You had liberal California Gov. Gavin Newsom expressing his sadness, as well as Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who called Kirk “a friend” in a post on X. President Donald Trump was one of the first, if not the first, to break the news that Kirk had died following the shooting on a Utah college campus.
Few elected officials were quicker, or more passionate in their emotional postings, than Texas Rep. Jeff Leach of Collin County.
“Today is one of the darkest days in American history as Charlie Kirk — a decent, kind, strong and Godly man … a true Patriot — is gunned down and assassinated in cold blood,” read one of Leach’s several Kirk-related posts and re-posts on X Wednesday afternoon.
But for the conservative legislator whose district includes parts of McKinney, Allen, Plano, Princeton and more, not all elected officials were quick enough to slap together a tweet about the day’s top headline. On Wednesday evening, Leach took aim at James Talarico, the Democratic state representative from the Austin area who recently announced his intention to run for the U.S. Senate seat occupied by John Cornyn.
Hours have gone by since Charlie Kirk’s assassination and not a peep on this platform from the Democrats’ golden boy, James Talarico. Tells you all you need to know about who he is.
— Jeff Leach (@leachfortexas) September 11, 2025
In the fight for the future of America, I’d rather have one Charlie Kirk by my side than one… https://t.co/jD7Dw4LgPo
"Hours have gone by since Charlie Kirk’s assassination and not a peep on this platform from the Democrats’ golden boy, James Talarico. Tells you all you need to know about who he is,” Leach wrote over a reposted video of a Talarico speech from August. “In the fight for the future of America, I’d rather have one Charlie Kirk by my side than one hundred James Talaricos any day.”
It’s worth noting here that Talarico had made comments regarding Kirk’s death during interviews on Wednesday, before posting to X shortly after Leach's inquiry. “I disagreed with Charlie Kirk on nearly every political issue — but he was a child of God," Talarico wrote. "He was our sibling. Our brother. A human being endowed with infinite worth. Political violence has no place in America.”
Seems Leach likes his colleagues to be as passionate about social media posturing as he might be. At least that was the case when a noted conservative leader was the victim of political violence. But intriguingly enough, Leach, who famously, or infamously, depending on which side of the recent Texas GOP civil war you stand on, voted to impeach Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in 2023 in part due to his own Christian convictions, hasn't always seemed to be so passionate about taking to X to denounce political violence.
We’re as shocked as you surely are.
One only has to scroll back a short time on Leach’s X feed to see that, going by the standard he applied to Talarico on Wednesday, he must not have been eager to condemn political violence as recently as June 14. That’s the day that authorities say 57-year-old Vance Boelter, an outspoken conservative minister and former student at Christ for Nations in Dallas, shot and killed former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband. Boulter also allegedly shot Minnesota state Sen John Huffman and his wife the same day.
On June 14, Leach didn’t post anything about Hortman’s death or Huffman’s injuries. His Minnesota counterparts didn’t even get a #ThoughtsAndPrayers from the man who has since become arguably North Texas’ staunchest social media warrior against political violence. Tweet it or it didn’t happen, after all.
Instead of Ts and Ps, Leach wished the U.S. Army a happy 250th birthday on June 14. On June 15, Father’s Day, he gave his fellow dads a shout-out and then was silent on X until June 19, when he “paused to reflect” for Juneteenth.
We think a politician can be for or against any number of things without perfunctorily, performatively posting about it on X. As wild as that may sound to some, we are pretty sure that a tweet offering vibes, thoughts, prayers or even cookies doesn’t matter much. But we definitely like our elected officials to be decidedly anti-political violence, and Leach seems to have a guideline for how to best show that one is indeed against political opponents being murdered in cold blood, even if he didn't have that same energy three months ago.
Guess it’s good to know that, at least now, and when people from his own party are concerned, Jeff Leach has finally seen the light.
