Both Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and state Rep. James Talarico have made Christianity central to their work as elected officials.
“My Christian faith is the foundation to my life and public service,” Paxton, a Republican, said in a recent interview with a Christian magazine.
Talarico, a rising star in the Democratic Party who graduated last year with a degree in theological studies, also said his beliefs inspire his views as a lawmaker. “I am trying to love my neighbor through public policy,” he told a reporter.
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But the two candidates for a U.S. Senate seat, neither of which agreed to an interview, couldn’t be more different when it comes to their views on religion in public schools. Paxton, like Gov. Greg Abbott and the state GOP, argues that the Bible should be woven into a student’s public school experience, whether that’s viewing a 10 Commandments poster alongside a list of vocabulary words or reciting the Lord’s Prayer during math class. But Talarico, who taught middle school English for two years, has been an outspoken critic of what he sees as the state’s efforts to blur the lines between church and state.
“I don’t want politicians and bureaucrats teaching my faith,” he said last year in a PBS interview, as some districts began adopting a state-approved reading curriculum that includes the life of Jesus, the parables he taught and other biblical material. “I want pastors and Sunday School teachers to be teaching my faith.”
In a tight race that could determine control of the Senate — and break state campaign spending records — the candidates’ religion might not determine who wins. A CBS poll put Talarico just two percentage points ahead of Paxton.
“Party alignment is so strong,” said Leslie Finger, an assistant professor of political science at the University of North Texas. Paxton’s base of conservatives “are people who have voted for Donald Trump multiple times.”
The attorney general’s legal and ethical record, however, has repelled some longtime Republicans. Paxton was indicted on securities fraud charges in 2015, accused of steering investors to a tech startup that paid him to do so. The case was dismissed last year after a plea deal. The state House impeached him in 2023 on charges that he accepted bribes to help a donor friend. The state Senate later acquitted him — an act of God, he said in an interview. He’s also admitted to cheating on his wife, who is divorcing him on “biblical grounds.”
“I’m not going to tell you who I’m voting for, but I can tell you I’m not voting for Ken Paxton,” said Glenn Rogers, a former state representative who was among several rural Republicans who lost their seats after opposing legislation to establish the state’s new voucher program.
Private school choice — an area where education and religion intersect — is one topic that “provides a really sharp contrast between the two candidates,” said Parker Hevron, an associate political science professor at Texas Women’s University.
In 2023, Paxton issued a legal opinion stating that vouchers would not violate either the state or U.S. constitutions. This year, he said the comptroller could exclude schools from the state’s new education savings account program if they had hosted events for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which the state has labeled a terrorist organization, or had any ties to the Chinese government. Islamic schools sued the state, which later added them to the program.
Talarico considers vouchers a “scam” and an effort to “dismantle public education.” He wanted voters to decide whether Texas should have a private school choice program. But his amendment calling for a referendum didn’t pass, and lawmakers ultimately approved the voucher bill after President Donald Trump dialed in to a conference call with House Republicans, pressuring them to vote in favor.
‘The themes of Christian nationalism’
Rogers, like many Republicans representing rural areas, worried vouchers would hurt public schools. He’s a pro-gun, anti-abortion conservative, but he voted to impeach Paxton and doesn’t agree with his party’s stance on emphasizing Christianity over other religions in public school.
“Can you show me one single child that has been brought to Christ because the 10 Commandments were posted on the wall?” he asked.
Paxton’s office has played a leading role in enforcing the state law, passed last year, that requires schools to hang the King James Version of the commandments in every classroom. Opponents who sued over the law have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear their case, and in the meantime, Paxton has launched investigations into nearly 30 districts to ensure they’re displaying the 20-by-16-inch document. Many were involved in litigation over the requirement.
When the state last year also passed legislation requiring school boards to vote on holding daily prayer, he recommended the Lord’s Prayer from the Book of Matthew. “In Texas classrooms, we want the word of God opened, the 10 Commandments displayed, and prayers lifted up,” he said in a statement.
Mark Chancey, a religious studies professor at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, described that press release as a “place where all the themes of Christian nationalism come together.”
“There’s this very explicit articulation that public schools should be promoting Protestant Christianity,” Chancey said. Talarico, however, frequently denounces Christian nationalism as a radical political movement and “emphasizes that public schools are for all citizens, regardless of their religious identities or views on religion.”
Paxton also inserted himself into the state’s famously contentious battles over curriculum by issuing an opinion last year that it was acceptable to integrate “religious literature” into multiple subjects, not just within a standalone course.
The conservative majority on the state board leaned on that interpretation earlier this year when it approved a required reading list that included Bible stories. The state’s Bluebonnet reading curriculum and its new social studies standards also feature Christianity and biblical material more prominently than other faiths.
While Talarico voted for a bill that rewards districts for adopting state-approved curriculum, he takes issue with how Bluebonnet downplays other world religions.
“Is it true that the state of Texas deleted every mention of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad from the new curriculum, despite him being the most central figure in a religion practiced by half a million Texans?” he asked education Commissioner Mike Morath in 2024. For nearly a half an hour during a committee hearing that summer, Talarico interrogated the head of the Texas Education Agency about passages where he thought Bluebonnet crossed the line from teaching to preaching. “How do you believe teachers will respond to elementary school students when they ask how a human being can rise from the dead?”
‘The spectrum of belief’
Talarico’s progressive views, however, haven’t earned him much support from evangelical Christians who tend to focus primarily on his past statements and positions about LGBTQ issues. Those include a 2021 incident where he called God non-binary and another where he said there were six genders. He has since acknowledged that he was trying to be provocative.
“The beliefs of James Talarico are blasphemous,” Robert Jeffress, pastor of First Baptist Dallas, said during the GOP midterm convention in early September. “They are evil.”
In 2021, Talarico voted against a ban on transgender athletes competing on teams that align with their gender identity. Now he says he’s against allowing trans students to play girls’ sports if it’s unfair or a safety risk.
But Leslie Winters, a former Moms for Liberty chapter chair, is not convinced. Talarico, she said, opposed legislation that would require health insurers to cover “detransitioning” care for those who want to reverse medical or surgical procedures.
“No candidate is perfect. I have friends that have said ‘Well what about Paxton? What about his affairs?’ ” she said. “Paxton definitely has his issues, but it’s different when you’re messing with impressionable kids that are clearly confused.”
She’s in agreement, however, with Talarico on religion in the classroom.
“I do not agree with public school teachers being forced to teach excerpts out of the Bible,” said Winters, a Sunday school teacher. “It opens a can of worms from teachers that aren’t believers.”
To Rev. Mary Spradlin, a Methodist pastor and district superintendent of a regional group of churches, the two candidates exemplify “the spectrum of belief among Christians in our society.”
“Paxton quotes scripture to emphasize religious liberty, moral order and traditional social values,” she said. “Talarico uses scripture to emphasize care for the poor, public service, justice and inclusion.”
On issues related to government programs, Talarico links Jesus’ teachings about caring for the sick and hungry to arguments against Republicans cutting food assistance and Medicaid. Those views resonate with Kelly Decker, who has three children in the Fort Worth school district.
“Our society faces serious moral questions: How much do we take care of the poor? How open should our borders be? Should we invade other countries and topple governments? How much should the rich pay in taxes?” she said. “I want James Talarico in D.C. voting his beliefs: to care for our neighbors, to share our bounty, to love the sick, to protect the weak, and the earth. We either believe these things or we don’t.”
In the past, Paxton’s political career depended on appealing to Christian conservatives. But even with Trump’s endorsement, the race is a toss up, with one poll showing Talarico leading Paxton 51% to 49%. It’s an unfamiliar place, Hevron said.
“Paxton has always been very clever at seizing on the cultural issue of the day that will rile up the Republican base in Texas,” he said. “But he hasn’t really ever had to run a statewide campaign where he has to convince voters to vote for him.”