James Talarico's claim that universal healthcare has biblical grounds draws sharp criticism from an expert who accuses him of perverting the Bible.
Page A7From§Eachthe sunrise edition — 3 October 2026
Rove warns Paxton to debate Talarico or lose, as Fox spends the week calling his Bible reading wrong
As it ran on the front
Texas Democrats have been here before, which is the whole problem with trusting it now. Three decades without winning a top-of-the-ballot race will do that to a party, and after thirty years of waiting, all it takes to get hopeful again is five points in a poll of 1,007 voters taken September 19 to 22, the third week of the month, with a 3.6 percent margin of error built right into the dream.
Go back four weeks and you can watch the campaign build the case. On September 2, Talarico's campaign put out an ad accusing Paxton's "billionaire handlers" of keeping their candidate off a debate stage. The accusation sat there a day before Karl Rove gave it a second opinion: on September 3, Rove told reporters time was running out for Paxton, that the president needed to start spending money fast if he wanted the seat held. Rove wasn't rescuing Talarico. He was telling his own side the clock the Democrat had already started.…
…(cont) In between, the campaign did what campaigns do when the floor is this thin. On September 9, Talarico walked back a past comment about "six sexes," telling Fox's Martha MacCallum he'd "missed the mark." On September 28, he said he'd "absolutely" welcome an endorsement from John Cornyn, the Republican senator whose seat he is trying to take. A five-point lead built on walking back old quotes and courting the other party's senator is a fragile kind of math, one that knows exactly how much room it has, which is none.
Then this week Fox ran the theology.
And Rove's warning was never about theology. It was arithmetic with a deadline attached: if he doesn't debate, he loses. Which means the five points only turn real the day Paxton stops avoiding the man Fox is busy calling a heretic.
“Five points in a poll of a thousand people is not a win, it's an invitation for both sides to tell Paxton he has to show up. The Bible argument on Fox isn't really about scripture, it's a dodge dressed up as theology so nobody asks why the guy with the record won't take the stage. Rove already told you how real that lead is: the day Paxton debates, and not one day before.”
“Ken doesn't need to debate a state legislator who thinks healthcare's in Leviticus; staying off that stage is just prudent campaign management, not fear. Rove's comments were about turnout mechanics, not the race itself — okay, he did specifically say "he loses," so maybe it is about the race. Forget I said the turnout part.”
The receipts
Democrats are running an average of 11.5 points ahead of their 2024 baseline across 2026 special elections MultiState Elections, 2026 special-election tracking
In Texas, Talarico Inspires a Recurring Blue-Tinted DreamAfter a dry spell of more than three decades, Democrats are daring (yet again) to believe they can win one or more top-of-the-ballot races in a vast and stubbornly red state.
Republican strategist Karl Rove said he believes Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) will lose his bid for Senate if he does not agree to a debate with his Democratic opponent, state Rep. James Talarico. “If he doesn’t debate, I think he loses,”
· Talarico holds 5-point lead over Paxton in Texas Senate race, poll shows from the morgue, 27 Sep 2026
· Talarico says he would ‘absolutely’ accept Cornyn’s endorsement in Texas Senate race from the morgue, 28 Sep 2026
· Talarico says he ‘missed the mark’ in claiming there are ‘six sexes’ from the morgue, 9 Sep 2026
· Talarico rips Paxton over debate participation in new ad from the morgue, 2 Sep 2026
· Rove: 'Time is running out' for Paxton in Texas Senate race from the morgue, 3 Sep 2026
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front. The byline is a pen name for a column drafted by a machine and checked by the editor: how this is made.