{"id":170043,"date":"2026-02-18T18:02:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T18:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/170043\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T18:02:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T18:02:08","slug":"james-talarico-raises-2-5m-after-colbert-interview-drama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/170043\/","title":{"rendered":"James Talarico raises $2.5M after Colbert interview drama"},"content":{"rendered":"

James Talarico raised a whopping $2.5 million for his campaign<\/a> for U.S. Senate from Texas in just 24 hours after late night host Stephen Colbert accused CBS of scrapping a planned interview with the Democratic rising star.<\/p>\n

The state lawmaker raked in the biggest one-day windfall of his campaign after Colbert said CBS ordered him to nix the chat,<\/a> causing a video to go viral with more than 5 million hits on YouTube.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a campaign of, by, and for the people. So I\u2019m proud that neighbors from all across our state and country stood together to defend free speech,\u201d Talarico said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Colbert, whose show is in its final few months after being canceled<\/a> by the Eye Network, says corporate bosses warned him not to air the interview with Talarico. CBS counters that it was acting over newly issued Federal Communications Commission guidelines that might require them to give equal time to other candidates.<\/p>\n

Talarico, 36, a Christian minister and former teacher whose populist campaign is raising hopes of a Democratic upset<\/a> in the deep red Lone Star State, says President Trump\u2019s cronies are panicking over his momentum.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrump is worried we\u2019re about to flip Texas,\u201d he tweeted.<\/p>\n

The drama over the Colbert interview couldn\u2019t have come at a better time for Talarico, who is battling Rep. Jasmine Crockett for the Democratic nomination<\/a> in the closely watched Senate race.<\/p>\n

Early in-person voting ahead of the March 3 primary for U.S. Senate and House seats kicked off Tuesday across Texas.<\/p>\n

First day turnout was off the charts in several of the sprawling urban counties<\/a> that comprise the main Democratic strongholds in the Lone Star State, although analysts warn it\u2019s difficult to project whether that necessarily tilts the primary odds in Talarico\u2019s favor.<\/p>\n

Republicans are waging a hotly contested primary fight of their own<\/a> in the biggest red state of them all.<\/p>\n

Longtime incumbent Sen. John Cornyn is seeking to fend off a strong challenge from controversial Attorney Gen. Ken Paxton<\/a>, who has been accused of corruption and narrowly avoided impeachment but boasts a stronger following among President Trump\u2019s loyal army of supporters.<\/p>\n

Rep. Wesley Hunt is also vying in the GOP race, which appears to be headed for a May runoff.<\/a><\/p>\n

Most Democrats believe their best chance to score an upset<\/a> would involve running against the scandal-tarred Paxton in the November general election.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"James Talarico raised a whopping $2.5 million for his campaign for U.S. Senate from Texas in just 24…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":170044,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,68745,5056,145,2135,3309,1967,20114,39580,13164,33870,27],"class_list":{"0":"post-170043","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-austin","8":"tag-austin","9":"tag-austin-headlines","10":"tag-austin-news","11":"tag-blue-wave","12":"tag-democratic","13":"tag-donald-trump","14":"tag-james-talarico","15":"tag-john-cornyn","16":"tag-ken-paxton","17":"tag-midterms","18":"tag-primary","19":"tag-senate","20":"tag-stephen-colbert","21":"tag-texas"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170043"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170043\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}