Democrat Senate candidate James Talarico said Scripture requires the government to guarantee health coverage, telling a Texas church crowd that the New Testament makes a public health insurance option a Christian obligation.
Talarico made the argument at a town hall he held at a DeSoto church on July 20, footage of which his campaign posted Saturday under the title “James Talarico Unveils Plan For Black Voters.” The Austin Democrat argued the country should “finish the work of President Obama” and pass a public option, then grounded the pitch in the Gospels.
“Because health care is a human right. It is not a privilege,” Talarico said.
Talarico told the crowd he wanted to speak scripturally, given the setting, and pointed to how Jesus spent his ministry.
“If you read our scriptures, if you read the New Testament, what does Jesus spend most of his time doing? It’s not preaching, it’s not teaching, it is healing. Healing the sick,” Talarico said. “And in Matthew 25, scripture says that’s how we will be judged and how we will be saved. By healing the sick, by feeding the hungry, by welcoming the stranger, by visiting the prisoner.”
The candidate tied the theology directly to policy. Talarico’s campaign platform calls for allowing every American, regardless of age, to buy into Medicare through a not-for-profit public option, alongside drug-price negotiation and caps on out-of-pocket costs. He noted that he worked with Republicans in the state House to cap insulin co-pays at $25 per prescription, but said the state still carries the highest number of uninsured residents in the country.
“So this is an emergency across the state of Texas,” Talarico said.
The scriptural framing has drawn sharp criticism from conservative Christians, who have accused the seminary-trained Democrat of distorting the faith. Writers on the religious right have branded his politics “blasphemous” and a “works-based” gospel that rewrites salvation, while other outlets have described his campaign platform as reading like the New Testament.
Talarico is running neck-and-neck with Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton in a race that could decide Senate control. His campaign has pledged $25 million toward black-voter outreach. It also follows a pattern of religiously charged rhetoric from the candidate, who has described legislation restricting gender-affirming procedures for minors and the state’s abortion law as products of a “Christofascism movement.”
“Health care is truly a human right for every single person in this state,” Talarico said.
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