The church where Texas Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico gave sermons as a seminary student keeps a library stocked with books containing illustrations of oral sex, masturbation, and graphic depictions of gay sex, materials accessible to children, teens, and adults alike, a review by The Daily Wire found.

St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church in Austin, Texas, is Talarico's home church. The Daily Wire reviewed books in the church's library and identified materials featuring "illustrations of oral sex and masturbation," discussions of "anal rape and incest," and graphic explanations of "gay sex." Critics have branded the collection "pornographic material."

The findings land as Talarico pivots from a primary campaign built around faith and spirituality to a bare-knuckle general election fight against Republican nominee Ken Paxton, the state's attorney general. The Associated Press described the shift as "a stark pivot from the more sunny, spiritual theme of Talarico's Democratic primary campaign." The contrast between the two campaigns, one wrapped in Scripture, the other launched at a Houston dance club, raises fair questions about what Talarico's faith actually teaches and what his church considers appropriate for young readers.

What the church library contains

One book explicitly named in the review is This Book Is Gay. Not the Bee, a conservative commentary outlet, responded sharply to its presence in a church library open to minors.

"Anyone who checked out [This Book Is Gay] from this church should have their hard drive checked immediately," the outlet wrote.

The church's own website describes its collection as ranging "from picture books to young adult novels," and says that "children, teens, young adults, and older adults can find affirmation in the books they read." The library invites visitors to "browse our collection of banned books and see what you notice...common themes...particular experiences and identities being censored."

That framing tells you a great deal. The church does not describe its library as a theological resource or a devotional collection. It describes it as a showcase for books that have been removed from other institutions, and it frames those removals not as community standards at work, but as censorship of "particular experiences and identities."

The specific titles beyond This Book Is Gay remain unclear. The church has not publicly detailed the full catalog or explained how it selects materials for a library accessible to children. Its stated rationale, "affirmation", does not address why graphic sexual illustrations belong on the same shelves as picture books.

Talarico's seminary sermons and campaign trail

Talarico's connection to St. Andrew's runs deeper than casual attendance. As a seminary student, he delivered sermons there, including calls for "abortion care for gender-confused women." That phrase alone puts him well outside mainstream Christian teaching on both abortion and gender, a fact worth noting for a candidate who leaned heavily on his faith identity during the Democratic primary.

Talarico has also made waves with other controversial religious statements. He has pushed federal land leases for abortion access and called Jesus a "barefoot rabbi," language that strips Christ of his divinity in a way most orthodox Christians would reject.

None of this stopped roughly 1,000 supporters from showing up to his general election kickoff event at a Houston dance club this week. There, Talarico told the crowd that Paxton is "the most corrupt politician in America", a line designed to make the race a referendum on the attorney general's record rather than on Talarico's own positions.

Whether that strategy holds depends on how much scrutiny Talarico's own background can sustain. A candidate who campaigns on faith while his home church stocks children's shelves with sexually explicit material faces an obvious credibility gap.

A pattern of controversy around faith and politics

Talarico is not the only political figure whose church ties have drawn fire. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth recently welcomed controversial pastor Doug Wilson to a Pentagon worship service, a decision that generated its own round of criticism.

And Hegseth's own pastor came under scrutiny after making pointed comments about Talarico on a podcast, drawing attention to the intersection of pastoral authority and partisan combat. The cases differ in substance, but they share a common thread: when politicians wrap themselves in religious credentials, the public has every right to examine what those credentials actually entail.

In Talarico's case, the examination reveals a church that treats sexually explicit content as a tool of "affirmation" for minors. That is not a minor theological dispute. It is a concrete policy choice about what children should read, made by the same institution that shaped the candidate's spiritual formation.

The general election stakes

The Texas Senate race now pits Talarico against Paxton, a Republican who has faced his own legal battles but who won his primary decisively. Talarico's campaign clearly intends to make Paxton's ethics the central issue. His "most corrupt politician in America" line is a general-election frame, not a policy argument.

But campaigns cut both ways. A nominee who built his brand on seminary training and Sunday sermons will find it difficult to distance himself from the institution where he trained and preached, especially when that institution's library includes material most parents would not want their children reading at home, let alone at church.

The broader pattern of Democratic candidates facing serious personal scrutiny during election cycles is not new. What makes Talarico's situation distinct is that the controversy flows directly from the faith identity he chose to make the centerpiece of his campaign. He invited voters to judge him by his church. Now they can.

Unanswered questions

Several important details remain unclear. The full list of flagged titles in the church library has not been published. The church has not explained its formal book-selection policy or articulated why sexually graphic material belongs in a collection marketed to children. It is also unclear whether Talarico currently attends St. Andrew's or whether his connection dates only to his seminary period.

Talarico's campaign has not publicly addressed the library controversy. Nor has Paxton responded to Talarico's "most corrupt politician" characterization.

What is clear is this: the church's own website advertises a library spanning "picture books to young adult novels," invites the public to browse it, and frames its collection as a response to censorship. The Daily Wire found that collection includes illustrations of oral sex and discussions of anal rape. Those are not competing interpretations. They are facts sitting side by side on the same shelf.

When you build a campaign on your pulpit, voters get to look at what's in the pews, and on the bookshelves. Talarico asked Texas to trust his faith. Texas is now taking a closer look at what that faith puts in front of children.