Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico now says he will keep transgender competitors out of girls sports whenever safety or fairness is at stake. He made that statement in a Fox News interview with Brooke Taylor and cited his years as a public school teacher and concern for student athletes.

As a state representative he voted against Republican bills that barred transgender students from teams matching their gender identity. In 2021 he said other priorities outweighed fully even competition and compared genetic-advantage and safety claims to earlier arguments used to keep Black athletes out of professional leagues.

He now describes those Republican measures as too sweeping and says he backed changes that would have left the choices with nearby school boards and communities instead of lawmakers in Austin or Washington.