Left-wing Texas Senate candidate James Talarico opposed a series of 2025 bills in the Texas house aimed at curbing Chinese Communist Party influence in the United States, including one that restricted Chinese nationals' purchases of Texas farmland. Before opposing the tough-on-China measures, Talarico supported a resolution that condemned the use of the term "China Virus" during the COVID-19 pandemic, claiming it was racist against Chinese nationals.
The first bill, SB 17, barred certain governments and foreign nationals from buying farmland and commercial property in Texas, including those associated with China. The second, SB 667, prohibited state entities from investing in CCP-tied companies subject to Chinese government control. A third, HB 128, prohibited Texas municipalities from establishing or renewing "sister-city relationships" with foreign adversaries including China. Talarico voted against the three measures, all of which became law, Texas legislative records show. In the case of the sister-city bill, Talarico initially voted for the measure's final passage before correcting the record, saying he "was shown voting yes" but "intended to vote no."
Although the bills applied to "foreign entities of concern"—a list of U.S. adversaries that includes China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran—China drew particular scrutiny among Texas lawmakers. The Chinese Communist Party has long used sister-city arrangements to covertly influence American officials. And Chinese ownership of Texas land became a political flashpoint as Chinese entities purchased roughly 160,000 acres in the Lone Star State, the most in the country as of 2024. Texas Republicans specifically proposed the land sale ban after the secretive Chinese billionaire Sun Guangxin, who served in the Chinese Army before starting his first business in Xinjiang, purchased nearly 130,000 acres near Laughlin Air Force Base in San Antonio for a purported wind farm. Talarico's opponent, Texas attorney general Ken Paxton (R.), launched the rulemaking process to enforce the land sale ban earlier this year.
Talarico's opposition to the bills could create a political liability for the 37-year-old Presbyterian seminarian as he hopes to woo Republican voters in his general election race against Paxton. A 2022 poll found that 82 percent of Texas Republicans supported a bill to block Chinese nationals from buying land in the Lone Star State.
Talarico does not often discuss China. His campaign website's "foreign policy" page, for example, says it "is our duty as the world's oldest democracy to defend Ukraine against Russian aggression, address human rights abuses like those being suffered by the people of Sudan, and use every ounce of our diplomatic and financial leverage to secure peace in Israel and Palestine" but does not mention China or the Chinese Communist Party.
On X, meanwhile, Talarico mentioned China just once: in a May 2021 tweet touting a resolution he supported from a Democratic colleague in the Texas House "condemning anti-Asian hate speech like 'Kung Flu' and 'China Virus.'"
"Radicalized white men are the greatest domestic terrorist threat in our country," Talarico wrote in a thread promoting the resolution. "As a white man, I'm susceptible to the same radicalization. Thankfully, I was exposed to diversity at a young age and explicitly taught the values of equality, inclusion, and justice. But not every young white boy is so lucky."
"We must confront racism and misogyny everywhere — from the school house to the White House," he continued. "I'm proud to sign Rep. Gene Wu's resolution condemning anti-Asian hate speech like 'Kung Flu' and 'China Virus.' Words have consequences. Dehumanization always leads to violence." Though the resolution argued that such terms sparked hate crimes against Asian Americans, most notably the 2021 Atlanta spa shootings, the perpetrator of the attacks, Robert Aaron Long, said he targeted the spas out of resentment over his sex addiction rather than hatred for Asians.
Talarico's campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
