A lot of Democrats are increasingly angry and frustrated with Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett because she won’t campaign alongside James Talarico who defeated her in the Democratic primary for US Senator. Meanwhile, the national media narrative about whether Crockett will campaign with Talarico just won’t die. Nor will the corollary about Black voters not being excited about Talarico — a corollary most frequently voiced by Crockett.
What so many Democrats and members of the media fail to grasp, or mention, is that the current situation may be the absolute best scenario possible for Talarico’s Senate chances. Many Democrats seem to have forgotten that when Crockett announced her run for Senate early last December Republicans from local staffers up to President Donald Trump were unable to contain their glee, and didn’t try. For example a local Republican staffer said Crockett’s announcement was being celebrated as an early Christmas present among his cohort, while Trump left out the Christmas part, but said it was “a gift to Republicans.” (Sometimes he tells the truth.)
Republicans still have all their video clips of various Crockett harangues that they giddily collected while hoping she would be the Democratic nominee. They would love to roll those back out if they can get a picture of Crockett and Talarico clasping hands in solidarity. But, with Crockett not openly supporting Talarico or campaigning with him it’s really hard to lump them together.
This issue of whether Crockett will campaign with Talarico surfaced in the media again last week when Crockett was interviewed on CNN by Laura Coats. Opening with flattery, Coats said to Crockett, “You were often an energy magnet when it comes to voters. We’ve seen the turnout that you can produce. Talarico might very well need that magnetism. Will you campaign with him?”
Without hesitation Crockett responded, “I will be campaigning down ballot.”
Coats interjected, “Why the distinction?”
Crockett explained: “Because when we’re looking at a state like Texas, we’ve tried this, where we’ve got one amazing candidate that’s running at the top of the ticket. Beto is a very good example of this, raising all the money, doing all the things, running around the entire state, but it’s not enough. So, for me, I don’t think that it should be a matter of there’s just one thing that is getting me to the polls. I think it has to be something a little more in a state like Texas. So, for me, I think that making sure that people that maybe are getting overshadowed, because it seems like it’s only about one big race, I think amplifying them, making sure that I can raise their profiles, and introducing them to people, that’ll give something more to voters to make them say, ‘you know what, it may be raining outside, but I gotta go get there because I gotta get there for this person and this person, plus I don’t like Trump.’”
The Washington Post, The Hill, the Washington Times, the Huffington Post, and the Washington Examiner all rushed out stories based on the Coats interview. The Huffington Post headlined their story, “The Democrat Who Won’t Unite After A Primary Loss.” Among other things they wrote, “she’s (Crockett) offered a string of comments suggesting that Black voters aren’t sold on him (Talarico), raising questions about whether her remarks themselves undermine Democrats’ chances in a race they need to win to preserve their path to regaining a Senate majority.”
The Huffington Post went on to quote an array of Democrats hammering Crockett for not campaigning for Talarico. They did also point out that Talarico got 87% of Black voters in a recent Fox poll. They also quoted a recent University of Texas/Texas Politics Project poll where Talarico had 69% of the Black vote.
That was a lot more information and a lot less insinuation than the Washington Post put forward.
They began similarly to the Huffington Post: “As primaries wrap up, most Democratic candidates who battled it out in intense nominating contests have come out in full force to support their party’s nominees as they try to regain control of the Senate.
But there’s one notable exception: Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D).”
The Washington Post also pointed out: “Talarico, a state lawmaker and seminarian, has been surging in polls against Ken Paxton, the state’s scandal-plagued attorney general. But some strategists say they have not seen similar enthusiasm with Black voters, many of whom supported Crockett in the primary.” This would have been a good place to quote Talarico’s poll numbers with Black voters, but that would have interrupted the WaPo narrative.
So instead they continued, “Her March primary with Talarico was beset by questions of race and gender, as Crockett accused Talarico of supporting ads against her that she called “straight-up racist.’” They didn’t elaborate on that either. A mention is enough.
And, “Some strategists say?” That’s a little vague to build a story around; especially when they didn’t mention the Fox poll which, again, showed Talarico at 87% support among Black voters.
Crockett at New Orleans Essence Festival on July 4
For her part Crockett — as the Huffington Post noted — has for some time now made clear that she won’t be campaigning with Talarico. For instance Crockett was even more explicit and clear almost two months ago when she appeared on a panel at the July 4 Essence Festival of Culture in New Orleans. This raises the question of why the media continues to publish breathless stories every time Crockett repeats her stance, but let’s move on and examine some of what Crockett said in New Orleans, on Independence Day.
For instance she was asked by a fellow panelist, “What does James Talarico have to do to get Jasmine Crockett out and get Black voters out and transform the politics of Texas?”
Crockett gave a lengthy reply with the heart of it being as follows, “The best thing that I can do for James Talarico isn’t me standing on a stage with him. It is the fact that I endorsed five candidates in the runoff who all happen to be Black men in the state of Texas and every single one of them won and they’re going on to November, meaning that they will pull out more Black people to vote. People keep trying to say, ‘well, Jasmine has to go and hold his hand.’ Nah, I don’t. And, don’t worry about my math and how it works in my mind, because the reality is that if you can give people more than one thing to vote for, then you have a better chance of getting them out to the polls. And, honestly some people (are) just not gonna be sold on certain people that are running in the state of Texas. So the best thing I can do is take down ballot candidates, who no one’s ever heard of, and do my best to uplift them and increase the voter participation, in a way that we did in Texas.”
Is Crockett being resentful and a sore loser? Maybe. Probably. I mean she began her New Orleans answer with a not so veiled shot at Talarico: “just because somebody is a nominee as a Democrat, it does not necessarily mean that they have Black people’s issues at the forefront” and then she made the snide comment about people wanting her to “hold his hand,” followed soon by “some people (are) just not gonna be sold on certain people that are running in the state of Texas.”
But, whether Crockett is taking her stand for selfish and petty reasons or not, she is almost undoubtedly right that she can best help Talarico, not by campaigning alongside him, but by turning out voters in down ballot races; or turning them out in any other way than campaigning directly with Talarico.
Whether Crockett is taking her stand for selfish and petty reasons or not, she is almost undoubtedly right that she can best help Talarico, not by campaigning alongside him, but by turning out voters in down ballot races; or turning them out in any other way than campaigning directly with Talarico.
It makes sense that Democrats would be upset with Crockett for refusing to campaign with Talarico. But, it is amazing that it is not apparent to any of them that the current situation may be the absolute best situation that Democrats could hope for. The fact that so few Democrats realize this, and are demanding the opposite, is just a little more evidence of why Texas Democrats haven’t won a statewide seat since 1994 and haven’t won a US Senate election since 1988.
James Talarico on the campaign trail; screenshot; from Talarico’s campaign website. Image at top is a screenshot from Jasmine Crockett’s FIRE PAC website.
An important thing to note here is that Jasmine Crockett is a creation of the Democratic Party. Democrats all over the country loved her because she was always yelling at and skewering Trump people; either nominees or Cabinet officials or Republican members of Congress. Democrats loved it. But, now that Crockett left the House and went for the Senate and lost the Democratic primary, some of her anger and recklessness is coming back at Democrats and it may yet haunt them.
Crockett referenced her most famous talent during her New Orleans appearance, citing as a core reason she ran for the Senate: “so that I could make a difference and use my background as a trained lawyer to make sure that I was tearing apart any single nominee that came before us, and made sure that I shut that down.”
Crockett also provided some other moments that Republicans can add to their highlight reel. For instance she managed to attack her fellow Democrats as having engaged in a “racist campaign” against her while also providing a quote critical of July 4 celebrations and the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence; a quote Republicans will love:
“You see a lot of haters got a lot of things to say about me and my race and how I ran it. But, the reality is that there was a lot of racism (stops); not a lot, it was racist. It was a racist race. It is what it is. Right. But, we live in America as y’all are celebrating 250, OK. We know what this country is.”
“We live in America as y’all are celebrating 250, OK. We know what this country is.”
Jasmine crockett at the Essence Festival of Culture in New Orleans, July 4, 2026
Note “y’all are celebrating 250,” but not her. This is a classic example of Democrats not being patriotic and a classic example for Republicans to use against them. But, as long as Crocket is refusing to campaign with Talarico — and making snide remarks about him — it just doesn’t make sense for Republicans to attack her; or it doesn’t do them any, or much, good.
Another important dynamic to keep in mind here is that Democrats don’t just need a big Democratic turnout to win in November. They need to convince at least some people who don’t usually vote for Democrats to do so this time.
Crockett also mentioned “haters” who have “a lot of things to say about me and my race and how I ran it.” She didn’t mention anyone in particular which is the beauty of the “haters” label. One can just throw the word “haters” out there to refer to everyone who might disagree with or oppose them. A strong possibility of who she might mean though is Roland Martin, one of the leading Black journalists and opinion leaders in the country — and a native Texan.
The day after Crockett’s primary loss Martin gave an hour-long presentation on his YouTube show saying that Crockett lost because, among other things: she had a much weaker campaign than Talarico, especially on voter turnout; she depended on turnout in large cities when that is not enough to win in Texas; and she over relied on celebrity rather than a ground game. Martin’s analysis also goes against Laura Coats’ statement to Crockett, “We’ve seen the turnout that you can produce.”
There was one more thing that Crockett said in New Orleans that was truly amazing and revealing, even if it might not fit neatly into a Republican highlight reel. She maintained, “The reality is that people hold me to a completely different standard. The fact is we have never seen anybody, quote unquote, be pressured to jump into a Senate race to help out their opponent that beat them. Ever (waving her finger)! This is the first time we have ever seen this in this country. And it just so happens that it ended up being a high profile Black woman.”
Yes, you heard that right. Jasmine Crockett is saying that before her primary loss in 2026 no one had “ever seen this in this country” a Senate candidate being “pressured” to back a former “opponent that beat them” in a primary election. What? Defeated candidates uniting behind the winners of a primary is a longstanding tradition in this country. It didn’t just happen this year when “a high profile Black woman” lost a primary. Didn’t Crockett ever watch a Democratic — or Republican —convention? A big part of what they do there is have all the former presidential candidates clasp hands on the stage in solidarity. The same thing happens in Senate races and on down the ballot. And, if it doesn’t happen, a little “pressure” is usually exerted.
This is another one of those racially charged type of statements we’ve discussed before; that can only stand because people are afraid to challenge them.
And, so now — with a Democrat leading or tied in the polls for an open Senate seat, in the best Democratic opportunity since 1988 to win a US Senate seat — a major focus of Democrats throughout the party is that Jasmine Crockett won’t appear on the same stage with James Talarico. And plenty of media outlets are happy to fan the flames. That’s a lot easier that actual research and reporting.
- Coming Soon: Part 2 of our look at the City of Austin’s programs for the homeless and also a series on the ideology that drives the City Council supermajority, the District Attorney and the County Attorney. Stay tuned and have a great Labor Day.
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