Republicans Take War of Words Against Talarico To a School Yard Bully Level

In the final three weeks of the midterm campaign, Republicans are taking their personal attacks against the Texas Democratic Senate nominee, state representative James Talarico, to a new level. Vice President JD Vance on Tuesday implied Mr. Talarico is gay, just days after some pushed the conspiracy theory that he had had a serious mental breakdown. The Texas Senate race is poised to be the most expensive contest of the year, with nearly $200 million having been spent so far. Republicans outside groups alone are expected to spend $200 million on behalf of the Republican Senate nominee in Texas, state attorney general Ken Paxton. In recent weeks, Mr. Paxton and others have tried to go even further than just calling Mr. Talarico “weird.” On Tuesday, Mr. Vance implied that Mr. Talarico is gay while headlining a rally for Republicans in Texas. “I love you too, sir!” Mr. Vance yelled out to a man in the crowd. “In a totally platonic way, to be clear. I’m the vice president, not James Talarico.”It isn’t the first time Mr. Vance has made less than vague accusations about Mr. Talarico. During the Republicans’ midterm convention rally in Texas last month, Mr. Vance seemed to imply that Mr. Talarico might be a pedophile. Mr. Talarico once told an interviewer that he had “love” for a group of transgender children that had showed up to testify at the Texas capitol building to oppose a piece of legislation — a clip that has since been cut by some Republicans to make it seem as if Mr. Talarico seemingly loves all transgender minors, rather than the one specific group about which he was speaking. “You gotta wonder what the internet search history of a man like that looks like. Ladies and gentlemen, you don’t wanna find out. Neither do I,” Mr. Vance told the crowd at his rally on Tuesday, repeating his insinuation that he first made during the convention. When asked by a reporter about his remarks as he was boarding Air Force Two on Tuesday, Mr. Vance said he was just “guessing” about Mr. Talarico’s search history, not that he was implying anything. Mr. Paxton has lagged behind Mr. Talarico in the polls for months, after Mr. Talarico easily wrapped up the Democratic nomination and Mr. Paxton was forced into an ugly, 12-week runoff with Senator John Cornyn, whom Mr. Paxton later beat by more than 30 points. But that was only after Mr. Cornyn and his allies spent nearly $100 million going after Mr. Paxton, painting him as a corrupt adulterer. Many of Mr. Talarico’s ads have focused on the same issues, including Mr. Paxton’s impeachment by Republicans in the Texas house of representatives, his past indictment for securities fraud and other crimes, and Mr. Paxton’s ugly divorce from his wife, state senator Angela Paxton, who made headlines last year after filing for divorce on “biblical grounds.”With much of the race about personalities, Mr. Paxton and his allies have spent more than $100 million on ads defining Mr. Talarico as an out-of-touch, “weird” person. During his work as a state representative, Mr. Talarico once claimed that there were six biological sexes, that God was without gender, and that he was in favor of “dismantling” capitalism. He has now turned away from those past comments, saying he no longer felt that way. For weeks, Republicans have also been implying that Mr. Talarico had had a mental breakdown and was holed up at home or at a mental health facility for nearly two weeks. Mr. Talarico had the flu and was working from his Austin home, according to his campaign and a review of security footage by The New York Times, though that has not stopped the innuendo campaign. Over the weekend, right-wing influencers tried to prove that Mr. Talarico was, in fact, at a mental health facility in Ohio, rather than at home recovering with the flu. One of those influencers called a facility where a receptionist mistakenly told him that Mr. Talarico had been a patient and that he had checked out of the facility on Saturday, though Mr. Talarico had already emerged from his hiatus on Friday, when he went to the Austin City Limits music festival. The facility later publicly stated that Mr. Talarico had never been a patient, and Mr. Talarico declared that he had never even been to Ohio. Still, some on the right have pushed the idea that Mr. Talarico could have mental health problems. White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller has been posting on X incessantly about Mr. Talarico, saying that he had gone missing for “two weeks” without explanation. In reality, Mr. Talarico had gone off the grid for eight days, after a virtual appearance at the U.S. Hispanic Business Council on Wednesday, September 30, only to reappear at the ACL festival on Friday, October 9. “James Talafreako disappeared for two weeks without any believable explanation whatsoever,” Mr. Miller wrote on X Tuesday afternoon. “No one campaigning for the senate simply disappears for 2 weeks before the election because of the flu,” he wrote in another post on Monday night. On Tuesday, the first public poll showing Mr. Paxton leading Mr. Talarico was released by Quantus Insights. It showed Mr. Paxton with a lead of just half-a-point, 47.2 percent to Mr. Talarico’s 46.7 percent. The latest public poll that showed Mr. Paxton leading was also a Quantus Insights poll, though that was all the way back in June. In that survey, Mr. Paxton held a lead of two points.

Republicans Take War of Words Against Talarico To a School Yard Bully Level

Republicans Take War of Words Against Talarico To a School Yard Bully Level

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