Democrat Railroad Commission candidate Jon Rosenthal said he would support allowing groups such as the Satanic Temple to participate in prayers before the Texas Legislature, according to unearthed audio from 2018.
Rosenthal, who was running for the Texas House at the time, made the comments during an interview with The Trans Advocate while discussing religion and government.
Asked what he thought about prayers before the Texas Legislature, Rosenthal said he did not have a problem with the practice, provided lawmakers were willing to allow different religions to participate.
“I don’t care if someone wants to have a prayer in front of the service,” said Rosenthal. “But I think if you want to do that, you pretty much have to include everybody, right?”
Rosenthal then suggested that lawmakers who supported a Catholic prayer should also be willing to allow a Wiccan to participate.
When one of the hosts offered the Satanic Temple as another example, Rosenthal agreed.
“Yeah, whatever,” Rosenthal responded. “Then as long as you’re fine with everyone taking their turn at this, then I’m down for that.”
UNEARTHED AUDIO: Democrat Railroad Commission candidate Jon Rosenthal said he was “down” with allowing the Satanic Temple to lead prayers in the Texas Legislature https://t.co/QVYp6WGZGF
— Brandon Waltens (@bwaltens) October 8, 2026
The hosts noted that accommodating every religion could be difficult during the Texas Legislature’s 140-day regular session.
Rosenthal suggested lawmakers could rotate through different religions.
“You could slate one for each day and just go through a rotation,” he said.
The discussion came shortly after Rosenthal described himself as a “non-religious agnostic” and criticized conservatives who opposed Sharia law while supporting government policies influenced by Christianity.
“These are the same people that scream about Sharia law being a problem and they want—they’re basically the Christian Taliban,” Rosenthal said.
Rosenthal went on to win election to the Texas House later that year, where he represented House District 135.
He is now the Democrats’ nominee for the Texas Railroad Commission, facing Republican Bo French in the November election.
The comments are the latest remarks from Rosenthal’s 2018 interview to resurface. Elsewhere in the discussion, Rosenthal said he would be “pretty cool” with getting naked at an LGBT Pride parade if he were in better shape.
Rosenthal’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment before publication.
