PLANO, Texas - Talking about Jesus is pretty routine for Texans running for office. But usually not Democrats.

State Rep. James Talarico is changing the script, leaning into his background in a progressive Presbyterian seminary.

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It's a playbook that has helped propel his political career. Before he was the Democrats' hope to flip a Republican Senate seat in Texas, the state lawmaker often invoked the Bible to justify progressive policy positions in the Texas Capitol. Past floor speeches and sermons on abortion, gender equity and religious pluralism helped give him the online platform that launched his Senate run.

He is now making his faith a central part of his Senate campaign, telling voters "it's time to start flipping tables" and take back faith from the religious right - a reference to the biblical story of Jesus flipping over tables in the Temple of Jerusalem to purge merchants profiting off a house of worship. Talarico boils down his core message to two commandments from the Bible: Love God and love your neighbor.

His allies say Talarico's approach could help win over faith-based voters in the Bible Belt's largest state. But Talarico's past remarks regarding the Bible have infuriated some evangelical voters, and attacking Talarico's comments is now a regular part of his Republican opponent's stump speech.

"First of all, he said God is nonbinary. He also said, 'I'm a Christian, but I hate Christianity.' How many Christians do you know have said that?" Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) recently told an audience of supporters in North Texas. "I've never met one."

Talarico, 37, and Paxton, a 63-year-old staunch evangelical Trump ally, are engaged in a competitive general election race that could be pivotal in Democrats' attempt to retake control of the Senate.

Texas has not elected a Democratic senator in nearly four decades, but Democrats are optimistic, given Talarico's prodigious fundraising and novel campaign message, as well as Paxton's past of personal and legal scandals. Public polling has had the two candidates neck and neck for weeks.

Rep. Christian Menefee (D-Texas), a Talarico supporter who grew up in Baptist and nondenominational churches, said an appeal to faith could be a key ingredient to break the Democrats' drought. Talarico's openness about faith could attract Christian voters who have voted Republican in the past because they never saw Democrats address their faith publicly before, Menefee said.

"When James came onto the scene, and this was before this race, when he worked in the teachings of the Bible into some of his opposition to bills while he's at the state legislature, people immediately took notice," Menefee said. "Anybody who thinks that it won't play a role in this election has not spent much time in Texas."

Brooke Kemp, a schoolteacher from Arlington, Texas, said she resonated with Talarico's emphasis on biblical teachings of caring for others rather than some of the cultural issues that have motivated the state's religious right.

"He has it right," Kemp said. "I'm just practicing what Jesus told us is the tenets of my faith as a Methodist: Loving my neighbor, caring for others."

But conservative evangelicals have expressed dismay at Talarico's use of biblical text to justify positions they view as morally reprehensible.

Talarico has previously invoked the Annunciation, the biblical event when the archangel Gabriel told Mary that she would carry the baby Jesus, to justify abortion. Speaking on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast, Talarico claimed that God asked for Mary's consent before she became pregnant with Jesus.

He has also said during a 2021 legislative floor debate that "God is nonbinary" while opposing a bill barring trans children from participating in sports aligned with their self-identified gender. And Talarico said in 2021 that he was a Christian who hates Christianity in an expression of frustration with some elements of organized religion that peddle in Christian nationalism apart from teachings of Jesus.

"It is blasphemous," said Republican state Rep. Matt Shaheen, a deacon at the influential Prestonwood Baptist Church. Shaheen dismissed the idea that Talarico could convert evangelicals to voting Democratic as "naive," saying "if anything, it probably frustrates evangelicals" to see their faith misrepresented.

Talarico acknowledges that his progressive positions, particularly his stance on abortion, put him at odds with many voters of faith. But he asserts those disagreements shouldn't block Democrats from building coalitions with voters who are driven by the same Biblical tenets that drive his campaign.

"People of good faith can arrive at different moral conclusions," Talarico said on a podcast appearance last spring. Talarico noted that even though Pope Francis and Pope Leo XIV hold opposite views from him on abortion he still holds them as spiritual heroes.

He has also walked back some of his most provocative remarks, saying he regrets some of his comments that he said could be "cringy." He told CBS News that he called God nonbinary to emphasize that God can't be categorized in human terms and cited Galatians 3:28, which teaches that all are equal before God, regardless of nationality, gender or class.

The divergent takes on Talarico can be explained in part by differences between the mainline Protestantism he espouses and the evangelical Christianity that makes up a plurality of Christian voters in Texas.

Mainline Protestants tend to view faith as part of a pluralistic religious and social landscape that can adapt to the needs of the people it serves. Evangelicals recognize only one form of salvation - through Jesus - and the infallibility of the literal text of the Bible.

Roughly 67 percent of Texas adults identify as Christian, with roughly 27 percent identifying as evangelical, compared to only 10 percent identifying as mainline Protestant, according to Pew Research Center. Catholics make up about 22 percent of Texas adults, making them the second largest denomination in the state.

Evangelical voters have been some of the Republican coalition's most reliable supporters. Nearly 70 percent of White evangelicals nationally approve of President Donald Trump's performance, according to Pew.

Paxton identifies as an evangelical and has invoked his faith throughout his time in office as a major motivator for his conservative beliefs.

He and his wife were longtime members of the influential Prestonwood Baptist Church, and he worked at its pregnancy and family care center, which ministers to women while discouraging them from having abortions. He has also questioned the constitutionality of separating church and state and called for encouraging public school students to pray and read the Bible in school.

"Faith is the driver of my life, and so it animates everything that I do. It animates, hopefully, how I treat people," Paxton said. "I hope that when I'm in office, I'm thinking about what's best for my constituents and that in the end, I'm here to represent my neighbors and do the best thing I can for my neighbors because that's what my faith would ask me to do."

But Paxton has also had personal scandals that are at odds with church doctrine. Those include a spate of legal controversies, including alleged corruption involving an extramarital affair that led to his impeachment by the Texas House (he was later acquitted by the Senate). Paxton and his wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton, divorced in July of last year over alleged adultery.

Angela Paxton cited "biblical grounds" for the separation, writing in a social media: "I believe marriage is a sacred covenant and I have earnestly pursued reconciliation. But in light of recent discoveries, I do not believe that it honors God or is loving to myself, my children, or Ken to remain in the marriage."

Ken Paxton no longer attends Prestonwood Baptist Church, the sprawling North Texas megachurch where he and his wife attended together for years. When asked where Paxton now goes to church, his campaign said in a written response: "The Attorney General has been worshipping at churches in communities all across the state. Right now, our focus is on meeting Texans where they are and visiting churches throughout Texas as he continues to travel across the state."

Some of Paxton's evangelical supporters say forgiving lapses in judgment is easier than looking past fundamental disagreements on doctrine.

"I say, Here for the grace of God go I. There is nobody without a past," said Jennie Evans, a nondenominational Christian and Paxton supporter from Dallas, reflecting the core evangelical belief that humans are all equally sinners and in need of redemption. Evans said all elected leaders have fallen short personally, but she felt Paxton's core values still aligned with hers. Talarico's did not, she said.

When asked about Paxton's past conduct, Shannon Markle, another evangelical Paxton supporter from Dallas, quoted from Romans and II Corinthians and said: "No one runs for office that is a saint. No one. Every one of us is just jars of clay. Every one of us has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God."

But when asked about Talarico's interpretation of the Bible, she was much less receptive.

"I think it is blasphemous. I think he is ignorant. But I do think that he will be judged," Markle said. "We all will."