Texas politicians talking about Christianity is nothing new. James Talarico is trying something less familiar.
The Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate is putting his Christian faith near the center of his campaign, but using it to argue for traditionally progressive positions on health care, immigration and other public policy issues.
That approach has drawn the attention of NPR Religion and Belief Correspondent Jason DeRose, who has followed Talarico's emergence in progressive Christian circles since before he became a U.S. Senate candidate.
DeRose joined KETR's The Lede this week to discuss his reporting on Talarico, the voters he encountered while following the campaign and a larger disagreement over what Christian faith demands of people in public life.
From Christian nationalism to a Senate campaign
DeRose said his interest in Talarico began several years ago, while Talarico was still serving in the Texas House and becoming an increasingly outspoken critic of Christian nationalism.
Talarico, who is attending Presbyterian seminary in Austin, became more prominent among progressive Christians as the 2024 presidential election approached. DeRose interviewed him several times during that period.
When Talarico later entered the Senate race and secured the Democratic nomination, DeRose saw an opportunity to revisit a politician he had already been watching through the lens of religion.
What makes the campaign noteworthy, DeRose said, is not simply that Talarico talks openly about being a Christian. Religious language is hardly unusual in Texas politics. It is the political direction in which Talarico takes that language.
"We're used to hearing the word Christian equal conservative politics," DeRose told KETR.
Religious Americans do tend to lean more Republican, DeRose noted. But that broad political divide can obscure the religious voters who remain within the Democratic coalition and the theological arguments being made by Christians on the political left.
Talarico is explicitly making one of those arguments.
Who is my neighbor?
One biblical story comes up repeatedly in Talarico's speeches: the parable of the Good Samaritan from the Gospel of Luke.
In the story, a man is attacked and left beside the road. Others pass him without helping before a Samaritan, an outsider in the society in which the story is set, stops to care for him.
For Talarico and other progressive Christians, DeRose said, the important question is the one posed in the biblical account: Who is my neighbor?
"Your neighbor isn't always somebody who looks like you or believes like you," DeRose said in describing Talarico's message. "They are the people most in need around you."
Talarico takes another step by connecting that religious obligation with government. If Christians are called to care for their neighbors, his argument goes, public policy can be one way of doing it.
That leads directly into one of the larger disputes DeRose sees taking place within American Christianity.
Progressive Christians may view government, legislation and public policy as legitimate means of fulfilling an obligation to care for others. Many conservative Christians agree with the individual obligation but reject the idea that it necessarily translates into a governmental one.
DeRose pointed to arguments made by U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson as an example of the latter view: Christians have a personal responsibility to help their neighbors, but that does not necessarily create a collective responsibility to use government for the same purpose.
Both sides, DeRose said, are making explicitly Christian arguments.
"They are making Christian arguments for the use or the non-use of the levers of government to make people's lives better," he said.
Refusing to cede Christianity to Republicans
Talarico's campaign is also challenging a political association that has become deeply established in Texas: religious politics as conservative politics.
When Republican opponents challenge Talarico's interpretation of Christianity, DeRose said, Talarico's response is essentially a refusal to let them define his faith for him.
"I am a Christian," DeRose said in recounting Talarico's position. "You do not get to describe my Christianity to me."
DeRose said Americans who hear explicitly religious political messages are accustomed to hearing them from conservative politicians or from the pulpit. Progressive religious arguments are less commonly heard from political candidates, particularly in Texas.
Talarico is trying to occupy some of that territory.
His recurring formulation is that Christianity is simple, though not easy: love God and love your neighbor. He then uses the second half of that formulation to criticize Republican policies.
A different message for different rooms
DeRose followed Talarico through several campaign appearances, including visits to three churches in a single morning, primarily Black Baptist congregations.
In those settings, DeRose said, Talarico can sound much like a preacher himself. He discusses scripture, invokes the Beatitudes and draws lessons from biblical passages for the congregation.
The approach changes when the room does.
At a secular town hall, DeRose heard Talarico identify himself as a person of faith while also emphasizing the danger of political leaders who believe they are carrying out a divine mission.
"There is nothing worse than a tyrant who thinks they're on a mission from God," DeRose recalled Talarico telling the audience.
That distinction mattered to some of the voters DeRose interviewed.
Churchgoers could identify directly with Talarico's religious message. At the more secular gathering, DeRose encountered voters who were comfortable with Talarico having a personal faith but wanted reassurance about the separation of church and state.
That may reveal both the opportunity and the risk in Talarico's approach.
Can faith broaden his coalition, or shrink it?
One voter DeRose interviewed described himself as more spiritual than religious but recognized the political logic behind Talarico's approach.
Texas remains a highly religious state. A Democrat who speaks comfortably and authentically about Christianity might receive a second look from religious independents, or perhaps some center-right voters, who would otherwise be unlikely to consider a Democratic candidate.
DeRose cautioned against treating Talarico's faith simply as campaign strategy. Based on his years of reporting on Talarico, DeRose said he believes the candidate is speaking genuinely about his religious beliefs.
But something can be both genuine and politically useful.
"There is a person of faith who is a Democrat running," DeRose said in describing the potential reaction of a religious independent. "Maybe I'll pay a little bit more attention than I normally would because I myself am religious."
The same approach, however, could create problems within Talarico's own party.
That was one of DeRose's more notable discoveries while reporting the story.
He encountered Democratic-leaning voters who strongly prefer that politicians keep religious belief separate from their explanations of public policy. They may agree with Talarico on education, infrastructure or other issues while being uncomfortable with a candidate who cites Christianity as the reason for reaching those positions.
"If somebody is really a strict separationist and they do not want politicians talking about religion," DeRose said, "that could be a turnoff."
That leaves Talarico attempting an unusual political balancing act.
His public Christianity could help him reach religious Texans who might not ordinarily listen to a Democrat. At the same time, the prominence of that faith could make some otherwise receptive Democratic voters uneasy.
And beneath that electoral calculation is a much older argument, one extending well beyond a single Texas Senate campaign: Christians may agree that their faith commands them to love their neighbors while disagreeing profoundly about what that command requires of their government.
Jason DeRose is NPR's Religion and Belief Correspondent. His report on James Talarico's campaign aired Aug. 10 on NPR's Morning Edition. Watch KETR's full conversation with DeRose above.
