Elon Musk accused state Rep. James Talarico (D-District 50), Texas’ Democratic U.S. Senate nominee, of wanting to “trans your kids and destroy the border” in a Friday post on X.
Talarico’s House votes provide concrete support for Musk’s criticism. He backed exceptions to Texas’ ban on child sex-mutilation surgeries and hormone drugs, along with an amendment classifying parents’ refusal to affirm a child’s perceived gender as abuse. He also opposed a $1.54 billion border-security bill and supported an attempt to kill an illegal-entry measure.
Child sex-mutilation surgeries and hormone drugs
On May 12, 2023, Talarico supported Amendment No. 6 to Senate Bill 14, which would have lowered the bill’s definition of a child from younger than 18 to younger than 16. That change would have removed 16- and 17-year-olds from its surgery and drug prohibitions.
He also supported Amendment No. 7, which would have created an exception to those prohibitions for children with written gender-dysphoria diagnoses from two qualified professionals who agreed the procedures or treatments were necessary to prevent severe physical, emotional or psychological harm. The underlying bill text required parental or guardian consent for the exception.
Talarico offered his own Amendment No. 11, which would have exempted providers from the prohibitions to the extent compliance conflicted with the Hippocratic oath. The House rejected all three amendments.
SB 14 prohibited castration, hysterectomies, mastectomies and other sex-mutilation surgeries for minors seeking to change their biological sex. It also prohibited hormone inhibitors and certain doses of cross-sex hormones, describing the restricted medications as drugs “that induce transient or permanent infertility.” The bill included exceptions for specified medical conditions.
Talarico then voted against SB 14 on May 15, 2023. The House passed it 87-56.
Parental rights and child-abuse findings
During an April 3, 2019, House committee hearing on HB 1910, Talarico called denial of a child’s gender identity harmful. The bill would have barred courts from considering a parent’s affirmation or refusal in custody decisions and from using it to terminate parental rights. It also would have excluded that conduct from the definition of child abuse.
“And whether or not we label it with the term abuse, it’s abusive for sure,” Talarico said, the Houston Chronicle reported at the time.
On May 13, 2025, Talarico voted for an amendment by state Rep. Jolanda Jones (D-District 147) that would have classified a parent’s refusal to affirm a child’s perceived gender or expressed sexual orientation as child abuse.
“Rejecting a child’s gender identity or sexual orientation is abuse,” Jones said in House debate. The House rejected her amendment 54-82.
The following day, Talarico voted against HB 1106, which protects parents and caregivers from abuse and neglect findings for refusing to affirm a child’s perceived gender or expressed sexual orientation, including declining to use preferred names or pronouns. The House passed it 85-59.
At the October 14 CNN and Jubilee Media town hall in Fort Worth, Talarico called parental rights “sacred” and maintained that he had not supported surgeries for minors. He said he backed a narrower amendment banning only surgeries and opposed the broader legislation because it also restricted other treatments. The Dallas Express covered those comments and his legislative record last week.
Bathroom restrictions
Talarico also voted against Senate Bill 8 on August 28, 2025. That measure required government entities, including school districts, to designate multi-occupancy restrooms and similar private facilities by biological sex, with specified exceptions.
Votes against border barriers and illegal-entry enforcement
Musk reshared a post from KanekoaTheGreat quoting Talarico: “With every border wall, with every bathroom bill, we degrade our reputation and we dishonor our legacy.”
The comment dates to the beginning of Talarico’s Texas House career. CBS Austin published the same quotation in its November 20, 2018, coverage of his swearing-in.
On November 14, 2023, Talarico voted against advancing Senate Bill 3, which provided funding for border barriers and security operations. The legislation appropriated $1.54 billion in taxpayer money from the state’s general revenue fund.
That day, he also voted for an amendment to strike the enacting clause from Senate Bill 4, an attempt to kill the measure. SB 4 created state crimes for illegal entry and reentry and provided for judges to order people convicted under the law to return to the foreign country from which they entered.
After the amendment failed, Talarico voted against advancing SB 4.
His current campaign platform describes the border as a front porch with a welcome mat and a lock. It calls for hiring more Border Patrol agents, targeting cartels and modernizing ports of entry.
The platform also proposes paths to citizenship for immigrants who have been in the country illegally the longest and certain groups, including spouses and DREAMers. Recent arrivals could apply for temporary work permits if they fill jobs that help lower Americans’ costs. It calls for prioritizing deportation of criminals, gang members and human traffickers over immigrants it describes as contributing, taxpaying neighbors who pose no safety threat.
Talarico faces Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) in the November 3 election.
