In the heat of competitive midterm campaigning, Republican allies have trained their sights on James Talarico, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Texas, centering their attacks heavily on transgender policy.
A political advertisement funded by a Texas PAC tied to the Senate Leadership Fund targets Talarico—who is challenging Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton—with a sharp accusation. The commercial asserts, “Talarico supported using taxpayer dollars for sex change surgeries on young children.”
The spot concludes with a nod to recent national campaign rhetoric.
Echoing a phrase from Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign—which famously claimed “Kamala Harris is for they-them, not you”—the midterm ad declares, “Radical Liberal James Talarico, for they/them, not you.”
While this playbook mirrors strategies that proved effective for Trump in previous cycles, political analysts suggest it remains an open question whether such attacks will deliver the same results for down-ballot Republicans this year.
Representatives for the Senate Leadership Fund did not provide a statement when asked for comment.
The controversy stems from Talarico’s legislative record as a Texas state representative, specifically his 2023 vote against a sweeping ban on gender-affirming medical care for minors. The ad also highlights past remarks, including a 2019 interview where he called it “abusive” to disregard a child’s gender identity, alongside a statement from March emphasizing that safeguarding transgender Texans is a daily necessity.
However, the ad’s core allegation relies entirely on his opposition to a single piece of legislation that outlawed pediatric gender transitions and related medical services. Talarico argued at the time that the bill was drafted too broadly and risked disrupting routine medical treatments for cisgender patients. Fact-checking reveals no proof that Talarico ever backed any policy or bill directing taxpayer funds toward gender-reassignment surgeries.
Responding to the spot, Talarico’s campaign dismissed the allegations as completely false.
“As James has said, he opposes gender reassignment surgery for minors,” stated campaign representative JT Ennis.
Examining Talarico’s 2023 Legislative Vote
The commercial’s primary claim traces back to Talarico’s vote against Senate Bill 14 during the 2023 legislative session.
The resulting statute successfully banned medical treatments intended to “transition a child’s biological sex as determined by the child’s sex organs, chromosomes, and endogenous profiles.”
Surgical procedures of this nature for minors are exceptionally rare, and professional medical organizations do not recommend them for young children. Furthermore, any permitted care for transgender youths—such as hormone therapies or puberty blockers—mandates parental authorization.
Talarico has maintained that his legislative goal was simply to restrict the bill’s reach.
“If you go back and check, I voted for a major amendment to limit the bill to banning surgeries for minors,” Talarico noted during a Fox News appearance earlier this month.
A review of the legislative record confirms that Talarico supported all 18 Democratic amendments that ultimately failed. He also introduced a provision that would have automatically repealed the law if the Health and Human Services Commission identified definitive, long-term scientific backing proving the safety and effectiveness of treatments for gender dysphoria.
According to committee transcripts and footage of the debate, bill author Representative Tom Oliverson rejected the amendment, stating he doubted such research would ever materialize, though he remained open to reviewing it if it did.
On May 15, 2023, Talarico was among the 56 members of the Texas House who voted against the measure. Despite the opposition, the bill cleared the House with 87 votes, sailed through the state Senate two days later, and took effect on September 1, 2023.
Defending his stance, Talarico argued the legislation would inadvertently harm non-transgender patients who rely on hormone-related therapies for unrelated medical conditions. Subsequent reporting by The Texas Tribune in March 2026 demonstrated that those unintended consequences did indeed materialize for some families seeking endocrinology care.
“It’s why I try to use amendments, to narrow the focus of the bill so that it does exactly what we intend it to do,” Talarico explained to Fox News in September. “It’s what I tried to do with that piece of legislation, and unfortunately, the amendment I supported was unsuccessful.”
He added, “As a lawmaker, my job is to try to sift through everything the bill does. And sometimes there’s stuff in it that’s really harmful, and I have no choice but to oppose the bill as a whole.”
Following his primary runoff victory, Talarico addressed the issue more directly. During a June appearance on the “Cogdell Law Uncensored” podcast, when directly asked if he favored surgical procedures for minors, he answered, “I oppose gender-reassignment surgeries for minors,” and has since voiced support for a nationwide prohibition on the practice.
Conclusion
The commercial released by the Texas PAC claims that Talarico “supported using taxpayer dollars for sex change surgeries on young children.”
The record shows that while Talarico voted against Senate Bill 14 in 2023—legislation designed to ban pediatric gender transitions—he never cast a vote in favor of allocating public funds for gender-reassignment operations.
Talarico maintained his opposition was rooted in concerns that the bill was overly sweeping and threatened access to necessary medical treatments for individuals who do not identify as transgender.
Because the central allegation lacks any factual foundation in his voting record, the claim is rated False.