Let me tell you something about political instincts. When a candidate gets asked a question at a campaign event, there’s usually a pause, a moment of calculation. Not with James Talarico, the Democratic nominee running for Texas Senate. Ask him about his favorite drag queen and he doesn’t even blink. “Oh my gosh, probably Alyssa Edwards,” he said with a smile that suggested he’d been waiting for someone to ask.
You know what’s remarkable here? It’s not just that he had an answer ready. It’s who he chose to celebrate. Alyssa Edwards is the stage name of Justin Dwayne Lee Johnson, a Texas performer who’s built an entire career around working with children. He owns Beyond Belief Dance Company, where he trains kids. He starred in Netflix’s “Dancing Queen,” which documented his mentorship of young dancers. And he’s been remarkably candid about incorporating children into his drag performances.
The video of Talarico’s response is making rounds on social media, and it’s drawn attention from some pretty notable figures. Stephen Miller, the White House Deputy Chief of Staff, didn’t mince words when he weighed in on the exchange. The faith and gender issues swirling around Talarico’s race against Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton just got a whole lot more concrete.
Here’s where things get uncomfortable for anyone paying attention. In clips from the Netflix series, Johnson refers to a young boy as his “mini-me” while grooming him into becoming a child drag queen. Let that sink in for a second. A nine-year-old child being shaped into a performer for adult entertainment venues. Johnson’s own words betray how normalized this has become in his world. “JJ’s got it all,” he said about the boy, comparing him to his younger self in ways that should make any parent’s skin crawl.
Johnson hasn’t tried to hide what he does. In a 2023 interview with Out magazine, he described himself as “a drag performer that works with children” and actually blushed while talking about sharing stages with minors. He bragged about performing at World Pride in New York with his dance students, calling it one of the most powerful moments of his life. The man takes pride in this. He sees himself as a mentor, a role model for what he calls “the youth of today that will be the future of tomorrow.”
But let’s talk about what mentorship actually means. Traditional mentorship involves teaching skills, building character, instilling values that help young people navigate life’s challenges. It doesn’t typically involve putting children in sexually provocative costumes and parading them in front of adults at venues known for late-night cabaret entertainment. Johnson has deep ties to the Rose Room, a Dallas drag venue where he first performed and later brought his young students to perform alongside him.
The broader cultural battle here isn’t subtle. Johnson himself acknowledged the shift when he told Out magazine that drag has “made it” because performances now happen during Sunday church hours, not just at midnight in underground theaters. “We’re now mainstream, we’re now in the White House,” he said. That’s not an accident. It’s a deliberate cultural repositioning, and Talarico’s enthusiastic endorsement reveals exactly which side of that battle he’s chosen.
What makes Talarico’s quick answer particularly telling is his history. Back in 2023, he actively opposed Texas legislation designed to regulate sexually explicit performances around minors. He argued the law would harm drag performers and praised Texas for having “some of the best drag queens in the nation.” That’s not a politician trying to thread a needle. That’s someone all in on an ideology that prioritizes adult expression over child protection.
This isn’t about consenting adults doing what they want in appropriate venues. Nobody’s arguing against that. This is about a political candidate who, when given the chance to name any performer in Texas, immediately chose someone whose entire brand involves mentoring children into the drag world. The choice reveals priorities. It shows what Talarico thinks is worth celebrating, worth defending, worth promoting to voters in a statewide race.
Texas families deserve representatives who understand that childhood is sacred, that there are boundaries adults shouldn’t cross no matter how mainstream the culture tries to make certain behaviors. Talarico’s instant embrace of Johnson as his favorite drag queen isn’t a gaffe. It’s a window into his values, and Texans should look through it carefully before November.
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