Two Bushes Back a Democrat. Here Is the Record the Express-News Left Out.

Opinion. Two members of the Bush family are backing Democrat James Talarico for the U.S. Senate. The Express-News printed their praise. Here is the record it left out.

The San Antonio Express-News reported Thursday that two members of Texas’ best-known Republican family are backing Democrat James Talarico over Republican Ken Paxton for the U.S. Senate. The story ran Neil Bush’s praise of Talarico at length. It ran his charges against Paxton. It did not run Talarico’s legislative record, a response from the Paxton campaign, or the family history that puts both endorsements in context. With early voting underway, here is what was missing.

Some conservatives are calling this the moment the mask fell. Neither Bush is a registered Democrat, and Texas does not register voters by party. But both have spent years taking positions to the left of the party their family once led, which is exactly what conservatives mean when they say RINO.

Barbara Bush crossed this line years ago

Federal filings show Barbara Bush, daughter of George W. and Laura Bush, gave $2,500 on Sept. 23 to Lone Star Rising PAC, the main super PAC supporting Talarico, Houston Public Media reported. It was not her first step across the aisle. She attended a Hillary Clinton fundraiser in Paris in 2016, keynoted a Planned Parenthood fundraising luncheon in Fort Worth in 2017, and in 2024 endorsed Kamala Harris and knocked doors for the Harris-Walz ticket in Pennsylvania. She has publicly supported same-sex marriage, which she has described as her first public break from her father’s positions, and she told PEOPLE in 2010 that she does not identify with either major party. Her $2,500 sits in the same PAC as a reported $10 million from LinkedIn co-founder and Democratic megadonor Reid Hoffman.

Neil Bush left out some family history

In 2022, Paxton beat Neil’s nephew, George P. Bush, 68 percent to 32 percent in the Republican runoff for attorney general. George P. ran on Paxton’s legal troubles. Texas Republicans heard that case and rejected it by better than two to one.

Neil writes that “character matters more than party affiliation.” By that standard, readers may weigh his own record. Federal regulators found he breached his fiduciary duties through conflicts of interest as a director of the failed Silverado savings and loan in the 1980s. He was never charged with a crime. The FDIC’s civil suit against Silverado’s directors was settled out of court, and The Washington Post later reported that Neil paid $50,000 as part of that settlement. As chairman of a foundation devoted to U.S.-China relations, he told a Hong Kong audience in 2019 that the United States should not meddle in China’s internal affairs, and cautioned that “US-style democracy” would destabilize China. He says he still holds “many traditional Republican principles.” A Republican who votes for a Democrat with Talarico’s record on border funding and the heartbeat law is what conservatives call a RINO.

The Paxton context the paper skipped

The 2020 lawsuit Neil calls an affront to democracy was filed in the U.S. Supreme Court and backed by 17 states and 126 House Republicans, including the party’s House leader at the time, Kevin McCarthy. The court declined to hear it. The Texas Senate acquitted Paxton on all impeachment articles in 2023. The securities case that followed him for a decade was dismissed in 2025 after a pretrial diversion agreement, which his attorney said was no admission of guilt, and the Justice Department reportedly dropped its federal investigation in the final weeks of the Biden administration. Critics point to a $6.6 million whistleblower judgment entered after his office stopped contesting the suit, which Paxton was expected to appeal. Republican primary voters knew all of it and chose Paxton over Sen. John Cornyn by more than 30 points.

The paper also skipped Paxton’s results. His office reached a $1.4 billion settlement with Meta over facial recognition data in 2024 and a $1.375 billion settlement with Google over location, incognito and biometric data in 2025. In May, Texas Children’s Hospital agreed to a $10 million settlement with his office that includes opening a detransition clinic.

Talarico’s record, which the paper never described

Neil Bush says he has never met Talarico. Here is the record he and the Express-News left out.

Border. Talarico voted against the 2021 bill sending $1.8 billion to border security, including $750 million for barriers; against the 2023 bill creating a Texas Border Protection Unit; against more barrier funding later that year; against SB 4, which made illegal entry from a foreign nation a state crime; and against SB 8, which requires sheriffs who run jails to join ICE’s 287(g) program. At a primary debate he said the border should be like a front porch, with “a giant welcome mat out front and a lock on the door.” At an Oct. 14 CNN town hall, he said he has never supported abolishing ICE, then described the agency’s work over the past year as “a secret police force.” On a 2023 Texas Impact podcast, he said his church had “stirred some controversy by housing an undocumented family, a mother and son, who were close to being deported by ICE.”

Border wall between the United States and Mexico in El Paso, Texas

Photo: Levi Meir Clancy / Unsplash

Energy. He authored the 2021 Texas Climate Action Act, which would have required statewide greenhouse gas emissions to fall at least 50 percent below 1990 levels by 2030 and at least 90 percent by 2050. Texas emitted about 577 million metric tons of energy-related carbon dioxide in 1990 and 680 million in 2024, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, so the 2030 target meant cutting today’s emissions by nearly 58 percent. The bill let regulators impose declining emission caps with tradable allowances, and its own text directed the state to help “workers and communities that may lose employment opportunities.” The stakes: the Texas Oil & Gas Association reports the industry directly employed 495,501 Texans in 2025, supported 1.4 million jobs in all at an average wage of $133,095, and paid $27 billion in state and local taxes and royalties. No state agency or independent economist published a job-loss estimate before the bill died without a hearing. Republican groups have put the toll at 620,000 to two million jobs but have not published their methods.

Guns. He authored a 2019 bill to change Texas handgun licensing so that the Department of Public Safety “may,” rather than “shall,” issue a license to a qualified applicant. It died in committee.

Social issues. He voted against the 2021 heartbeat law, against the law keeping school sports separated by biological sex, and against the 2023 law banning gender transition procedures for minors. On the House floor in 2021 he declared that “God is non-binary.” He argued on Joe Rogan’s podcast in 2025 that Scripture supports a consent-based view of abortion, and he told primary voters he is open to expanding the Supreme Court.

The late makeover. In the campaign’s final stretch, Talarico calls himself “a border security Democrat” and says he would “absolutely” support a national ban on transgender surgery for minors, calling the Texas law he voted against “overly broad.” Voters can decide whether that is growth or a makeover.

Then and now: Talarico’s record next to his campaign

Critics say the shift is a campaign costume. The strongest evidence for that claim came from inside his own church. In undercover footage released by The Daily Wire, Rev. Babs Miller, a chaplain at Talarico’s St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Austin, said: “I can guarantee you that once he gets elected, he’ll change his tune back to where he was.” Miller does not speak for the campaign, and the campaign did not respond to requests for comment. Readers can weigh the record themselves.

Issue	What Talarico said or did before	What he says on the 2026 campaign trail
Gender surgery for minors	Voted against SB 14 (2023). On the House floor: “I think this is about discriminating against people who are transgender.”	Would “absolutely” vote for a national ban. Calls SB 14 “overly broad” and says he backed an amendment limiting it to surgeries.
Girls’ sports	Called the 2021 sports bill a “manufactured problem” and voted against HB 25.	“I oppose trans athletes playing in girls’ sports if it endangers safety or fairness.” Yet in a Sept. 13 undercover video: “my position hasn’t changed.”
How many sexes	Previously said there are six sexes.	“There are not six sexes. There are two.”
God and gender	2021 House floor: “God is non-binary.”	“I was being provocative with that statement.”
Border security	Voted against: HB 9 (2021), $1.8 billion for border security, including $750 million for the border wall; HB 7 (2023), a state Border Protection Unit plus grants for border barriers and local police; SB 3 (2023), $1.54 billion for wall construction and border operations; SB 4 (2023), making illegal entry a state crime, with up to 20 years for repeat illegal reentry; SB 8 (2025), requiring sheriffs who run jails to join ICE’s 287(g) program.	Calls himself “a border security Democrat” and touts his bill funding X-ray inspection at ports of entry.
ICE	Quoted by CNN: “it is time to tear down the secret police force and replace it.”	Asked if he backs abolishing ICE: “No, and I never have.”
Voter ID	2021 interview: “I oppose voter ID.”	“As long as voter ID is fair, then I’m all for it.”
Oil and gas	Authored the 2021 Texas Climate Action Act: emissions at least 50% below 1990 levels by 2030, a cut of nearly 58% from 2024 levels, and 90% by 2050, enforced through declining emission caps with tradable allowances. The bill itself promised help for “workers and communities that may lose employment opportunities.” Oil and gas supports 1.4 million Texas jobs and paid $27 billion in state and local taxes and royalties.	Campaign ad: “fight for the good-paying oil and gas jobs that power our economy.”

Sources: Fox News (Sept. 2026), The Daily Wire (May 2023 floor debate; Sept. 13, 2026 video), The Daily Signal (July 16 and Oct. 15, 2026), Texas Public Radio (Oct. 15, 2026), Washington Free Beacon (Oct. 21, 2026), Office of the Governor (Dec. 18, 2023), KWTX (Sept. 17, 2021), Texas Tribune (May 10, 2023), High Plains Public Radio (Dec. 29, 2025), U.S. Energy Information Administration, Texas Oil & Gas Association, Texas Legislature bill text.

Photo: Element5 Digital / Unsplash

The bottom line

Neil Bush says character matters more than party. Character includes a record, and Talarico’s is public. The Express-News printed the praise. Texans deserve the record too. Early voting ends Oct. 30, and Election Day is Nov. 3.

Sources

Featured photo: Texas State Capitol, Justin Wallace / Unsplash.

Voting in Bexar County? See the 2026 Texas & Bexar County Voter Guide for candidate comparisons, early voting hours, mail ballot deadlines and voter ID rules.