FFRF Action Fund endorses Texas state Rep. James Talarico for election to the U.S. Senate
The FFRF Action Fund is pleased to endorse Texas state Rep. James Talarico in his bid for the U.S. Senate, where he is running against Christian nationalist Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
Talarico is Texas’ most prominent champion of state/church separation, and the FFRF Action Fund has long recognized his efforts in the state legislature. Talarico has been FFRF Action Fund’s “Secularist of the Week” five times and received its inaugural “Secularist of the Year” award in 2023.
Talarico has been outspoken against Christian nationalism and “the people who want to use religion as a tool of political power.” Talarico is personally religious but does not use his religion as a political weapon. Talarico was raised in an Austin Presbyterian church and is working toward a Master of Divinity degree from Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, which is temporarily on pause during his Senate campaign. In an interview with The Dallas Morning News, Talarico disagreed with those who describe his political identity as embodying “progressive Christianity,” saying he is uncomfortable with the political qualifier: “Too often in American Christianity, on both sides of the aisle, people are baptizing their partisanship and calling it Christianity.” In a January interview on Ezra Klein’s podcast, Talarico said about Christian nationalism, “I define it as the worship of power in the name of Christ.”
In Talarico’s well-known Stephen Colbert interview, which was pulled from CBS, he directly affirmed state/church separation and denounced Christian nationalism. “And it’s why I have fought so hard for that sacred separation in our First Amendment. My granddad, he raised me to believe that that boundary between church and state doesn’t just benefit the state or our democracy, although it certainly does, but it also benefits the church. …And so this separation between church and state is something we have to safeguard. It’s something we have to fight for.”
Talarico flipped his red-leaning district in 2018, one of the few Texas Democrats to accomplish that feat. Talarico advocates for supporting public education, combating climate change and safeguarding our secular democracy; he even lists rejecting Christian nationalism on his campaign website. He would be a stellar ally to have in the U.S. Senate.
Paxton, the attorney general of Texas, is well-versed with the religious Right; he has championed displaying the Ten Commandments in Texas public school classrooms, encouraged Christian prayer during school hours and staunchly opposed abortion rights in the state. Paxton has been mired in scandal during his tenure as Texas attorney general, following his 2023 impeachment by the Texas House over allegations of abuse of office, bribery and obstruction of justice. The Senate later acquitted him. In March, while speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference, Paxton said “the grace of God” was the only thing that carried him through his impeachment trial. “He absolutely delivered me, and he used the people of Texas to deliver me.”
Paxton’s wife filed for divorce “on biblical grounds” in 2025, after which Paxton removed reference to his church membership at Prestonwood Baptist Church from his public biography. Paxton defines himself as a devout Christian. His longtime pastor, Jack Graham, has twice served as the president of the Southern Baptist Convention and is a spiritual adviser to Trump.
In September 2025, Paxton directly encouraged all Texas students to recite the Lord’s Prayer from the King James Bible, following the enactment of a new law that permitted time for prayer and reading religious texts during the public school day. Paxton called on schoolchildren to consider utilizing the time to engage with the Lord’s Prayer “as taught by Jesus Christ.”
“In Texas classrooms, we want the Word of God opened, the Ten Commandments displayed, and prayers lifted up,” Paxton wrote in a statement. “Twisted, radical liberals want to erase Truth, dismantle the solid foundation that America’s success and strength were built upon, and erode the moral fabric of our society. Our nation was founded on the rock of Biblical Truth, and I will not stand by while the far-left attempts to push our country into the sinking sand.”
While laws requiring the display of the Ten Commandments in all public school classrooms are being challenged in Texas and across the country by FFRF, Paxton maintains that “America is a Christian nation, and it is imperative that we display the very values and timeless truths that have historically guided the success of our country.” He sued Galveston ISD in 2025 for the school board’s delay in posting the Ten Commandments in its schools due to pending litigation and argued that there is no legal basis to prevent Texas schools from honoring state law, “especially under the misconception that a ‘separation of church and state’ phrase appears in the Constitution.”
When Paxton won his runoff race against U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, Paxton framed Talarico as the enemy in his victory speech: “James Talarico is a threat to everything we hold dear in this state and in this country.”
Currently, the race between Talarico and Paxton is described as a dead heat. The Cook Political Report rates the race as “Lean Republican,” shifting from “likely Republican” after Paxton secured the GOP nomination. Talarico is the clear choice to preserve our secular democracy and the separation between state and church.