A hidden-camera video released this week shows a minister at James Talarico’s longtime Austin church saying the Texas Democrat’s recent shift toward more moderate positions on transgender issues is a campaign tactic — and predicting he will revert once voters have cast their ballots.
According to reporting by The Gateway Pundit, the footage was obtained by The Daily Wire and features Rev. Babs Miller, listed as “Minister to the Parish” at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, where Talarico has been a member and has preached. In the recording, Miller tells an undercover journalist, “I can guarantee you that once he gets elected, he’ll change his tune back to where he was.”
The clip circulated widely after being posted to social media by Daily Wire contributor Jacob Wheeler on September 16, 2026.
A Minister’s Blunt Assessment
Miller, who has been part of St. Andrew’s since the mid-1990s and was ordained there in 2014, did not limit her comments to a single line. When the journalist raised the Republican criticism aimed at Talarico over his past “God is non-binary” remark, Miller responded with a one-word answer: “Duh.”
She went on to say the candidate is “getting some advice that I don’t think he should be following,” attributing the pivot to campaign staff responding to a broader Democratic retreat on transgender issues.
“That’s what his campaign has convinced him of,” Miller said, according to the account. “The Democratic Party is backing off on their stances on trans and all of this, and so his staff is encouraging him to kind of do the same thing, just for the next 50 weeks, whatever days.”
She added: “I think it’s bad advice personally, but if it helps him win, okay…”
The article characterizes that remark as an admission that the candidate is holding one position privately while selling a milder version to voters, with the expectation of returning to his earlier stance after Election Day.
Campaign Shift Follows Fox News Appearance
The undercover footage lands as Talarico, a state lawmaker now running for the U.S. Senate against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, has spent recent weeks trying to soften the edges of a record that Republicans have been working to define in a culturally conservative state.
During an appearance on Fox News, Talarico said he would “absolutely” support a national ban on gender-transition surgeries for minors and would oppose males competing in girls’ sports if it threatens “safety or fairness.” That marks a significant departure from his record in the Texas Legislature, where he voted against bills to keep boys out of girls’ sports and to restrict sex-change procedures for children.
Republicans have flooded the airwaves with ads seeking to cast him as a radical, and the Fox News interview was widely read as an attempt to appeal to a broader general-election audience.
Democratic Organizer Also Caught on Video
The Daily Wire reportedly obtained additional undercover footage featuring Jennifer Miranda, described as a manager with Texas Together and the Texas Democratic Party. In that clip, Miranda frames Talarico’s repositioning as a deliberate effort to win over conservative Texans who are unenthusiastic about Paxton at the top of the ticket.
“I would say right now he’s trying to target a wider net, which unfortunately means being more palatable to Republicans here in Texas,” Miranda said. “He really needs to win those Texans over.”
Together, the two recordings form the core of a Republican argument that Talarico’s public repositioning is not a genuine change of heart but a short-term calculation.
A Long Record Republicans Are Resurfacing
The Gateway Pundit notes that it has previously reported on several of Talarico’s past statements and associations, which Republicans are now using to argue that his current messaging is inconsistent with his history.
According to that earlier reporting, Talarico once described himself on a podcast — hosted by a self-described “TransQueer” activist theologian — as “a Christian who hates Christianity.” He has also said that God is “non-binary,” that there are six biological sexes, and has credited Islamic mystics and the poet Rumi with shaping his faith alongside Christian writers.
The outlet further reports that Talarico named Alyssa Edwards, a drag performer, as his favorite drag queen in Texas, and that he campaigned alongside a surgeon who had previously performed so-called “top” surgeries on minors — even after saying he opposed such procedures.
Talarico has also preached from the St. Andrew’s pulpit, including a sermon in which he declared that “God is not a Christian,” according to the report.
What Comes Next
The release of the video puts a new spotlight on the central tension of Talarico’s Senate bid: whether his recent statements represent a durable shift or, as his own minister reportedly put it, a temporary adjustment calibrated to the calendar.
Neither Talarico’s campaign nor St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church has issued a public response to the recordings as of this writing. The Gateway Pundit’s report is based on undercover footage obtained by The Daily Wire, and the quotes attributed to Miller and Miranda come from that footage as described by the outlet.
The race against Paxton remains one of the most closely watched Senate contests in the country, and the video is likely to feature prominently in Republican messaging over the coming weeks. For Democrats, the question is whether the recording — delivered in the voice of a minister from the candidate’s own congregation — complicates the broader outreach Talarico has been attempting with more moderate Texas voters.
Source: www.thegatewaypundit.com — https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2026/09/caught-tape-talaricos-own-church-minister-says-his/