Texas Democrat U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico, who is running against Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton, has accused Christianity of causing unmatched harm while opposing President Donald Trump’s immigration restrictions on terrorism-prone nations and repeatedly aligning himself with Muslim communities.

Texas state Rep. and Presbyterian seminarian James Talarico said earlier this year in a New Yorker profile that Christianity is the “most violent” religion and has done “more damage” to Islam than it has done to any other religion.

The remarks stand in contrast to figures from the Cato Institute, which say radical Islamic terror has killed at least 3,100 Americans in the United States since 1975, along with thousands of U.S. soldiers overseas. The Cato figures also state that radical Islamic terror has accounted for 87 percent of terrorism-related deaths over the past 50 years.

In a clip provided exclusively to Breitbart News, Talarico spoke to the Pakistani American Council of Texas and criticized President Donald Trump for restricting immigration from countries described as radical Islamic terrorism hot spots. Talarico called Trump “a threat to all of us” and said he stands with his “Muslim brothers and sisters.”

Talarico has publicly supported Muslim Texans for years. In 2017, Talarico wrote, “Proud to stand with our Muslim neighbors today. Texas is big enough for all of us. #NoBanNoWall.” Critics of Trump’s policy frequently referred to it as a “Muslim ban,” though Breitbart News noted that the January 2017 order applied to countries previously identified as particularly vulnerable to terrorism, partly because of substandard internal record-keeping, including Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen, rather than to Muslims generally.

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In 2016, he wrote on Facebook that he was proud to campaign for Sean Hassan, whom he described as a “smart, progressive, Muslim-American,” adding that he did so “just to piss off” Trump.

In 2021, Talarico wrote on X that Texas had “the largest population of Muslims in the country” and said he had introduced legislation to add imams to the list of religious officials allowed to perform marriage ceremonies in Texas. He thanked Muslim activists who helped write House Bill 2039, including Insiya Aziz of Emgage Action, for testifying at a hearing on the measure.

Talarico has said he had met Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Jews, Muslims, atheists, and agnostics who were “more Christ-like” than some Christians he serves with in the Texas legislature.

During a 2021 invocation on the Texas House floor, Talarico prayed to “Holy Mystery,” referenced the Torah, Koran, Gita, Dharma, and First Epistle of John, and ended by praying in “all your many names.”

Talarico has also opposed displaying the Ten Commandments in public schools, calling a Texas law requiring such displays “deeply unChristian” and saying he did not want the government forcing religion “down my throats.” During legislative debate over the 2025 Texas law, he said the proposal “does violence to both Christianity and Judaism.”

He has also criticized private school vouchers as part of what he called a “Christian Nationalist movement,” saying during a 2024 South by Southwest appearance that vouchers take tax dollars out of public schools and give them to “unaccountable private schools,” usually Christian private schools.

Talarico has also tied religious arguments to abortion and transgender issues. In a 2022 church sermon, he said abortion restrictions meant “every one of our neighbors with a uterus became the property of the state,” adding that “nothing, nothing is more unchristian than that.” In a May 2026 interview, he said the Bible is “silent on abortion” and argued abortion policy is not “a place for the state.” In 2021, while opposing legislation related to women’s sports, Talarico said, “God is non-binary,” and stated that “trans children are God’s children.”

Rev. Jim Rigby, pastor of St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Austin, where Talarico has been actively involved and whom Talarico has described as a mentor, said after the attempted shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner that the MAGA movement’s “heart” is the Confederacy and that the America it wants to return to is “the Confederate States of America.”