What white progressives like

Down in Texas, U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett is slightly ahead of Texas State Rep. James Talarico in the Democratic primary for the United States Senate. Crockett just won the endorsement of Colin Allred, the popular Texas Democrat who declined to run after losing to Sen. Ted Cruz in 2024. Unfortunately for Crockett, Talarico is what white progressives like.

Talarico is the new Beto O’Rourke. Nationally, white progressives dream of thin white men in Texas beating Republicans. Crockett will struggle against that dream. Talarico is, to quote the opening sentence of his Wikipedia biography, “an American politician, Presbyterian seminarian, and former public school teacher.” It’s the second part progressives love.

Progressive commentator Ezra Klein hosted Talarico recently for a podcast, which Klein and The New York Times entitled, “Can James Talarico Reclaim Christianity for the Left?” The more a person goes to church, the more they vote Republican. Hispanic Americans are some of the most religious Americans and are drifting right. Most Americans believe in God and identify as Christians, leaving a large constituency off the table for Democrats. Democrats really want to stop hemorrhaging their Christian voters.

In just about every losing election for Democrats, they say the same thing: it’s the message. It is never, for losing Democrats, policies. It is how they talk about those policies. Democrats, particularly white progressives, have realized in the past decade that they no longer talk about God and no longer talk in ways that connect to, using their term, “people of faith.”

Progressives previously elevated Jim Wallis, the progressive leader of Sojourners who claimed to be a “red letter Christian,” arguing Christians could read the red letters in the New Testament and transcend politics. Of course, the New Testament writers did not write in red letters, and in one set of red letters, Jesus said to the Apostles, “The one who hears you hears me, and the one who rejects you rejects me, and the one who rejects me rejects him who sent me” (Luke 10:16). That might not have deterred Wallis, but he's 77 years old, and the young white progressives of America want one of their own.

Thus Ezra Klein, in his constant quest to advance progressive ambitions, is trying to elevate Talarico as progressive theological white bread. With only a few weeks to go before the Democratic Primary in Texas, Talarico and Crockett are tied. Non-white Democrats are not exactly thrilled with Talarico’s theological platitudes. Those voters are more sincere in their faith than white progressives like Talarico, who speaks Jesus in ways that cast doubt on if he understands Jesus.

Talarico described the Texas church he grew up in to Klein, saying of his pastor, “He baptized me when I was 2 years old. He’s a unique religious leader and thinker. He got in trouble a lot when I was in elementary school: He was ordaining gay and lesbian clergy. He was blessing same-sex unions.”

He then proceeded to show just how much distance there is between his theology and the theology of most Christians, saying, “I believe Jesus Christ reveals that reality [of truth] to us. But I also think that other traditions reveal that reality in their own ways, with their own symbol structures. And I’ve learned more about my tradition by learning more about Buddhism and Hinduism and Islam and Judaism.”

Talarico also embraces all the progressive pablum about what Jesus did not talk about as an excuse to ignore the totality of Scripture. “On the issue of abortion, I’ve said before, I don’t know what Jesus thought about abortion. The Bible doesn’t tell us. The Bible doesn’t mention abortion at all. And so, as with many issues that aren’t mentioned in the Bible, we have to take Scripture, and we’ve got to try to piece together what we think is what love demands of us on a particular policy question.” He continued, “Abortion is never mentioned. Consensual same-sex relationships are never mentioned.”

In fact, in the entire interview with Ezra Klein, the word “sin” never comes up. Talarico uses Scripture to justify every progressive position. He wears a faith on his sleeve that most non-white Christians do not recognize. The press loves him. It is not just Klein. Talarico appears on news networks from CNN to MSNOW to use his views on Christianity as a cudgel against traditional Christian orthodoxy and its adherents.

Every few years, the left decides they need someone who can speak Jesus. They keep finding people who speak Jesus as if they learned their faith through Rosetta Stone. Remarkably, regular church-going Christians are more likely to dissent from Republican orthodoxy than progressive Christians are to dissent from progressive orthodoxy. The three Supreme Court progressives are more likely to dissent from left-wing orthodoxy than James Talarico is.

In Texas, Colin Allred has endorsed Jasmine Crockett over Talarico. Allred, who is black, claims Talarico called him “a mediocre black man.” In the red letters of the New Testament, Jesus said to love God and love your neighbor. Maybe Talarico missed the context.