None of the above

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MARY REICHARD, HOST: Up next, policies and principles.

As election day approaches, the Texas Senate race is still anyone’s game.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: The close race between Ken Paxton and James Talarico has some Christian voters wondering: what should I do when both options have baggage?

WORLD’s Claire Wilkerson has the story.

AUDIO: Do you believe that faith matters? [Cheers] Yes!

CLAIRE WILKERSON: Democrat James Talarico is a young progressive hoping that moderated messaging, and a faith-forward campaign, will turn a Texas Senate seat blue for the first time in decades. But his blending of progressive policies with Christian messaging has drawn sharp criticism.

JAMES TALARICO, God is nonbinary: God is both masculine and feminine, and everything in between. God is non-binary.

That modern science obviously recognizes that there are many more than two biological sexes. In fact, there are six.

I always think of myself as a Christian who hates Christianity.

Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is a committed conservative backed by President Trump. But he has a problematic history. For some conservative Christians, this election is a choice between a progressive Christian or a conservative with a checkered past.

CHRIS HAMMONS: It's very difficult.

Dr. Chris Hammons is a professor of political science at Houston Christian University.

HAMMONS: I think most conservative Christians look at the two candidates and they see in Talarico a person who seems nice and sincere and clean cut, but his views are outside of what most conservative Christians would support.

Talarico claims to be running a David and Goliath campaign. He casts himself as David fighting the Goliath of institutional corruption. At a CNN townhall, he tried to walk back some of his more controversial comments.

TALARICO: Preachers will sometime say something shocking in order to get your attention and that's something i'm trying to do in a responsible way

SOUND: [Music, Cheering, “Fort Worth it is so good to see you…”]

At a Talarico rally in Forth Worth, a local teacher named James told WORLD he’s not religious, but he thinks Talarico’s emphasis on faith is a good political strategy.

JAMES: I think it's important in Texas, I think that's the reason why there's so many people here and I think that he's done a really good job combining faith with, you know, democratic principles.

America has a long history of bringing religious principles into politics. Still, Talarico’s use of Scripture and his conclusions stand out.

HAMMONS: If we didn't know who said that, I would think it was from some evangelical conservative candidate in some Midwestern state. Right? What is novel this cycle is that it's coming from a progressive leftist candidate, he is speaking the language of sort of moderate mainstream Texans.

And many of those Texans have reservations about Paxton’s character. Paxton served as Texas attorney general for more than a decade. Then the state House impeached him in 2023 for corruption and bribery. He was accused of using his status as AG to intervene in a federal fraud investigation against a donor in exchange for home renovations and favors for his mistress.

The House impeachment vote had wide bipartisan support. But the Senate found there wasn’t proof of wrong-doing beyond a reasonable doubt.

Hammons thinks that many Christian voters are tired of feeling caught between hard choices.

HAMMONS: I think the dilemma is how many more times can I consistently go to the polls and hold my nose and vote for a candidate that I think is flawed or ethically compromised simply because I like his policies more than the other guy.

Voter Miriam Walker says Paxton’s policies make the choice a no-brainer. She likes how hard he fought as AG to keep the Texas border secure.

MIRIAM WALKER: I have a hard time with people saying hold your nose, ‘cause as a Christian, I just believe that anyone without sin, throw the first stone. I thought about the same thing with Trump.

Still, Hammons contends that some voters wish there was a “none of the above” option on the ballot.

HAMMONS: I definitely understand the frustration that conservative Christian voters have of not being able to find somebody who not only espouses what they believe, but also lives by a moral code of conduct that they can embrace. The days of simply holding your nose are over.

The close race has already helped set a state record for midterm early voting. Nearly 5 million Texans have already cast their ballot.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Claire Wilkerson in Fort Worth, Texas.

WORLD Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of WORLD Radio programming is the audio record.