While Democrats in Maine are busy nominating someone with a Nazi sympathizer problem, Texas Democrats have already settled on their own gift to Republican opposition researchers: a state representative whose old Facebook posts are raising some very uncomfortable questions about how he conducted himself around children.
Talarico, who won the Democratic nomination for the Senate earlier this year, has made his time as a Teach For America middle school teacher a key part of his political identity. He talks about it constantly — fighting for school funding, mental health resources, working families, yada, yada, yada. The classroom, in his telling, is where his moral authority was forged. So his old social media activity from those teaching days is certainly relevant.
And apparently, kinda creepy.
The RNC flagged several Facebook posts from Talarico's time teaching sixth-grade language arts in San Antonio. One 2012 post announced, "Looking forward to spending my birthday with the 6th grade boys at UT tomorrow!" A commenter apparently thought he should have reread that before hitting publish. Hard to argue with that. When you're a grown man posting publicly about spending your birthday with middle school boys, maybe have someone proofread that first.
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Then there's the curriculum choices. Talarico asked his students — again, sixth graders — to read a passage from The Handmaid's Tale, a novel steeped in sexual violence and reproductive slavery. His team later clarified that he never asked students to read the full book, just a passage to find similes in. That's a defense, sure. But of all the books in the English language with similes, he landed on Margaret Atwood's dystopian assault narrative for 11-year-olds.
How about trying a book written for the age group? Maybe?
He also had his class analyze the lyrics to Kanye West's "Homecoming." His staff insists that only the clean version was used. Fine. But these choices, stacked on top of each other, paint a picture of a teacher with a consistent instinct toward edgy content that raises eyebrows in a middle school setting.
To me, though, the bigger issue is that Talarico posted his personal cell phone number on Facebook multiple times, seemingly inviting students to reach him directly. His team claims those posts were directed at parents, not students.
The problem is that the messages were clearly directed at the students, not the parents.
James Talarico repeatedly urged his students to call him on his cell phone outside school hours
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) April 30, 2026
Extremely creepy pic.twitter.com/GGTl6ZC81Z
Because that's absolutely the most natural explanation for a teacher posting his personal number on a public Facebook page… multiple times. Nothing about that is appropriate, and no amount of spin can change that.
He also repeatedly posted photos of his young students on social media — a practice that, at a minimum, reflects poor judgment about privacy and professional boundaries.
"From encouraging kids to get sex changes and pushing sexually explicit books to openly begging his students to text him after hours, James Talarico has bad judgment at best and a serious pedophile problem at worst,” RNC Spokesman Zach Kraft said in a statement. “Either way, the guy is a total creep who should stay 1,000 feet away from schools, not be teaching inside of them.”
Editor’s Note: The 2026 Midterms will determine the fate of President Trump’s America First agenda. Republicans must maintain control of both chambers of Congress.
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