JD Vance attacked Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico during a rally in Tyler, Texas, on Wednesday. Vance joked, "I love you too sir. In a totally platonic way, to be clear. I'm the vice president, not James Talarico." This personal broadside shows the aggressive tone of this expensive midterm race.
Katie Rogers is a White House correspondent. She reported from Washington.
Almost from the moment James Talarico became the Democratic Senate nominee in Texas, the Republicans have circulated ads and attacks suggesting that he is not man enough, not Christian enough, not carnivorous enough -- not Texan enough -- to flip a conservative seat.
As the midterm elections approach and one of the most expensive races in history gets nastier by the day, the vice president has gone even further, joining the fray with a not-so-subtle joke criticized as homophobic.
During a visit to Tyler, Texas, on Wednesday, JD Vance opened a rally in support of the Republican nominee, Ken Paxton, by addressing a man in the crowd who expressed his admiration. "I love you too sir," Mr. Vance said. "In a totally platonic way, to be clear. I'm the vice president, not James Talarico."
He paused for effect, smiling as he waited for applause.
A common view of Mr. Vance is that he is a chameleon, capable of quickly toggling from sharp-edged attacks to common-sense statesmanship at a moment's notice, depending on what he needs. His claim about the sexuality of Mr. Talarico, who Democrats believe represents their best hope of winning a Senate seat in Texas in decades, shows the kind of personal broadsides that Mr. Vance embraces in a tough campaign environment.
Mr. Vance, who just published a book about his conversion to Catholicism, has for weeks been road-testing unfounded, innuendo-based salvos against Mr. Talarico, a Presbyterian seminarian. At the Republicans' midterm convention in Dallas last month, the vice president suggested that Mr. Talarico's past support for transgender children was evidence of inappropriate behavior.