Talarico credits PCUSA pastor with encouraging Senate run as 'a form of ministry'

Democratic Texas state Rep. James Talarico told a group of faith leaders Monday night that the Rev. Jim Rigby, his longtime pastor in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), convinced him to run for the U.S. Senate as "a form of ministry."

Speaking on a Zoom call with Faithful Texans for Talarico, a faith-based coalition associated with his campaign, Talarico said he consulted Rigby when he was weighing whether to pursue a Senate seat or focus on finishing his ministerial studies at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary.

"I remember when I was thinking about whether or not to run for this position, I kind of went through a discernment process, and I sat down with my pastor," he said. "As many of you know, whether you sit down with your pastor or your rabbi, your imam, you seek spiritual counsel when you're making a big decision."

"And so I sat down with Dr. Jim, who's been my pastor since I was 2 years old, and I told him that I was struggling with the decision to run for this Senate seat, because so many of the fights that I've been waging at the state Capitol — the fight for public education, the fight for healthcare, the fight against corruption — all of those fights are so urgent now at the federal level in our nation's Capitol. But I also told him that I felt that I was called to finish my seminary journey," he continued.

Noting he felt called to follow in the footsteps of his grandfather, a Southern Baptist minister in South Texas during the 1960s, Talarico said he "was torn between these two callings, and I couldn't figure out if I should run for the seat or I should continue my work in the ministry."

"And Dr. Jim, in all of his wisdom, told me that this campaign can also be a form of ministry. And at the time, I didn't quite know what he meant, but as I've been on the campaign trail, as I've met thousands and thousands of Texans — and people tell me how this campaign has given them hope after so long, how they feel newly inspired, how young people are joining the political process for the first time — I'm starting to understand what Dr. Jim meant last summer, when he told me that this campaign can be, at its best, a form of ministry," he said.

"And you all are a part of that now. This is a lot bigger than me. All of you are also giving people hope," Talarico added.

Talarico has long touted Rigby, who has pastored St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) in Austin for more than 35 years, as one of his most influential spiritual mentors, whose church he has attended since childhood. The pastor baptized him, officiated his parents' marriage and delivered the invocation before his 2019 swearing-in ceremony at the Texas House of Representatives.

In a recently resurfaced clip from 2023, Talarico praised Rigby's church by noting it taught him "the idea that Christianity is just another word for causing trouble."

Rigby and the pastoral leadership of St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church have drawn scrutiny in recent weeks amid resurfaced sermons and undercover footage.

Rigby has lately gone viral for a video in which he denies the Resurrection and likens the Lord's Supper to breastfeeding from a Gnostic goddess, as well as another in which he promotes an "inclusive" version of the Bible that strips Jesus Christ of gendered titles, including "Son of God."

The Rev. Babs Miller, a nonbinary lesbian who serves as minister to the parish at St. Andrew's, was caught explicitly denying the Gospel and questioning if Jesus even existed, according to an undercover video released last month.

In footage published by The Daily Wire on Sept. 25, Rigby appeared to distance himself from some of Talarico's theological views, which he described as closer to mysticism than historically Christian ideas.

“Well, he's much more — it makes me uncomfortable. Now, don't ever say that to him,” Rigby told an undercover journalist when asked if he would consider Talarico to be a fundamentalist.

"No, he's basically said God is not any being but being. I mean, that's like mysticism," Rigby said. "So, it's like at that point, I just think he's caught trying to cross the river. And whatever he said comes back as a hand grenade."

Talarico had been introduced in the Zoom meeting on Monday evening by Bishop James Dixon, who pastors The Community of Faith Church in Houston, Texas.

Praising him for rejecting Christian nationalism, Dixon maintained that Talarico "even loves those who don't pray as we pray, and we do understand that that's one of the fallacies in the version of Christianity that some others purport: that you cannot love and respect people unless they love the God that you love and worship the Christ that you worship. That's antithetical to the Christian doctrine of loving your neighbor as yourself."

Talarico's coalition of faith leaders launched last week with the endorsement of Jordan Walker Ross, who plays Little James on "The Chosen." His tight race against Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton remains essentially tied, with a recent CBS News poll showing Talarico with 51% support and Paxton with 49%.