Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico faces fresh criticism for a 2019 sermon that critics say puts Jesus on equal footing with Buddha, Mr. Rogers and other “prophetic voices” in a tight Texas race.

A political action committee backing Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton circulated a short clip from that sermon on X, pushing it into the final stretch before the Nov. 3 general election. The Christian Post reported the release and the online reaction that followed.

Lone Star Liberty PAC framed its mission as “exposing extreme liberal James Talarico as too weak & weird for Texas.” The group supports Paxton in a contest that RealClearPolitics polling has shown within a few points.

The video comes from a September 2019 talk Talarico gave at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Austin. In the clip, he listed Buddha, Muhammad, Moses, Thich Nhat Hanh, the Dalai Lama, Martin Luther King Jr., Mahatma Gandhi and Fred “Mr.” Rogers as examples of “prophetic voices.”

He also tied those voices to Christianity in language that opponents now treat as a direct challenge to the unique deity of Jesus Christ.

Talarico called Jesus one prophetic voice among many

Talarico told the congregation, “Christianity, like all religions, is trying to help us understand what it means to be human.”

"Christianity is the tradition in which I was raised. It’s the vocabulary I know. Jesus is the prophetic voice in my own life,"

He went further: “Humanity’s prophetic voices, from the Buddha to the Parkland students, should speak directly to each of our hearts.” He added that prophetic voices could include “your hometown pastor, your third-grade teacher, your parent.”

In another line, he said prophetic voices “like Jesus” had helped him “reckon with my own whiteness, my own masculinity, my own certainty, my own ego.”

That framing, Jesus as one voice in a longer list that also features Buddhist teachers, a children’s television host, and student activists, is what the PAC and online critics call a trivialization of Christ’s deity. Talarico’s own words in the same sermon still called Jesus the prophetic voice in his life, leaving the theological dispute unresolved on the record.

Commenters on the PAC post pushed back hard. Some posted Bible verses. Others wrote, "Fred Rogers was a true Christian and an ordained Presbyterian Minister. He was the farthest thing from James Talarico."

Old sermon also cast Trump as the opposite of Jesus

The same 2019 message spent long stretches contrasting then-President Donald Trump with Jesus of Nazareth. Talarico called the two men “the two clearest personifications of the ego and the heart” and said they “crystallize the two antithetical paths that are before us.”

"The clearest anti-Trump we have is Jesus of Nazareth. His teachings, and those delivered by other prophetic voices throughout history, show us the way to defeat Trumpism in our world and in ourselves."

He stacked contrasts: Trump in a golden apartment, Jesus in the wilderness; elite versus marginalized; grudges versus forgiveness; materialistic versus spiritual; vain versus humble; walls versus bridges; tweets versus prayer. He described Trump as “an existential threat to our democracy” and said the impulses Trump embodied scared people “because he’s within each of us.”

Talarico also said he prayed the president would remember compassion, love, and “his place in our human family.” The extended political sermon now sits beside the “prophetic voices” list as voters weigh what kind of faith language the Democratic nominee brings to a statewide race.

A separate clip from the same church appearance drew national notice in March after Talarico defeated Rep. Jasmine Crockett in the Democratic primary. The latest PAC release keeps the material alive heading into November.

Close polls and a rare Democratic path in Texas

RealClearPolitics’ average has shown Talarico at 47.6 percent and Paxton at 44.7 percent, a 2.9-point edge for the Democrat. A Talarico win would mark the first time a Democrat claimed a U.S. Senate seat in Texas in nearly four decades.

That math explains why a Senate poll showing Talarico ahead matters to both camps, and why Paxton allies keep feeding voters the candidate’s own past church remarks.

Talarico has continued campaigning in public. A Sept. 9, 2026, photo caption placed him at a “Love Thy Neighbor” statewide grocery drive in Dallas while the sermon clips recirculated online.

His record of theological commentary is not limited to 2019. Coverage of a later talk noted he called God “not a Christian” and compared religion to beer in a 2023 sermon, giving conservatives a longer paper trail of statements that clash with traditional Christian teaching.

Allies and pastors around him have also drawn scrutiny. Undercover footage of his longtime pastor captured welcoming language toward atheists framed as being “on the same team,” another data point for voters who treat orthodoxy as a threshold issue.

Texas voters still hear a red-state message

Ground-level sentiment has not handed the race to the Democrat by default. Reporting from the State Fair found Texas voters saying the Lone Star State will stay red this fall, a reminder that ballot math and cultural comfort still run through Republican territory even when a poll average tightens.

Lone Star Liberty PAC is betting that sermon tape, Jesus listed with Buddha and Mr. Rogers, faith cast as one tradition among many, and a long moral contrast aimed at Trump, will remind conservative and churchgoing Texans who they are being asked to send to Washington.

No fresh on-the-record reply from the Talarico campaign to the newest clip appears in the available reporting. The words on the tape remain his own, delivered in a Presbyterian pulpit years before he became the Democratic nominee.

Texas voters can decide whether a candidate who treats Jesus as one “prophetic voice” among celebrities, activists, and other religions speaks for their convictions, or confirms he is out of step with the state he wants to represent.