Kathrine Frich
His comments did not go over well.
Campaign rallies often get loud as election day approaches.
Politicians on the trail love trading sharp jabs to fire up their crowds.
On Tuesday, though, one off-the-cuff remark at a podium quickly crossed a line for critics online.
Schoolyard jabs in Texas
Vice President JD Vance sparked intense backlash during a midterm rally in Tyler, Texas, after using an anti-gay joke to target Texas Senate Democratic nominee James Talarico. According to HuffPost, the moment started when someone in the crowd shouted out to him from the floor.
“I love you, too, sir,” Vance replied from the stage, before adding, “In a totally platonic way, to be clear.” Then came the punchline aimed at the Democrat: “I’m the vice president, not James Talarico.”
HuffPost noted that the dig echoed the old 1990s slang “no homo” and fits a broader pattern of anti-LGBTQ attacks against the Texas lawmaker.
Previously, Vance has used the nickname “Talafreako” and suggested Talarico is a “freak” or a pedophile for backing transgender youth and drag performers, even though Vance once dressed in drag himself.
The rally took place less than a day after The Wall Street Journal revealed that Talarico’s Republican rival, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, partied in Dubai with fugitives wanted by American authorities for alleged embezzlement and healthcare fraud. Vance skipped right past that scandal during his speech, HuffPost reported, even as Paxton falls behind Talarico in a growing number of polls.
Swift backlash online
Across social media, journalists and commentators wasted no time tearing into the vice president’s remarks.
Reason reporter Billy Binion wrote on X: “I remain amazed and mystified that some of the most powerful people in the world think ‘James Talarico seems gay!!’ is a compelling critique. I bet it goes so hard with JD Vance’s 9-year-old. It’s so desperate and small.”
Other observers compared the vice president to a teenager. Zeeshan Aleem, a political columnist and editor at MS NOW, posted: “VP says ‘no homo’ and calls a candidate gay as a joke. We’re in high school, maybe middle school.”
Former quiz show champion Hemant Mehta also weighed in on the attack, HuffPost reported. “Talarico is straight and has a girlfriend. Vance is just an asshole,” Mehta wrote, while other online critics called the rhetoric “beyond disgusting.”
Professor and policy consultant Adam Cochran summed up the wider dismay on social media after watching the video clip. “…The Vice President of the United States… in 2026…Trying to insult a Senate candidate…by implying he is gay,” Cochran wrote, adding, “How terribly far we have fallen as a nation.”
