Trans journalist Erin Reed has published a list of Democratic midterm candidates with anti-trans records, and the question she is forcing is one the party would rather not answer: if trans voters keep rewarding Democrats who harm them, what signal does that send? The calculation is real, the stakes are high, and there is no clean answer.
Many of these Democrats such as Talarico waited until after the primary to start their anti-trans rhetoric. We would have already voted them out if they didn’t deceive us.
The only question that’s valid to have about Talerico on this topic is “is Ken Paxton better, or is he even worse?” The answer is, “no, Ken Paxton is even worse.” If Talerico doesn’t win, Paxton WILL. End of.
For trans Texans, not voting for Talerico in order to keep Paxton out of office is objectively idiotic – it’s basically suicide by spite. That’s just reality, and reality doesn’t give a fuck if you like it or not.
Found the cis person.
You can replace any number of subjects for trans and the argument always holds. It’s a shitty situation but it’s an unavoidable consequence of first-past-the-post voting.
Talarico isn’t going to push for anti-trans legislation the way Rupublicans will.
And what on Earth makes you conclude that? He’s already slid to the right on trans issues, what’s to stop him from decaying further? Every other politician that starts on transphobia ends up sliding into the deep end of it. Why should he be any different?