JD Vance, who once thought he was gay before changing his name twice, suggests James Talarico is gay

This story appeared first on Them.

On Tuesday, Vice President JD Vance was filmed making assertions about Democratic U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico’s sexuality at a Republican campaign rally in Tyler, Texas.

At the rally, held at the old terminal of Tyler Pounds Regional Airport, Vance stood at a podium in front of a U.S. aircraft carrier, as C-SPAN captured in footage. With cheers from the audience, Vance seems to hear a fan say, “I love you,” to which he replies, “I love you too, sir. In a totally platonic way, to be clear. I’m the vice president, not James Talarico.”

Talarico, who has expressed support for LGBTQ+ people in the past, is straight and has confirmed being in a long-term, approximately four-year relationship with a woman named Brianna Menard. Talarico has made no public mention of being gay as Vance implied in his Tuesday morning statement. Rather, this marks one of several attempts by Republicans to insult the Texan candidate for Senate ahead of the midterm election. In fact, this most recent jab came just six days before Texans’ early voting period began.

Vance attended the rally to support Talarico’s Republican opponent, current Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who also recently appeared to diss President Donald Trump on a hot mic. In the same speech, Vance called Talarico “Tala-freak-co,” “fake and a fraud,” “a freak,” “a content machine,” and other ad hominem statements while criticizing several of the Senate candidate’s political stances.

Vance also said, You gotta wonder what the internet search history of a man like that looks like. Ladies and gentlemen, you don't want to find out. Neither do I.” X users had a lot to say, weighing in on Vance’s statement. One person said, “Same guy btw,” above a photo of J.D. Vance doing drag. Another said, “Its over vance.. texas turning blue 💙.”

Several social media users pointed out the irony of Vance’s statement, given the photographic evidence of his cross-dressing and (unconfirmed) memes about his supposed penchant for couches. “God they’re so desperate for something to stick, but none of it is working. Just throw digs and insults at the wall, and when that doesn’t work, manufacture conspiracy theories apparently 🙄 so sad what the GOP has become,” one user shared.

And this isn’t the first time right-wingers have taken a swing at Talarico’s identity. Former news anchor and political influencer Kari Lake, who unsuccessfully ran for both Arizona governor and U.S. Senate, also made assertions about Talarico on October 8 on X, but in that instance, it was about his gender.

During a brief, 12-day pause in his public appearances, Talarico’s campaign explained that he had come down with the flu, which had been exacerbated by his diagnosed Type 1 diabetes. While Republicans shared many false reports as to Talarico’s whereabouts, Lake shared an AI inquiry screenshot about the recovery time needed for “bottom surgery,” implying that Talarico’s absence was due to gender-affirming surgery. It is worth noting that a common page from the Republican playbook includes transvestigation, the transphobic conspiracy theory that most celebrities and politicians are trans, especially Democrats.

What’s more, in the answer Lake shared on social media, the search explained that people need about six to eight weeks of recovery time before resuming typical activities post-vaginoplasty or phalloplasty, and even longer for full healing, neither of which aligns with the timeframe of Talarico’s absence.

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