Insisting James Talarico is transgender in hopes of invoking the feverish transphobic hysteria they have been cultivating for years (he is cisgender), tweeting about how he will sacrifice you to Moloch (he is a Presbyterian who went to seminary school), repeatedly stating he is a vegan (he is not) and doing the old classic of calling him a Communist (wish that was true), republicans are fucking terrified of James Talarico and it is so fucking funny. Ken Paxton is a worse candidate and a worse person by every conceivable metric, he’s repeatedly committed fraud, he’s been a terrible attorney general. They cannot find anything to level the playing field in terms of terrible career track record or personal moral failing so they’re just lying. Not even good lies. They’re just going for what they assume will make the Texas public hate him. Transgender, demon worshipper, barbecue hater, commie. It is scary that the truth means nothing, it is scary that transgender identity is continuously weaponized for political gain, it is scary that we are still in the Red Scare and 1980s Satanic Panic bullshit but oh my God is it hilarious to see them spinning their wheels this hard.