Sanctimonious TX Preacher Dem Berating Billionaires on One Hand While Other Hand Is Out

There have been a ton of crazy, hypocritical visuals and sound bites coming out of the Texas House Democrats’ gerrymander drama.

First, the fabulous private chartered flight for freedom and defending democracy to various Democratically controlled and gerrymandered-to-death blue states like Illinois and New York, with the accompanying resistance podium speeches from democracy advocates like J.B. Pritzker and the inane Kathy Hochul.

Between the fines, the pending legal action from the governor, the negative publicity, and the dawning realization that the futile escape from their legislative duties was backfiring, the refugee group came slinking back to Austin, but were still determined to raise what little Cain they could to keep those public profiles up.

To see the people’s business finished without further interruption, certain restrictions were placed on the movements of the recalcitrant resisters to ensure their attendance, which irritated them to no end. 

‘How dare the speaker treat them like children‘?!’ they railed as they acted like children.

Some Texas Democratic women ripped up their permission slips and now they’ll have a “slumber party for Democracy” on the House floor, where the Congressional map demanded by President Trump is slated for a vote tomorrow #txlege https://t.co/S7m8LR1ylJ pic.twitter.com/HKxrwWiIbV

— Scott Braddock (@scottbraddock) August 19, 2025

And held clandestine conference calls from the ladies’ room, only to get busted anyway.

BREAKING: Texas State Rep. Nicole Collier gets THROWN-OUT of the BATHROOM at the State Capitol where she’s on a conference call with Corey Booker, Gavin Newsom, and Democrat Party leader, Ken Martin.

This is the state of the Democrat Party.. Conference calls in bathrooms… pic.twitter.com/l34eBrfVZE

— The Patriot Oasis™ (@ThePatriotOasis) August 20, 2025

The redrawn redistricting map passed, and predictably, democracy is on the edge yet again.

Texas pushes our democracy closer to the brink

YEAH, YEAH, YEAH

In some cases, though, this little juvenile cross-state stunt has raised the profiles of some of the more obscure legislators, and none more so than the innocuous-looking fellow named James Talarico, a fourth-term rep from the Austin area.

The clean-cut, fresh-faced, Opie-looking Talarico is every bit the opposite of the current crop of progressive, flame-throwing Dems, or so they’d have you believe.

Back in June, Politico was in raptures over the ‘devout’ Christian, who wasn’t afraid to go toe-to-toe swinging gospel verses in defense of his, well, progressive views.

His feed is full of smug Jesus-speak drawing on his pastor credentials. And of course, he supports transchildren and abortion.

And, yes, those who preach a false gospel will face more severe judgment than others (James 3:1). James Talarico needs to repent, for his own sake. pic.twitter.com/tNpDTkVA6W

— DataRepublican (small r) (@DataRepublican) August 8, 2025

Trans. Check. Abortion. Check. Illegals. Check.

They were so impressed – and probably so relieved – that the liberal rag annointed Talarico as, schmaybe, ‘the next big thing in Texas politics.’

I mean, literally, it was, like, ‘praise Jesus Dems found this guy – he’s almost normal.’

The representative and aspiring preacher hadn’t planned to deliver a sermon when he went to work at the state capitol that morning.

Sitting in a drab committee room last month, Texas Rep. James Talarico, among the youngest members of the statehouse now at 34, was slowly getting fed up as he sat through a hearing for a bill that would mandate putting the Ten Commandments in every public school classroom in the state. A week prior, he’d sat through a committee hearing on a bill that would allow chaplains to replace guidance counselors. He was already dreading another floor debate scheduled for later in the day for a bill denying gender-affirming health care. So by the time the Ten Commandments came up that morning, Talarico had had it.

He looked squarely at the bill’s sponsor, state Rep. Candy Noble, whom he acknowledged as a fellow “devout Christian,” before letting loose a two-minute and nine-second exchange that would go viral on TikTok and Twitter, racking up more than 1 million views on Twitter alone.

“This bill to me is not only unconstitutional, it’s not only un-American, I think it is also deeply un-Christian,” he told her, as she stood motionless. “And I say that because I believe this bill is idolatrous. I believe it is exclusionary. And I believe that it is arrogant, and those three things, in my reading of the Gospel, are diametrically opposed to the teachings of Jesus.” He cited Matthew 6:5, in which Jesus urges his disciples to not pray publicly like the hypocrites.

Come on, already – Joe Rogan loved him.

Joe Rogan had him on is podcast. Dude is blowing up! Common sense smart and articulate.

— Michael Wright (@wrighmd64) July 19, 2025

Then came the great gerrymander getaway, and you couldn’t get away from Talarico.

They even had him preaching in a church on the South Side of Chicago, for goodness’s sake.

Texas Rep. James Talarico delivers South Side sermon as gerrymandering battle heightens profileshttps://t.co/NZbuAl9zSz

— Chicago Tribune (@chicagotribune) August 18, 2025

All of this attention has Talarico’s competitive juices flowing, and he’s looking at a Senate run now.

State Rep. James Talarico has inquired with television stations about potential Senate ad rates, according to two sources with knowledge of his requests — the most concrete step he has taken yet toward running for statewide office.

Already a Democratic rising star, Talarico, a fourth-term representative from Austin, has been ubiquitous since Democrats decamped to Illinois Sunday over a Republican plan to redraw Texas’ congressional map. The 36-year-old has appeared everywhere from network television to podcasts to Washington newsletters, flooding the zone with discussions of the redistricting clash.

He logged 25 interviews in the first 24 hours of the quorum break and reached 9.8 million viewers around the country through his TV hits alone, he told the Tribune.

One of Rep Talarico’s favorite targets is billionaires and their undue influence on campaigns and life in general. In fact, while on Rogan’s show, he lambasted Republicans about the wretched billionaires in their midst.

…”Basically every single Republican state senator in Texas has taken their money. Every single one. A majority of the Republicans in the State House have taken their money,” he told Rogan, referring to oil-based billionaires in the state. “They increasingly run this whole government here in Texas.”

Remember the bible verse quoting Talarico’s preaching gig while on the lam from his elected official job? It turns out, it was pretty appropriate, as the South Side of Chicago, if I remember correctly, was Leroy Brown’s side of town, and he was a bad, bad boy.

As it turns out, the sanctimonious hypocrite (that’s a sin, too, right) Talarico isn’t quite as unspoiled as his dewy face appears. He’s a bad boy.

He’s been loudly and emphatically pointing accusing fingers of shame and opprobrium at billionaires and ‘mega-donor’ cash with one hand, while it appears that his other hand has been covered in some of that very same filthy lucre, and that’s okay.

Texas State Rep. James Talarico, a Democrat known for railing against billionaire influence in politics, is facing accusations of hypocrisy after Politico revealed he accepted $59,000 from a PAC backed by megadonor Miriam Adelson.

Texas Sands PAC, the Texas-based political arm of the casino giant, has more than $9 million in cash on hand heading into the upcoming election season. That money comes almost entirely from Miriam Adelson, the billionaire owner of Las Vegas Sands and majority owner of the Dallas Mavericks.

In 2023, Talarico voted for a constitutional amendment that would have allowed Texans to vote on government-monopoly casino legalization.

The $59,000 contribution was the largest he received last year.

Talarico’s office defended the donation, claiming he’s long supported casino legalization “because it will bring good jobs and additional tax revenue” to the state.

Meanwhile, in an appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience last month, Talarico declared that billionaires “increasingly run this whole government.”

YOU CAN’T EXPECT ME NOT TO HAVE MONEY WHEN EVERYONE ELSE DOES

Nuh-uh.

…A representative for Talarico’s office defended his accepting the funds, telling Politico that while he opposes big-donor cash influencing elections, “he will not unilaterally disarm and let Texas Republicans play by different rules.

And the holier-than-thou preacher man opposed to sinning and grinning votes for legalized gambling NOT because the gambling mogul is the single largest contributor to his PAC, but because of the ‘good jobs and tax revenue.’ And as a preacher (?!), he was for legalized gambling before the money came in from the gambling billionaire, a source he says despises? 

I’m not sure if that isn’t even more damning.

…The year prior to receiving the funds from the Texas Sands PAC, he voted in support of legislation aimed at legalizing casino gambling in Texas through a proposed constitutional amendment put to voters.

Adelson, who has sunk millions into Texas Sands PAC, has pushed for Texas to legalize casino gambling. The group has given heavily to both Democrats and Republicans in the state.

Esparza said Talarico has backed the legalization of casino gambling “his entire career” because it “will bring good jobs and additional tax revenue” to the state.

Twenty years ago, he would have only looked at Playboy for the articles, which is why he would have had every issue. Excellent writing.

Are you kidding me? Even the hacks at Politico, who swooned over the saintly Opie’s cherubic mien not two months ago, are eating him alive in their headline today.

Hmm strange given that half of his segment on Joe Rogan, was railing against corporate PAC money in Texas…

— krish kothari (@wisekrish) August 21, 2025

Unsurprisingly, Politico is catching it for exposing this pretender to the progressives who are so desperately looking for a near-normal, rational life raft to cling to.

Will Cain had Talarico’s number after he interviewed him.

That’s the truth. Your youth pastor middle school teacher rising star is a liar and fraud.

— Will Cain (@willcain) August 13, 2025

And now Politico concurs.

I guess the hunt continues.

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