Image - Pete Alexopoulos
Rep. James Talarico won the Texas Senate Democratic Primary election on the 3rd of March, gaining a whopping 1,212,602 votes , 53.2% of the overall vote, compared to Rep. Jasmine Crockett who lost with 1,068,457 votes. Even though Democratic primary voter turnout for the U.S Senate was higher than their Republican counterparts, Talarico still has a long way to go to win a senate seat in the GOP stronghold. However, luckily, he will probably be the one to do this instead of Crockett, who arguably had less of a chance at doing so.
The two Democratic contenders have a relatively similar policy platform, like expanding healthcare, increasing the minimum wage and both advocating for increased renewable energy, however a slightly different view between them is their support for Israel. To clarify, they are both against offensive weapon sales, promote two-state solutions, and place blame on the Netanyahu government instead of Israel itself, which is a let-down. Regardless, Crockett took a $24,649.57 trip to Israel, paid for by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee non-profit wing, the American Israel Education Foundation, and has voted for further funding for Israel. Disappointingly, the current Presbyterian seminarian is not entirely scot-free; he voted to implement the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliances definition of antisemitism in education, which includes criticism of the state of Israel, limiting free speech for those who speak out against the country that has committed multiple international human rights violations.
Back to their campaign, the way they both promoted their ideas to voters was entirely different, and was a clear reason why Talarico won. One of Crockett's campaign videos consisted of her sitting down whilst looking upwards in what could be said in a strong, courageous manner as audio snippets of Trump speaking ill of her are playing. The vision of portraying her as someone who would stand up to the US President who was mentioned 5,300 times in the Epstein files was… kind of there, but who could decipher that video and actually know what she stands for?
Comparing the weak and confusing campaign video to one of Talarico’s, giving a speech to a crowd of people, immediately starting it off with what he believes, “The biggest divide in our country is not left vs right, it’s top vs bottom. Billionaires want us looking left and right so that we’re not looking up and down at them”. Even though this was only 14 seconds in out of a 2 minute and 58 second video, you already know what he thinks about wealth inequality. And positioning the issue as politically ‘neutral’ is a brilliant way of attracting Republican voters who acknowledge the problem but may unfortunately be anxious of being labelled as left wing. In a state like Texas where 67% of people are Christian, Talarico weaves progressive-Christianity into his messaging, focusing on the two central commandments to Love God and Love thy Neighbour, and fighting against Christian Nationalism, saying it is against Jesus’ life and teachings. He also makes the case that the bible does not punish abortion, saying that in the Book of Luke, Mary, mother of Jesus, was asked by an angel if she wants to carry Jesus, stating that creation must be done with consent, along with the issue of abortion is not rooted in the scripture. This type of progressive-Christian messaging allows more voters to build a rapport by relating him which boosts his chances at winning the Senate seat, evidently seen when he pulled in a massive crowd in Lubbock county where Trump got over 60% of the vote in 2024.
Attracting Republican voters, who are more likely to be Christian, and who are dissatisfied with Trump's performance as President so far, will be the only way to win a Senate seat in Texas, instead of saying “no we don’t, we don’t need to do” in a state where he won by 14% in 2024. Crockett instead wants to “engage people who have been historically not been talked to, because there’s so many people that get ignored specifically in the state of Texas, the state of Texas is 61% people of colour, we have a lot of good folk we can talk to”. While her heart is in the right place, describing Latino voters anti-immigrant attitudes as “slave mentality” in a state where they (and Hispanics) make up 39.3% of the population is a peculiar way to engage people who have not been historically talked to and only pushes away more people.
To add insult to injury, a member of her team kicked out a reporter from the Atlantic at her campaign event, claiming that she is a “top notch hater and will spin [the event]”, and rather than owning up to it, she lied that the reporter was never kicked out. Another embarrassing moment was when she blamed Republicans for rigging the Senate primary election, despite the GOP claiming that they would prefer to run against her. One of Talarico’s embarrassing moments, which is nothing compared to Crockett’s, is when he was caught following Onlyfans models on Instagram… did the world end? His team responded, saying that “the social media team – including James – follows back and engages with supporters who have large followings and does not investigate their backgrounds”, a professional response that doesn’t shy away from what was said, unlike the former civil rights attorneys.
Nevertheless, these are not my preferred candidates, foreign affairs wise. They were both able to turn out more voters in the primaries than Republicans. The way they both spread their message and acted during election season has most definitely played a huge role in Talarico's success, and will hopefully lead to him winning one of the thirty-three seats that are available in 2026 to flip the Senate blue.
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