2026-03-04T16:42:57.600Z / 美国有线电视新闻网（CNN）
詹姆斯·塔拉利科提出的“大帐篷”式“爱的政治”，正重新点燃民主党人的信念：今年或许是他们最终翻转得克萨斯州的关键一年。
塔拉利科出生于1989年，恰是得克萨斯州将最后一位民主党人送入美国参议院的第二年。他认为，在一个双方都被最响亮声音主导的政治环境中，人们对他所倡导的经济民粹主义以及基于爱而非仇恨的政策，有着更广泛的需求。
“抵抗从这里开始，通过拒绝模仿我们周围所有的仇恨、暴力和非人道行为，”塔拉利科在给选民的最终竞选宣言中表示，“一点点希望是件危险的事情。”
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这位36岁的州众议员和准长老会牧师，在激烈的参议院初选中击败了美国众议员贾斯敏·克罗基特。克罗基特是一位好斗的政客，她在11月的选举策略是动员那些不常投票但倾向民主党的选民，而非争取独立派和温和派共和党人。许多希望支持四届连任的现任参议员约翰·科宁的全国共和党人，一直认为塔拉利科是两位对手中更强的一位。
随着中期选举季第一场主要初选的落幕，全国民主党人正寻求从这场党内初选中获得指导或方向。塔拉利科表示，他认为民主党必须直面唐纳德·特朗普总统，但不能被他所吞噬。他的命运是否会上升或下降，将取决于特朗普是否会介入共和党决选，支持科宁或得克萨斯州总检察长肯·帕克斯顿，这一前提将面临新的考验。
“政治之所以糟糕，不是因为任何一个政客——而是制度本身，”塔拉利科在胜选前的一次采访中表示，“如果我们都只关注个人，试图摆脱体制中的个别人员，我们将看不到根本问题。”
塔拉利科的胜利之路，建立在像本·艾伦这样的选民坚定不移（或许有些出人意料）的支持之上。艾伦在竞选活动的最后几天，在得克萨斯州东部城市泰勒见到了这位候选人。
48岁的艾伦自愿表示，多年来他很少投票，因为他认为大多数政客都一样。但他被塔拉利科的言论和行事风格所吸引。
当被问及最喜欢塔拉利科的哪一点时，艾伦没有停顿思考，而是脱口而出：“真实性。”
“这是第一次，感觉我们有了一个真正的候选人，一个他说什么你就信什么的人，”艾伦说，“他不是在对你阿谀奉承，他是真诚的。”
自去年在《乔·罗根体验秀》（The Joe Rogan Experience）上亮相以来，塔拉利科声名鹊起。当时，这位美国最受欢迎的播客主持人之一（同时也是特朗普的支持者）表示：“你应该竞选总统！”
在停顿大笑之后，罗根明确表示他的赞赏是真诚的：“我们需要一个真正善良的人。”
塔拉利科曾是一名公立学校教师，2018年通过特别选举成为得克萨斯州议会最年轻的成员。他在立法期间加入神学院，追随祖父——一位长老会牧师的脚步，目前仍在神学院休假。
让塔拉利科获得罗根节目邀请的，是他在得克萨斯州议会大厦地板上的精彩表现——包括一次抨击要求在得克萨斯州教室展示《十诫》法案的演讲。他在演讲中说：“我们没有提出一项能让饥饿者饱腹、让赤身者蔽体、让病者康复的法案，反而强制人们张贴一张海报。”
在一次采访中，塔拉利科承认，他柔和的语调可能会让一些迫切希望对抗特朗普政府的美国人觉得他天真。
当被问及他是否认为选民在寻找疗愈者而非斗士时，他给出了一个现成的答案。
“我认为最好的战斗方式是团结，”塔拉利科上周在大学城接受美国有线电视新闻网（CNN）采访时表示，“我知道如何做到这两点。”
曾几何时，一些得克萨斯州民主党人梦想着完全避免一场激烈的初选。
帕克斯顿进入共和党初选，让雄心勃勃的民主党人看到了与一位深受保守派喜爱但甚至许多共和党人都担心会疏远温和派和独立派的人物竞争参议院席位的前景。帕克斯顿曾被共和党控制的州议会以腐败指控弹劾，并且正在经历离婚——他的妻子，一名州参议员，指控他不忠。
四位潜在的民主党候选人——塔拉利科、前美国众议员贝托·奥罗克、前美国众议员华金·卡斯特罗和前美国众议员科林·奥尔德，后者在2024年参议院竞选中以8.4个百分点的差距落败——去年春天在Zoom上召开会议，讨论共同推出一份涵盖11月选票上所有州级职位的统一候选人名单，而非所有人都参与同一场参议院竞选。奥罗克在2018年以2.6个百分点的微弱差距败北，这是得克萨斯州民主党人近一代人来最接近赢得参议院席位的一次。他认为，八年前其他竞选的民主党候选人阵容更强，本可以帮助他获胜。
但参议院竞选显然更具吸引力。民主党人认为帕克斯顿看起来很脆弱，而在2022年以压倒性优势击败奥罗克的格雷格·阿博特，在2026年寻求第四任州长时，拥有巨大的资金优势。
“理想情况下，如果你想设计出最有可能获胜的方案，你会让每个职位都有强大且资金充足的候选人，”卡斯特罗在11月的得克萨斯论坛节上表示，“这是我的希望，我们本可以推出完整的候选人阵容，但最终未能实现。”
阿尔德是第一个在7月发起参议院竞选的民主党人。塔拉利科在9月加入了竞选。
但12月的初选中发生了重大变动：就在同一天，克罗基特宣布参选，而阿尔德退出竞选，转而竞选他之前的众议院席位（阿尔德在初选中领先于继任者朱莉·约翰逊，但因未获得多数票，该席位将进入决选）。
在竞选前，克罗基特曾向前副总统卡玛拉·哈里斯寻求建议，她以多年来与共和党激烈冲突中建立的高知名度进入竞选。
“人们可以冒险选择一个声称会战斗的人，或者选择一个已被证明的斗士，”克罗基特在上个月与宗教领袖的早餐会上表示。
44岁的克罗基特最初从事公设辩护律师工作，后来开设了自己的律师事务所，处理人身伤害和民权案件，包括代表被逮捕的“黑人的命也是命”抗议者。
她于2020年当选得克萨斯州众议院议员，两年后赢得了前众议员埃迪·伯妮斯·约翰逊的席位。约翰逊退休并支持了克罗基特。
在国会山，克罗基特很快以其直率、尖锐的俏皮话赢得了声誉——以及全国民主党人的追随。
2024年5月，在众议院监督委员会听证会上，她与当时的佐治亚州共和党众议员玛乔丽·泰勒·格林发生冲突。格林对克罗基特说：“你的假睫毛在干扰你阅读。”
民主党人迅速反驳称，这是对她的人身攻击，违反了委员会的规定。克罗基特转向委员会主席、肯塔基州众议员詹姆斯·科默，问道：“如果委员会中的某个人开始谈论别人的漂白金发、糟糕的身材，那也不是在针对个人，对吧？”
特朗普多次称克罗基特为“低智商”。在采访和社交媒体上，克罗基特也毫不留情。
她曾称特朗普为“刻薄疯狂的芒果人”、“逃避兵役的傻瓜”和“普京的傀儡”。
在2024年民主党全国代表大会上，克罗基特获得了在大会第一天发表演讲的重要机会，为党内候选人造势。
她回忆了哈里斯在她国会生涯初期挣扎时“为她拭泪并倾听”的场景。
近两年后，哈里斯回馈了这份善意——录制了一条自动语音电话，称克罗基特“有能力和记录来追究唐纳德·特朗普及其亿万富翁同伙的责任”。
克罗基特充满激情的言论历史，引发了人们对她在深红州得克萨斯州赢得大选的能力的质疑。
她称这些攻击是“隐晦的种族主义信号”和“对黑人女性的贬低”。
“过去30年，我们尝试了传统的方法，但没有奏效。而‘疯狂’的定义就是一遍又一遍地做同样的事情，”克罗基特在得克萨斯州康罗的一次活动后告诉美国有线电视新闻网（CNN），“在这个时刻，我们的政府运作方式已经没有什么传统可言，所以我认为人们正在寻求不同的东西。”
来自康罗的克罗基特支持者瑞秋·沃克在初选之夜前表示，她相信这位国会议员比塔拉利科在11月有更好的获胜机会，理由是她能吸引新选民，包括年轻人。
“如果我们想鼓励人们出来投票，我认为我们需要一个像这样有坚定价值观且大胆的候选人，”沃克说，“我们一次次推出相同类型的候选人，却期望在得克萨斯州获得好结果，这根本不起作用。”
来自斯普林的克罗基特支持者艾普丽尔·英曼承认，这位国会议员在11月获胜可能会“很艰难”，称她面临着与其他寻求更高职位的女性类似的困境。
“这会很艰难，因为作为一个国家，我们还没有准备好接受强大的女性。当希拉里·克林顿竞选总统时，这一点很明显；卡玛拉·哈里斯竞选时，也是如此，”她说，“但我们必须继续奋斗，不断前进。”
这场短暂的正面交锋中的一个关键时刻发生在2月初，政治内容创作者摩根·汤普森发布了一段TikTok视频，指控塔拉利科在1月份告诉她，他将竞选的是“一个平庸的黑人男性”（阿尔德），而非“一个强大、聪明的黑人女性”（克罗基特）。
塔拉利科否认了这一指控，称他指的是阿尔德的竞选活动平庸，而非阿尔德本人。
阿尔德随后发布了一段支持克罗基特的视频，称：“我们受够了人们用赞美黑人女性来掩饰对黑人男性的批评。这对我们的社区没有好处。”
阿尔德还抨击塔拉利科在竞选活动中经常提及自己的宗教信仰。
“你不必为民主党或左翼保留宗教，我们已经有了参议员兼牧师拉斐尔·沃诺克博士来做这件事，”阿尔德说，指的是佐治亚州参议员，“我们不需要你，你说的没什么新意。”
这一后果非常明显，在社交媒体上迅速发酵，并在2月17日提前投票开始前几天的竞选报道中占据主导地位。
此后不久，塔拉利科因美国哥伦比亚广播公司（CBS）深夜主持人斯蒂芬·科尔伯特的采访而备受关注。科尔伯特表示，他已录制了与塔拉利科的采访，但CBS律师在播出前进行了干预，担心其他民主党候选人也需要获得平等的曝光时间。
取而代之的是，科尔伯特将采访发布到了YouTube上——此后该视频已获得900万次观看，远超科尔伯特电视节目的观众人数。该视频还在其他社交媒体平台上广泛传播。
“这是唐纳德·特朗普不希望你看到的采访，”塔拉利科在社交媒体上发布采访片段时吹嘘道。
他的竞选团队表示，在这场风波后的24小时内，他筹集了超过250万美元。
克罗基特的支持基础在达拉斯县，该县是该州第二大人口县，拥有大量黑人人口。
今年投票规则的变化，让该县的一些选民不确定周二该去哪里投票。一名法官下令投票站多开放两小时，但得克萨斯州最高法院后来暂时阻止了这一命令。
“我现在可以说，人们被剥夺了选举权，”克罗基特在她的选举夜派对上说。
达拉斯县的混乱，也暴露了两个民主党竞选团队在组织上的差异。塔拉利科的竞选团队组织严密。在他的活动之外，志愿者通过让参与者扫描二维码来登记，帮助竞选团队收集个人数据。克罗基特的竞选团队规模很小。像得克萨斯组织项目这样的基层组织，在动员黑人和拉丁裔选民方面提供了一些帮助。
一名不支持任何参议院竞选的得克萨斯州民主党策略师表示，达拉斯县今晚的混乱本应被克罗基特的竞选团队预见到。
“他们本应像激光一样专注于他们选民的投票率，关注生效的新法律，在达拉斯-沃斯堡（他们的核心票仓）进行积极的选民 outreach，告知他们在哪里投票，因为早在一个月前，州务卿网站的信息就不准确——他们本应早就提醒公众注意这一点，”这位策略师告诉美国有线电视新闻网（CNN）。
对塔拉利科而言，团结民主党人的挑战依然存在，但在周三凌晨之前，当他接到克罗基特的 concede 电话时，这项任务似乎变得简单得多。她在飞往华盛顿参加国会听证会之前联系了他。
“今天早上，我打电话给詹姆斯，祝贺他成为参议院候选人，”克罗基特在一份声明中说，“得克萨斯州正准备‘变蓝’，我们必须保持团结，因为这比任何个人都重要。”
她补充道：“初选已经结束，民主党人必须团结在我们的候选人周围并赢得胜利。我致力于尽我的一份力，并将继续努力在各级选举中选举民主党人。”
与此同时，塔拉利科在初选中部分因种族分歧而分裂的民主党内部，必须完成统一。克罗基特的一些核心支持者，特别是在网上，充满指责，并誓言不会支持塔拉利科。
但对他而言，也有好消息：周二得克萨斯州民主党的初选投票率达到了创纪录水平，参与民主党初选的选民数量超过了共和党初选。
现在，焦点转向共和党决选，科宁和帕克斯顿将在5月26日正面交锋。科宁在周二晚上迅速发起了攻击——针对帕克斯顿，而非塔拉利科——在竞选活动中称“品格将成为选票上的关键”。
“我拒绝让像肯·帕克斯顿这样有缺陷、自私且厚颜无耻的候选人，将我们多年来努力建立的一切置于危险之中，”科宁说。
他还表示，有“高风险”帕克斯顿会在11月大选中失利，引用了公众民意调查，并表示帕克斯顿“将成为共和党的一个‘包袱’”。
帕克斯顿承认科宁拥有更强的资金支持，但他指出，现任议员在初选中未获得超过50%的选票。他告诉支持者，这次决选的情况将与2012年参议院竞选类似，当时副州长戴维·杜赫斯特在第一轮击败了泰德·克鲁兹，但后者随后在共和党决选中击败了杜赫斯特。
“今晚，变革被提上了日程，而变革获胜了，”帕克斯顿说，“得克萨斯人想要新的领导，想要一个有记录证明能为他们奋斗并获胜的人。”
支持塔拉利科的美国众议员格雷格·卡萨承认，这次民主党初选“很艰难”，但他告诉美国有线电视新闻网（CNN），他认为该党将迅速团结起来。
“当你提名的候选人实际上有很大机会赢得美国参议院席位时，初选会很艰难，”卡萨说，“我认为选民们已经准备好为11月的胜利而战，因为我们确实有机会在今年翻转这个州。”
（注：本文后续内容未提供，仅呈现至上述段落。）
How James Talarico won – and the test his ‘politics of love’ now faces
2026-03-04T16:42:57.600Z / CNN
James Talarico’s pitch for a big tent “politics of love” is renewing Democrats’ belief that this could be the year they finally flip Texas.
Born in 1989, a year after Texas sent its last Democrat to the US Senate, Talarico believes there’s a broader appetite for his message of economic populism — and policies rooted in love over hate — in a climate that rewards the loudest voices in both parties.
“The resistance starts right here, by refusing to mirror the hate and the violence and the inhumanity that surrounds all of us,” Talarico said in his closing message to voters. “A little bit of hope is a dangerous thing.”
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The 36-year-old state representative and aspiring Presbyterian minister won a hard-fought Senate primary against US Rep. Jasmine Crockett, a brawler whose strategy to win in November focused on turning out infrequent but Democratic-leaning voters, rather than appealing to independents and moderate Republicans. He was long seen by many national Republicans hoping to boost four-term incumbent Sen. John Cornyn as the stronger of the two adversaries.
As national Democrats look for guidance or a guidepost from the party’s first major primary of the midterm election season, Talarico said he believes the party must confront President Donald Trump but not become consumed by him. The premise will be tested anew as his own fate could rise or fall on whether Trump weighs in on the Republican runoff election to boost Cornyn or Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
“The reason politics sucks is not any one politician — it’s the system itself,” Talarico said in an interview before his victory. “If we’re all focused on personalities and we’re just trying to get rid of individual people in the system, we’re going to miss the underlying disease.”
Talarico’s path to victory was built on the unwavering — and perhaps unlikely — support of voters like Ben Allen, who came to see the candidate in Tyler, a city in east Texas, during the closing days of the race.
Allen, 48, volunteered that he hadn’t voted much over the years because he believed most politicians were the same. But he said he was drawn to Talarico by his message and how he carried himself.
Asked what he liked most about Talarico, Allen didn’t stop and ponder the question but blurted out: “Authenticity.”
“For the first time, it feels like we have an organic candidate, somebody that when he says what he says, you believe it,” Allen said. “He’s not just blowing smoke up your backside. He’s real.”
Talarico’s star has been rising since an appearance last year on “The Joe Rogan Experience,” when one of the nation’s most popular podcasters – and an endorser of Trump – said: “You need to run for president!”
After pausing to laugh, Rogan made clear his admiration was real: “We need someone who’s actually a good person.”
A former public school teacher, Talarico became the youngest member of the Texas House when he won a 2018 special election. He is on leave from seminary school, which he joined while serving in the legislature to follow in the footsteps of his grandfather, a Presbyterian minister.
What scored Talarico an invite onto Rogan’s show were his viral performances on the Texas House floor — including a speech railing against a measure requiring the Ten Commandments to be displayed in Texas classrooms, in which he said: “Instead of bringing a bill that will feed the hungry, clothe the naked, heal the sick, we’re instead mandating that people put up a poster.”
In an interview, Talarico acknowledged how his softer tone could come across as naive to some Americans who feel a fierce urgency to fight the Trump administration.
Asked whether he believes voters are looking for a healer over a fighter, he had a ready answer.
“I think the best way to fight is to unite,” Talarico told CNN at a stop last week in College Station. “And I know how to do both of those things.”
For a time, some Texas Democrats dreamed of avoiding a pitched primary battle altogether.
Paxton’s entry into the Republican primary had dangled in front of ambitious Democrats the prospect of a Senate campaign against a figure beloved by conservatives, but who even many Republicans worried would alienate moderates and independents. Paxton had been impeached by the Republican-controlled state House over allegations of corruption, and he is in the middle of a divorce after his wife, a state senator, accused him of infidelity.
Four potential Democratic candidates — Talarico, former US Rep. Beto O’Rourke, former US Rep. Joaquin Castro and former US Rep. Colin Allred, who had lost the 2024 Senate race by 8.4 percentage points — huddled on a Zoom last spring to talk through the prospect of fielding a unified ticket of viable contenders for every statewide office on November’s ballot, rather than all entering the same Senate contest. O’Rourke, whose 2.6-point loss in 2018 was the closest Texas Democrats had come to winning a Senate race in a generation, made the case that a stronger Democratic ticket in other races eight years earlier could have put him over the top.
But the Senate race proved to be a much stronger draw. Democrats believed Paxton looked vulnerable, and Greg Abbott — who resoundingly defeated O’Rourke in 2022 — entered 2026 with a massive financial advantage as he seeks a fourth term as governor.
“Ideally, if you were going to design the strongest possible chances of winning, you would design it so that you have strong candidates that are well-funded in each of those races,” Castro said at the Texas Tribune Festival in November. “That was my hope, that we would have a full slate, and we didn’t quite get there.”
Allred was the first Democrat to launch his Senate campaign in July. Talarico jumped into the race in September.
But the primary saw a massive shakeup in December, when on the same day, Crockett entered the race and Allred dropped out, opting to run for his former seat in the House instead. (Allred had a lead over his successor, Rep. Julie Johnson, but without a majority of the vote, the race will go to a runoff.)
Crockett, who sought advice from former Vice President Kamala Harris before launching her campaign, entered with the benefit of high name recognition that she had cultivated over years of fiery clashes with the GOP.
“People can take a chance on somebody that says that they will fight, or they can go with a proven fighter,” Crockett said at a breakfast with faith leaders last month.
The 44-year-old Crockett started her legal career as a public defender before opening her own law firm, where she handled personal injury and civil rights cases, including representing Black Lives Matter protesters who were arrested.
She was elected to the Texas House in 2020, and two years later, won a US House seat that had been held by former Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, who retired and endorsed Crockett.
On Capitol Hill, Crockett quickly earned a reputation — and a following among Democrats nationwide — for her blunt, snappy quips.
She clashed in a May 2024 House Oversight Committee hearing with then-Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who told Crockett that “your fake eyelashes are messing up what you’re reading.”
Democrats quickly shot back that it was a personal attack, against the panel’s rules. And Crockett turned to the committee’s chairman, Kentucky Rep. James Comer, and asked: “If someone on this committee then starts talking about somebody’s bleach blonde, bad-built butch body, that would not be engaging in personalities, correct?”
Trump has repeatedly referred to Crockett as “low IQ.” And in interviews and on social media, Crockett hasn’t pulled her punches, either.
She has referred to Trump as “the Mean Manic Mad Mango Man,” “a draft dodging dumb dupe” and “Putin’s ho.”
At the 2024 Democratic National Convention, Crockett was given a prime opportunity to make her case for the party’s ticket: a speaking slot on the convention’s first night.
She recounted how Harris “wiped my tears and listened” when she struggled early in her congressional career.
Nearly two years later, Harris returned the favor — recording a robocall in which she said that Crockett “has the experience and record to hold Donald Trump and his billionaire cronies accountable.”
Crockett’s history of bombastic moments led to questions about her ability to win a general election in deep-red Texas.
She described those attacks as a “dog whistle” and “tearing down a Black woman.”
“For the last 30 years, we’ve tried it the traditional way, and it’s not worked. And the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over,” Crockett told CNN after an event in Conroe, Texas. “In this moment, there is nothing traditional about how our government is operating, and so I think that people are looking for something different.”
Rachel Walker, a Crockett supporter from Conroe, said before primary night that she believed the congresswoman would have a better chance than Talarico of winning in November, arguing she can attract new voters, including young people.
“If we’re trying to encourage people to get out and vote, I think we need a candidate that has these values and is bold like this,” Walker said. “We keep putting the same type of candidate up over and over and expecting good results here in Texas, and it’s just not working.”
April Inman, a Crockett supporter from Spring, acknowledged it may be “tough” for the congresswoman to win in November, saying she was facing similar dynamics as other women who have sought higher office.
“It’s going to be tough because as America, we’re not ready for strong women. I mean, that was evident when Hillary Clinton ran for president. It was evident when Kamala Harris ran,” she said. “But we have to continue to stay in the fight and keep pushing forward.”
A key moment in the abbreviated head-to-head race came in early February, when political content creator Morgan Thompson posted a TikTok video alleging that Talarico had told her in January that he’d signed up to run against a “a mediocre Black man” (Allred), rather than a “a formidable, intelligent Black woman” (Crockett).
Talarico denied that allegation, saying he’d described Allred’s campaigning as mediocre, not Allred himself.
Allred responded with a video endorsing Crockett, in which he said: “We’re tired of folks using praise for Black women to mask criticism for Black men. That’s not good for our community.”
Allred also lambasted Talarico for regularly invoking his faith on the campaign trail.
“You are not saving religion for the Democratic Party or the left. We already have Senator Reverend Dr. Raphael Warnock for that,” Allred said, referring to the Georgia senator. “We don’t need you. You’re not saying anything unique.”
The fallout was stark, rippling across social media and dominating coverage of the race just days before the February 17 start of early voting.
Shortly afterward, Talarico earned attention across the United States when CBS late-night host Stephen Colbert said he’d taped an interview with Talarico, but CBS lawyers had intervened before it could air on television, raising concerns about equal airtime for other Democrats running in the primary.
Instead, Colbert posted the interview on YouTube — where it has since drawn 9 million views, a much larger audience than Colbert’s TV show draws. It has also spread across other social media networks.
“This is the interview Donald Trump didn’t want you to see,” Talarico boasted on social media as he posted a clip of the interview.
His campaign said he raised more than $2.5 million in the 24 hours after the kerfuffle.
Crockett’s base of support was Dallas County, the state’s second-most populous and home to a large Black population.
A change in voting rules this year left some voters in the county unsure of where to cast their ballots on Tuesday. A judge ordered polling places to remain open two extra hours, but the Texas Supreme Court later temporarily blocked that order.
“I can tell you now that people have been disenfranchised,” Crockett said at her election night party.
The ordeal in Dallas County also laid bare the differences in organization between the two Democratic campaigns. Talarico’s campaign is highly organized. Outside his events, volunteers check attendees in by having them scan QR codes to help the campaign gather their personal data. Crockett operated with a slim campaign team. Grassroots organizations like the Texas Organizing Project helped with some efforts aimed at turning out Black and Latino voters.
Crockett operated with a slim campaign team. Grassroots organizations like the Texas Organizing Project helped with some efforts aimed at turning out Black and Latino voters.
A Texas Democratic strategist not aligned with either Senate campaign said the confusion in Dallas County tonight should have been foreseen by Crockett’s campaign.
“They should’ve been focused laser like on turnout (of) their voters, on the new laws that took effect, doing aggressive voter outreach in DFW (their stronghold) about where to vote and when the (Secretary of State) website wasn’t showing accurate info as far back as a month ago – blown the whistle on it,” the strategist told CNN.
For Talarico, the challenge of unifying Democrats remains, but the task appears to have been made far simpler even before daybreak on Wednesday when he received a concession call from Crockett. She reached him before she flew back to Washington for a congressional hearing.
“This morning, I called James and congratulated him on becoming the Senate nominee,” Crockett said in a statement. “Texas is primed to turn blue and we must remain united because this is bigger than any one person.”
She added: “With the primary behind us, Democrats must rally around our nominees and win. I’m committed to doing my part and will continue working to elect Democrats up and down the ballot.”
Talarico, meanwhile, must unify the Democratic Party after a primary that split partially along racial lines, with Black voters largely supporting Crockett. There are many recriminations among key Crockett supporters, particularly online, and vows that they won’t back Talarico.
But there’s also good news for him. Democratic turnout in Tuesday’s Texas primary reached record levels, as more voters participated in the party’s primary than in the Republican one.
And the focus now shifts to the Republican runoff, with Cornyn and Paxton going head-to-head on May 26. Cornyn quickly went on the attack – against Paxton, not Talarico – on Tuesday night, saying at a campaign event that “character is on the ballot.”
“I refuse to allow a flawed, self-centered and shameless candidate like Ken Paxton risk everything we’ve worked so hard to build over these many years,” Cornyn said.
He also said there is a “high risk” that Paxton would lose in November, pointing to public polls, and said Paxton “would be a dead weight” on the ticket for the GOP.
Paxton acknowledged that Cornyn has much stronger financial backing. But he pointed to the incumbent earning less than 50% of the vote. He told supporters that this runoff will play out much like a Senate contest in 2012, when then-Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst bested Ted Cruz in the first round but Cruz then trounced Dewhurst in the Republican runoff.
“Tonight, change was on the ballot, and change won,” Paxton said. “Texans want new leadership. They want someone with a proven record of fighting and winning for them.”
US Rep. Greg Casar, a Talarico supporter, acknowledged that the Democratic primary was “difficult,” but told CNN he thinks the party will quickly unify.
“You’re going to have a difficult primary when it feels like the person we nominate actually has a really good shot at … winning the US Senate race,” Casar said.
He added: “I think voters are fired up to win in November because we actually know that we have a shot at flipping the state this year.”
This story was updated with additional information.