A Catholic voter challenged Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico at a CNN and Jubilee town hall Wednesday night after he said the Bible is "silent" on abortion.
Jodi Hunt of Burleson, who leads the Neuhoff Institute for Ministry and Evangelization at the University of Dallas, called herself an orthodox Catholic and a one-issue voter on abortion. Talarico said he respects pro-life leaders such as Pope Leo and urged common ground.
"We're both Christians, and the Bible is silent on the issue of abortion," Talarico said. "It means you and I both have to look at different scriptures to try to come to a conclusion."
"I just want to add that the Bible is not silent on abortion. There is the Ten Commandments, thou shalt not kill, and as Catholics, we take great insult sometimes when it's sounded that way," she shot back.
She also objected to his call for "age-appropriate sex education," saying parents are children's primary educators.
"If I believed that abortion was murder, that it violated the Ten Commandments, then I wouldn't support it. So, it is okay that you and I come to different conclusions about that," Talarico replied.
Both said they want fewer abortions and unplanned pregnancies.
The format made the moment. CNN and Jubilee staged the night around Talarico's faith story — the seminarian candidate asking believers to see themselves in him — and gave him a national audience to make that case. Hunt used the same audience to test it, with the oldest text there is.
Her second objection carried the same logic as the first: that on questions of life and family, parents — not candidates, and not seminarians — are the primary educators of their children. One voter, two answers, and a campaign narrative that will now have to reckon with both.
The moment matters because it strikes at the very core of Talarico's pitch: a Christian seminarian running as a pro-choice Democrat in Texas, asking religious voters to trust that his faith and his abortion position can live in the same house. Hunt's reply — delivered calmly, in front of a national audience, drawn from the words written in stone — was the simplest rebuttal imaginable, and the one his campaign will have the hardest time answering. He faces Republican Ken Paxton on Nov. 3, and clips like this one do not stay buried.
Never miss a story.
Join our Telegram channel and get every article link the second it’s published.
Join Telegram Channel