Texas state representative James Talarico won a searing primary to become the state’s Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, the Associated Press projected early Wednesday, leveraging a scripture-fueled message of political unity that he says will help him flip the country’s largest red state.
He defeated Rep. Jasmine Crockett, whose brash, unfiltered style has made her a viral antagonist to President Donald Trump, in a clash of styles that was emblematic of a broader debate among Democrats over how to approach this year’s midterm elections.
Now, Talarico, a Presbyterian seminarian who hopes to reach moderates and even disaffected Republicans, will bring his “politics of love” to the general election — and to Democrats’ long-elusive goal of winning statewide in Texas.
He will face either incumbent Sen. John Cornyn or Ken Paxton, the state’s scandal-plagued, MAGA-backed attorney general. They were locked in an equally bruising primary contest on the Republican side with Rep. Wesley Hunt and are now headed for a runoff in May.
The race between Talarico and Crockett presented more of a contrast in style than ideology.
Crockett, 44, said the party, the country and especially Black women like herself needed to fight back against MAGA with equally combative terms and tactics. The 36-year-old Talarico, meanwhile, emphasized the need to win people over by engaging them on religion and cultural topics that other Democrats have largely ceded to conservatives.
Both candidates criticized Trump’s crackdown on immigration and bemoaned the rising cost of housing and daily essentials. And both amassed large social media followings with their energetic, youthful styles — but differed sharply in how they pitched themselves.
Their race encapsulated a widening debate within the Democratic Party — over whether it makes sense to try to mobilize loyal Democrats and liberals or try to appeal to Republicans — and also took on some racial overtones.
Some voters and politicos said Talarico, a White man, would be better positioned to win a red state like Texas. But Crockett — and plenty of her online supporters — said that such assertions amounted to a “dog whistle” meant to demean her as a Black woman.
She also blasted Talarico over allegations that he privately referred to former congressman Colin Allred, who at one point was also a candidate in the Democratic primary for Senate, as a “mediocre Black man.” (Talarico denied criticizing him based on his race.)
Enthusiasm for both candidates led to a surge in early voting and increased turnout for the primary. More than 2.4 million people in Texas — or 13 percent of the state’s registered voters — cast ballots in the Democratic primary in total, surpassing every Texas Democratic primary since 2008.
Talarico, a third-term state representative, drew national buzz as he spoke about reclaiming Christianity from the Republicans he says have weaponized religion and touted his appeal among swing and red-leaning voters: He won a mostly White state House district in 2018, even as the Republican governor also carried it.
Quoting a mix of scripture, Bad Bunny and folk singer John Prine, he also tried to lean on a message of economic populism, telling voters at rallies: “It’s not about left versus right. It’s about top versus bottom.”
Talarico started the race with a lower statewide profile, but managed to far out-raise and out-spend his opponent. His campaign drew a boost of national headlines in late February, when CBS late-night host Stephen Colbert rebuked the network’s lawyers for allegedly prohibited him from airing an interview with the candidate.
Talarico netted $20.7 million from 13,000 individual contributors, about two-thirds of whom live in Texas, according to campaign finance reports through Feb. 11.
Crockett, by comparison, received $8.6 million, including more than half of it transferred from her congressional campaign. She received donations from about 3,600 individual donors, a quarter of whom live in Texas.
They faced similar scrutiny from party activists over their campaign coffers: Crockett took heat from the left for taking donations from cryptocurrency and other industries in past campaigns, while Talarico drew scrutiny for donations linked to Miriam Adelson, a casino magnate.
Crockett, a second-term congresswoman from a majority-Black and Hispanic district in Dallas, leaned on her biography as the daughter of a preacher and her experience as a public defender and criminal defense attorney.
She said her polarizing, unfiltered style and viral sound bites were key to reaching out to less-engaged voters and pushed back on what she called “mythical Republican crossover” and said voters would respect her as a truth-teller.
Crockett expressed concern that confusion over new voting rules had caused Democratic voters to be turned away from polling sites in Dallas County, her home base, and might impact her standings — an issue that led to extended polling hours there and now stands to be litigated.
Mariana Alfaro, Liz Goodwin and Clara Ence Morse contributed to this report.
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