指出《十诫》中有一条诫命是“不可杀人”。塔拉里科表示理解，并说“你我对此有不同的看法也没关系”。

另一位名叫莎拉·加德纳的共和党选民也对塔拉里科利用其信仰来论证民主党在社会问题上的立场提出了质疑。她说，人们“在谈论上帝时需要谨慎使用现代文化术语”。

塔拉里科表示同意，称这是一个“非常合理的批评”。