James Talarico stood on the Texas House floor and declared that God is nonbinary.
A young Texas woman who lost both breasts to gender surgery wanted to look him in the eye on live television.
CNN slammed the door the night before, and her question went straight at the one gap in his new position.
Soren Aldaco Was 19 When a Therapist's Letter Cleared Her for a Double Mastectomy
Her name is Soren Aldaco.
She took testosterone for a time and underwent a double mastectomy at 19 so she could look like a man.
She says the trouble started years earlier, when she was about 11 and adult strangers found her in online chat rooms.
"I was sexually groomed by adult strangers who used my love for art against me," Aldaco told Fox News Digital.
She also alleges a nurse practitioner started her on testosterone without ever checking that her legal guardian had signed off.
Her lawsuit says the therapist's letter told surgeons she had already lived as a male for a full year – a claim Aldaco says was false.
Lower courts tossed the case over the filing deadline before she ever got to argue the facts.
The Texas Supreme Court revived it in late June 2026, clearing her to take the therapist and the counseling provider to court.
That is the woman who wanted a seat at CNN's October 14 town hall with Talarico, the Democrat running for Senate in Texas.
The event was a joint production of CNN and Jubilee Media, with Erin Burnett moderating.
Aldaco told Katie Miller on The Katie Miller Podcast that her team worked to get her into that room.
CNN waited until the evening before the broadcast to answer, she said, and the answer was no.
She wanted what she called "a long-form conversation, a real face-to-face with someone like me."
She never got it.
None of the reports include a single word of explanation from CNN.
Talarico Fought the Texas Ban Then Raised Money With a Surgeon Who Operated On Minors
Aldaco knows exactly who she was trying to reach.
She says her attempts to reach Talarico stretched across four years, two legislative sessions and five separate bills.
In 2023, Talarico voted against SB 14, the Texas law barring gender surgeries, puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones for minors.
He said the ban "infuriates me."
Then the Senate race got serious, and so did the makeover.
In June, days after telling a podcast he opposed those surgeries for kids, Talarico joined a Pride for Talarico fundraiser in Austin featuring Dr. Dustin Reid.
Reid performed female-to-male top surgeries on minors before Texas outlawed them.
The Human Rights Campaign's political action committee, which endorsed Talarico, joined that fundraiser too.
Asked by Fox News in September whether he would vote for a national ban on surgeries for minors, Talarico said, "Absolutely."
At the CNN town hall, an audience member challenged him on backing a ban that covers the scalpel but not puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones.
Testosterone was part of Aldaco's path, too.
Her story sits right in that gap.
Even a paid Texas Democrat operative doubts the conversion is real.
Caught on undercover video by The Daily Wire, Texas Democratic Party manager Jennifer Miranda said Talarico "does believe the things that he's said before."
In her telling, the new Talarico is a pitch to win over Republicans and nothing more.
Talarico's explanation for the old comments is that he was just trying to be provocative.
A Detransitioner Is the One Voter Talarico Cannot Afford to Face
CNN let a Republican voter quiz Talarico on whether the Bible is the absolute source of truth, and he had his answer ready.
He has rehearsed the nonbinary God line, the Bible line and the missed-the-mark line until they roll off his tongue.
No amount of practice gets him around Aldaco.
She is a young woman with a body she cannot get back, a revived lawsuit and a medical history no talking point can spin.
A candidate who truly changed his mind would welcome that conversation.
A network that believed in hard questions would have put her in the front row.
Every parent who has watched a confused teenager get fast-tracked toward hormones deserved to hear that exchange.
Instead, CNN handed Talarico a friendly room on national television and turned away the woman best positioned to expose the flip-flop.
CNN did not protect its viewers from a hard question – it protected a Democrat from someone who lived through the kind of medicine he fought to keep legal for minors.
Sources:
- Misty Severi and Greg Piper, "Ex-Transgender Woman Says CNN Town Hall Organizers Banned Her From Talarico Event," Just the News, October 27, 2026.
- Tim Graham, "Texas Detransitioner: CNN Wouldn't Let Me In to Question Talarico at His Town Hall," NewsBusters, October 27, 2026.
- Elizabeth Heckman, "Texas Detransitioner Shares How Doctors and Internet 'Cosplay' Groomed Her Into Permanent Surgery," Fox News, March 28, 2026.
- Ashley Bateman, "Disfigured Texas Woman Allowed to Sue Therapist for Transgender Medicine Fraud," The Federalist, July 9, 2026.
- Brooke Taylor and Peter Pinedo, "Talarico Says He 'Missed the Mark' as He Backtracks on Controversial Woke Statements," Fox News, September 9, 2026.
- Peter Pinedo, "Talarico Campaigns With Surgeon Who Operated on Transgender Minors," Fox News, July 7, 2026.
- Jacob Wheeler, "Exclusive: Undercover Video Exposes Talarico's Transgender Flip-Flop," The Daily Wire, September 10, 2026.
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