\u201cI\u2019m voting for James Talarico, and I hope you do, too \u2014 but I want y\u2019all to come and have the conversation with him today,\u201d U.S. Rep. Christian Menefee<\/a>, D-Houston, said in introducing Talarico. \u201cExpress the things that you\u2019re excited about, the things you\u2019re concerned about, because I happen to be one of those people who believes that, for far too long, the Democratic Party has taken Black folks for granted, and it\u2019s important to me that he understand the issues that are facing us today.\u201d<\/p>\n The stop was meant specifically as a forum for Black voters to press the state lawmaker on their priorities and reflected a recent spate of outreach efforts Talarico has undertaken to engage Black Texans. After an acrimonious primary in which he defeated U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett<\/a>, a prominent Black elected official, the Austin Democrat has for months faced accusations online and among some elected leaders<\/a> that he hasn\u2019t done enough to court Black voters, who overwhelmingly went for Crockett. <\/p>\n On Sunday, Talarico answered by giving the crowd a rundown of his efforts to engage with the Black community and announcing a number: a pledge to spend $25 million on Black voter outreach, which he said was the largest such investment in modern Texas history.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m committing to you here that we will be putting resources where our mouth is, and we\u2019re going to be reaching out to these voters across the state so that we can win this race in November,\u201d Talarico said. \u201cI don\u2019t want any Texan to vote for me just because they don\u2019t like Ken Paxton<\/a>. I want people to be excited about what we\u2019re trying to do in this movement.\u201d<\/p>\n For much of the event, attendees asked Talarico about his policy positions on voting rights, Black rural farmers, immigration and the Trump administration\u2019s attack on diversity, equity and inclusion. They asked him about the Black representation on his campaign staff and how he planned to support down-ballot Democrats<\/a>, particularly Black candidates.<\/p>\n While some rallygoers, including a handful of content creators in the audience who have helped drive the conversation<\/a> around Talarico\u2019s Black outreach, expressed skepticism of his campaign, many others pressed him on how he would earn Black voters\u2019 trust while noting they were personally supportive of him.<\/p>\n \u201cI am a Crockett supporter, but you sold me,\u201d Earnest Babalola Goodrich, a local precinct chair, told Talarico. \u201cBut how are you gonna earn the militant Black Democratic vote? \u2026 Uncle Earnie does support you, but I want to see more. I want you to earn that hard vote.\u201d<\/p>\n In his opening remarks, Talarico acknowledged Menefee\u2019s sentiment and the reality that, for a Democrat, \u201cthere is no way to win Texas without showing up for, investing in and listening to Black communities across this state.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe congressman spoke a hard truth that for too long, the Democratic Party has taken Black voters for granted, assumed that Black folks here in Texas and around the country are just going to show up and vote for any Democratic candidate, and we know that\u2019s not true,\u201d Talarico said. <\/p>\n But disappointment with his campaign burst into view toward the end of the town hall, when his staff noted they had time for one more question, roughly 45 minutes into the question and answer portion of his appearance. Talarico said he would stick around to chat with anyone who had outstanding questions through the end of the photo line, and took additional questions on stage for another 20 minutes.<\/p>\n Kandice Webber, 50, a Houston nurse and political content creator<\/a>, interjected, shouting that she had driven 45 minutes to be at the town hall and demanding that Talarico answer any remaining questions.<\/p>\n \u201cBlack people don\u2019t trust you for this reason,\u201d Webber said to<\/a> a mix of scattered applause and disapproving murmurs from the audience. \u201cAnd you cannot win without us, so you stay here and you answer our questions \u2014 or you suffer the consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n Talarico responded that he was \u201chappy to engage.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis is what this conversation\u2019s supposed to be about,\u201d he said. \u201cSo, one, I want to thank you for your honesty and for being willing to speak your truth to me as a candidate and us as a campaign. I talked a little bit earlier about my desire to earn the trust of every Black Texan. This is not the end of a conversation. This is the beginning of a conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n In an interview after the event, Webber accused Talarico of being a \u201cTeach for America plant\u201d who wanted to \u201cprivatize\u201d public schools. She said she wanted to see him back a moratorium on charter schools across the country and to sit with everyday parents of children in public schools.<\/p>\n Talarico spent two years teaching middle school<\/a> through Teach for America, a national education nonprofit that recruits and trains people who commit to teaching for at least two years in high-needs schools around the country. As a state lawmaker, he\u2019s been a leading advocate for public education, pushing to increase public school funding and opposing Gov. Greg Abbott<\/a>\u2019s private school voucher program. He took heat<\/a> during the Democratic primary for his prior campaign support from a group called Charter Schools Now PAC.<\/p>\n U.S. Rep. Marc Veasey<\/a> of Fort Worth praised Talarico for taking questions at the town hall and emphasized that Webber\u2019s pushback didn\u2019t necessarily represent everyone\u2019s views there. <\/p>\n \u201c[Y]ou will never, nor should you ever, make everyone happy,\u201d Veasey wrote on X<\/a>. \u201cAnd, you never know who the one person might have been.\u201d<\/p>\n In a video posted<\/a> on social media ahead of the town hall, Webber urged her followers to \u201cshow up if for no other reason but for you to say in person, \u2018You not getting my vote, and this is why.\u2019 Because this is about sending a message to the Texas Democratic Party and these white moderates that keep trying to play poli-tricks on Black lives, knowing that they need us.\u201d<\/p>\n Webber later posted another video<\/a> in which she said \u201creal Black folks\u201d were going to sit the election out to teach \u201cwhite moderates\u201d a lesson about earning the support of Black voters. She said she would prefer Paxton, Talarico\u2019s GOP opponent, winning the Senate seat over Talarico trying to \u201cinstill your great white hope in my motherfucking people and watch you let us down.\u201d Paxton, she argued, would have less power \u201cto terrorize and torture Black Texas voters and Texas children\u201d as a senator than he does as attorney general.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not fixing to let your white moderates win,\u201d Webber said. \u201cBecause in 2028, we need to elect a new motherfucking president. And if you white moderates and you lowly ass fucking candidates like James Talarico keep pulling your shit, we\u2019re going to end up with another fucking Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n At the town hall, Talarico highlighted his efforts to earn Black support, including recent interviews he\u2019s done with Black media<\/a> such as Houston\u2019s 93.7 The Beat<\/a> and UrbanView<\/a>; stops he\u2019s made at Black churches and historically Black universities<\/a>; and endorsements he\u2019s picked up from Crockett and groups like the Texas Organizing Project, which works to mobilize Black and Latino voters. He also noted his policy positions to address rising everyday costs, healthcare access, early childhood education, voting rights and maternal mortality<\/a>, which disproportionately impacts Black women.<\/p>\n Several Black elected officials attended the town hall in support of Talarico, including Menefee, Harris County Commissioner Rodney Ellis, Houston Mayor Pro Tem Martha Castex-Tatum and state Reps. Alma Allen<\/a>, Christian Manuel<\/a>, Ron Reynolds<\/a> and Lauren Ashley Simmons<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s time for us to unite behind a fighter \u2014 he\u2019s a Bible thumper, but he knows how to do a little punching, too,\u201d Simmons said on stage. \u201cI supported my soror Congresswoman Crockett. But like I said, primaries are family fights. So we licked our wounds on Tuesday, and then Wednesday we woke up ready for war.\u201d<\/p>\n Recent public polling<\/a> found that 80% of likely Black voters planned to support Talarico over Paxton in November. At this point in their respective election cycles in 2018 and 2024, Democratic U.S. Senate nominees Beto O\u2019Rourke<\/a> and Colin Allred<\/a> both polled below 50% among Black voters \u2014 and both ultimately<\/a> won roughly 90%<\/a> of the group. Still, Democrats are concerned less with the prospect of Black voters defecting to Paxton than with the risk of too many staying home or skipping the Senate race on their ballots. <\/p>\n Juli McShay, another Houston content creator, asked Talarico to \u201crebuke\u201d online supporters whom she accused of harassing Crockett and other Black political influencers who were not yet fully in his camp, and she pressed him on what she described as a monthslong delay in outreach Talarico had committed to doing in Houston. <\/p>\n Talarico said his campaign was laying the groundwork to continue ramping up its activities in the coming months, and he asked McShay and others to continue holding him accountable. Then he repeated a defense of Crockett he has made<\/a> several times<\/a> throughout<\/a> his campaign<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cLet me say this as clearly as I possibly can: If you claim to be my supporter, if you claim to be a part of this movement that we are building, please keep Congresswoman Crockett\u2019s name out of your mouth,\u201d Talarico said. \u201cThe congresswoman has been incredibly helpful. She\u2019s done more than she needed to do, and so I am demanding that anyone who claims to be a supporter of mine anywhere treat the congresswoman with the respect that she has earned.\u201d<\/p>\n State Rep. Jolanda Jones<\/a>, who has criticized Talarico\u2019s Black outreach and accused him<\/a> of being \u201cunwilling\u201d to reach out to her directly and \u201chave a substantive conversation\u201d about earning support from Black Texans, said on X after the town hall that she invited Talarico to a \u201clistening event\u201d on Tuesday called \u201cThe Road to Blue Goes Through Black.\u201d<\/p>\n Earlier this month, Talarico held a 75-minute Zoom call with Black elected officials, including Jones, according to state Rep. Barbara Gervin-Hawkins<\/a>, a San Antonio Democrat who chairs the Texas Legislative Black Caucus. The meeting was organized after some local leaders and elected officials, including Jones and Gervin-Hawkins, sent Talarico\u2019s campaign<\/a> a letter asking for a clearer picture of his strategy to engage Black voters in the coming months.<\/p>\n In a July 9 interview, Gervin-Hawkins told The Texas Tribune she left the meeting feeling \u201cencouraged.\u201d She said Talarico \u201cpersonally committed about doing more,\u201d including through Black media, more \u201ctargeted\u201d meetings with local leaders and better publicizing his outreach efforts.<\/p>\n In response to an audience question Sunday about whether he had returned Jones\u2019 calls, Talarico said they had spoken over the phone, but he acknowledged that it was taking him too long to return messages from fellow elected officials.<\/p>\n \u201cThe amount of incoming has been a lot, and I am doing my best to make sure that I\u2019m returning calls as fast as possible,\u201d he said, adding that his campaign team had developed a system to track and return such calls. \u201cThere\u2019s no way for any one candidate to truly represent the diversity of the state. You have to have a team and not just of staff \u2026 but also a team of local elected officials, community leaders, faith leaders \u2014 and we\u2019re building out that extended team.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t![\"Earnest](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/20260719-Talarico-Houston-Town-Hall-AM-13.jpg\")
Earnest Babalola Goodrich asks James Talarico a question during a town hall meeting at Kingdom Builders Center on Sunday. Annie Mulligan for The Texas Tribune<\/p>\n![\"Kandice](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/20260719-Talarico-Houston-Town-Hall-AM-19.jpg\")
Kandice Webber asks for a chance to question U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico during Sunday\u2019s Houston town hall meeting. Annie Mulligan for The Texas Tribune<\/p>\n![\"State](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/20260719-Talarico-Houston-Town-Hall-AM-05.jpg\")
State Rep. Lauren Ashley Simmons, D-Houston, smiles as she listens during Sunday\u2019s town hall. Annie Mulligan for The Texas Tribune<\/p>\n