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Nancy Mace / Get Maced (YouTube)

'It's Pedophilia. It's Grooming.': Nancy Mace Calls Texas Senate Candidate James Talarico a Groomer and 'Not a Christian,' on a Poll Number No Published Poll Shows

In her October 1, 2026 Get Maced episode, Rep. Nancy Mace spent about five minutes on James Talarico, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Texas, over his record on transgender athletes in girls' sports. She said 'It's disgusting. It's pedophilia. It's grooming. And here's a so-called Christian running on it,' told viewers 'You should not vote for this guy,' and said that someone who 'doesn't protect women in private spaces where they're undressed isn't a Christian,' while also saying 'I'm not carrying the water for anyone in this race.' She opened the segment with 'Ken Paxton is now three points ahead of Talarico.' The Fox News poll taken September 24 to 28 had Talarico ahead, 51 to 49, and Maceopedia found no published poll with Paxton ahead by three. Every characterization of Talarico in this entry is hers. The site's own voice is confined to the poll number and the public record.

Nancy Mace, Get Maced, October 1, 2026, three passages from her own upload (15:42, 17:14 and 19:33). Real footage and audio from her channel, captioned verbatim by Maceopedia, with a fact-check box on the poll line.

Source note: this entry is built on the October 1, 2026 episode of Nancy Mace's own podcast, Get Maced, posted to her YouTube channel @NancyRMace under the title "Nancy Mace SHARES the Words James Talarico Doesn't Want You to Hear." Every quote is verbatim from that video and was checked against the audio three times. The reporting on James Talarico's record and on the Texas polls is credited where it is used: the Texas Tribune (Kayla Guo and Ayden Runnels), Fox 4 Dallas-Fort Worth (Steven Ardary) and CBS Austin (Erin Slaughter). Every characterization of Talarico below is Mace's. Maceopedia does not adopt it, and the site's own voice is limited to the poll number and what the named outlets reported.

"It's disgusting. It's pedophilia. It's grooming. And here's a so-called Christian running on it."

Seventeen minutes into her Thursday, October 1, 2026 show, Rep. Nancy Mace said that about James Talarico, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Texas, over his votes and statements on transgender athletes in girls' sports. Two minutes later she told her viewers, "You should not vote for this guy," and said that "someone who is Christian and doesn't protect women in private spaces where they're undressed isn't a Christian." In between, she said: "I'm not carrying the water for anyone in this race."

She opened the segment with a number. "Ken Paxton is now three points ahead of Talarico," she said, and "he is starting to come back up at just the right time." The Fox News poll of likely Texas voters taken September 24 to 28, reported by Fox 4 the next morning, had Talarico ahead of Paxton, 51 to 49. Maceopedia found no published poll from late September or early October 2026 with Paxton ahead by three.

The clip

The short cut: 17:14 to 17:38 and 19:33 to 19:47 of her upload, 41 seconds, captioned verbatim. The longer cut at the top of this page adds the poll line at 15:42 with the correction on screen.

Her own upload, embedded from her channel and cued to the "2,000 medals" line at 17:14:

Get Maced, October 1, 2026. The Talarico segment runs from about 15:20 to 20:15 of the 34-minute episode.

What she said, in order

Timestamps are minutes and seconds into her upload. Ellipses mark material left out for length; nothing inside a quotation is changed or reordered.

15:42. "He was leading in the polls until today. Ken Paxton is now three points ahead of Talarico. He is starting to come back up at just the right time after the midterm convention. And before anybody asks, I don't have a bone to pick in this fight. I'm not carrying the water for anyone in this race, but on this one, Talarico is worse, because this is about girls. This is about your daughters. This is about your granddaughters."

16:07. "In 2021, the Texas House takes up a bill to keep boys out of girls' sports. Talarico, on that bill, said there's no other purpose of this bill other than to hurt children. Watch what he says." She then played a clip of Talarico speaking in 2021. In it he says: "There's no other purpose to this bill than to hurt kids. And I didn't come here to hurt kids, and I don't think any of you came here to hurt kids." She followed it with a second clip, which she said was from Fox 7 in Austin the same year, in which Talarico refers to "far-right conspiracy theories about trans children causing problems on sports teams, which we know does not occur in the state of Texas."

17:12. "Both are in Texas. Both are everywhere in the country, by the way. Over 2,000 medals have gone to boys rather than girls in girls' sports. Scholarships are being taken away. Girls are being injured on the courts, in their races, by men. Fully intact males are in the locker room undressed in front of them, watching the girls undress and dress. It's disgusting. It's pedophilia. It's grooming. And here's a so-called Christian running on it five years ago, but we're five weeks out from a general election where he's neck and neck with the Republican, and all of a sudden he changes his tune."

17:50. "In 2021 he voted no on the school bill, and the college bill in 2023. So just three years ago he was anti-woman, anti-girl. That's what James Talarico was. When they show you who they are, believe them."

18:04. "This September, right before election day, weeks into the election day, he goes on Fox News and he says this." She played the Fox News clip, in which Talarico says: "Every sport has to be safe and fair. As a former public school teacher, I care a lot about our student athletes. I care a lot about our students. And so I will oppose trans athletes playing in girls' sports if it risks safety or fairness." Mace: "So now he opposes [it] in sports because it benefits him electorally."

18:40. "I bet he regrets going after women now. He could have been, you know, he could have been further ahead. And 2021 is a conspiracy theory. In 2026 it's a campaign promise not to do it. ... Last week he said the old bills were too broad and Republicans twist his words. Well, I can tell you, twist his record. Words get twisted all the time by Democrats, which is what he's doing. You can twist a record, but you can't twist your words, because you're on record saying these things, Mr. Talarico."

19:28. "I don't believe what he says, and you shouldn't either. You should not vote for this guy. Someone who is Christian and doesn't protect women in private spaces where they're undressed isn't a Christian. That's what I would call grooming in this country. I write laws to protect women. If a bill is too broad, you fix it and then you vote yes."

20:03. "You don't call the girls, girls aren't a conspiracy theory. These are real issues that our daughters are facing, and it's disgusting."

The "2,000 medals" figure is hers. Maceopedia did not verify it and does not repeat it as fact.

The poll number

Mace's segment rests on "Ken Paxton is now three points ahead of Talarico," said on the evening of Thursday, October 1.

The most recent public poll at that point was the Fox News poll of the Texas Senate race, conducted September 24 to 28, 2026 by Beacon Research and Shaw & Company Research. Fox 4's Steven Ardary reported it on the morning of October 2 under the headline "Talarico holds razor-thin lead over Paxton in Fox News poll": "The Fox News poll showed 51% of likely Texas voters said they were voting for Talarico, while 49% said they were voting for Paxton." The sample was 881 likely voters with a 3 percent margin of error, so the race is a statistical tie. It is not a three-point Paxton lead.

Maceopedia searched for a late-September or early-October 2026 poll showing Paxton ahead by three points and found none. If one exists, it was not published by a named pollster that we could locate. The fact-check box in the longer cut at the top of this page carries the Fox News numbers.

Mace did not say which poll she was citing.

Talarico's record, as reported

The record on Talarico's trans-athlete positions is close to how Mace described it. The Texas Tribune's Kayla Guo and Ayden Runnels reported on September 9, 2026, under the headline "In reversal, James Talarico says he opposes trans athletes in girls' sports 'if it risks safety or fairness'", that Talarico, a former public school teacher, told Fox News: "Every sport has to be safe and fair. As a former public school teacher, I care a lot about our student athletes, I care a lot about our students. And so I will oppose trans athletes playing in girls' sports if it risks safety or fairness." The Tribune reported that, "as a state representative, Talarico voted against GOP restrictions barring trans student-athletes from playing on sports teams that align with their gender identity," and quoted him from 2021: "Some things are more important than perfectly fair competition in sports."

The two 2021 clips Mace played on her show, the Texas House floor remarks ("There's no other purpose to this bill than to hurt kids") and the Fox 7 Austin interview ("far-right conspiracy theories about trans children causing problems on sports teams"), are reproduced here as she aired them. Maceopedia did not locate the original broadcasts independently.

On September 24, 2026, a week before Mace's episode, CBS Austin's Erin Slaughter reported that Talarico had offered Paxton a "home-turf" debate on Fox News: "Let's go to Ken Paxton's safe space. Let's do Bret Baier on Fox News." Paxton is the Texas attorney general and the Republican nominee.

Maceopedia found no public response from Talarico or his campaign to Mace's October 1 remarks, and no news coverage of them, as of October 7.

What the words were

Mace's segment uses three words about a named candidate for federal office: "pedophilia," "grooming" and "not a Christian." In context, she attaches "pedophilia" and "grooming" to the policy of allowing transgender athletes in girls' sports and locker rooms, and she says "here's a so-called Christian running on it." She then applies "grooming" to Talarico directly: "That's what I would call grooming in this country." Talarico has not been accused of any crime. Mace offers no allegation about his personal conduct; her words are about his votes and statements.

She says twice that she is a neutral party in the race: "I don't have a bone to pick in this fight. I'm not carrying the water for anyone in this race." In the same segment she says, "You should not vote for this guy," and, of Paxton, that "he is starting to come back up at just the right time."

Readers can set those lines side by side. Mace has used "groomers" about her opponents before: at a February 2025 House DOGE subcommittee hearing she told the National Women's Law Center's Fatima Goss Graves, "You're groomers". Her broader record on the subject is on the transgender and LGBTQ policy page.

Stills

The frames below are from her own upload.

Nancy Mace at 15:44 of her October 1, 2026 Get Maced episode, saying "Ken Paxton is now three points ahead of Talarico."

15:44. "Ken Paxton is now three points ahead of Talarico."

Nancy Mace at 17:33, saying "It's pedophilia."

17:33. "It's pedophilia."

Nancy Mace at 17:34, saying "It's grooming."

17:34. "It's grooming."

Nancy Mace at 17:37, saying "And here's a so-called Christian running on it."

17:37. "And here's a so-called Christian running on it."

Nancy Mace at 19:42, saying "isn't a Christian."

19:42. "Someone who is Christian and doesn't protect women in private spaces where they're undressed isn't a Christian."

Nancy Mace at 19:45, saying "That's what I would call grooming in this country."

19:45. "That's what I would call grooming in this country."

Sources & related coverage

'It's Pedophilia. It's Grooming.': Nancy Mace Calls Texas Senate Candidate James Talarico a Groomer and 'Not a Christian,' on a Poll Number No Published Poll Shows: image 1
'It's Pedophilia. It's Grooming.': Nancy Mace Calls Texas Senate Candidate James Talarico a Groomer and 'Not a Christian,' on a Poll Number No Published Poll Shows: image 2
'It's Pedophilia. It's Grooming.': Nancy Mace Calls Texas Senate Candidate James Talarico a Groomer and 'Not a Christian,' on a Poll Number No Published Poll Shows: image 3
'It's Pedophilia. It's Grooming.': Nancy Mace Calls Texas Senate Candidate James Talarico a Groomer and 'Not a Christian,' on a Poll Number No Published Poll Shows: image 4
'It's Pedophilia. It's Grooming.': Nancy Mace Calls Texas Senate Candidate James Talarico a Groomer and 'Not a Christian,' on a Poll Number No Published Poll Shows: image 5
'It's Pedophilia. It's Grooming.': Nancy Mace Calls Texas Senate Candidate James Talarico a Groomer and 'Not a Christian,' on a Poll Number No Published Poll Shows: image 6
'It's Pedophilia. It's Grooming.': Nancy Mace Calls Texas Senate Candidate James Talarico a Groomer and 'Not a Christian,' on a Poll Number No Published Poll Shows: image 7
'It's Pedophilia. It's Grooming.': Nancy Mace Calls Texas Senate Candidate James Talarico a Groomer and 'Not a Christian,' on a Poll Number No Published Poll Shows: image 8
'It's Pedophilia. It's Grooming.': Nancy Mace Calls Texas Senate Candidate James Talarico a Groomer and 'Not a Christian,' on a Poll Number No Published Poll Shows: image 9