{"id":504822,"date":"2026-03-05T07:43:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T07:43:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/504822\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T07:43:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T07:43:12","slug":"texan-james-talarico-becomes-a-fresh-face-of-democrats-midterm-hopes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/504822\/","title":{"rendered":"Texan James Talarico becomes a fresh face of Democrats’ midterm hopes"},"content":{"rendered":"

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) \u2014 James Talarico<\/a> barely mentioned Donald Trump<\/a> when he finally got to give his victory speech on Wednesday night as Democrats\u2019 nominee for U.S. Senate in Texas. <\/p>\n

But the 36-year-old state lawmaker is now a front man for the left\u2019s opposition to Trump, not just in his own state but around the country. With his victory over U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, the state lawmaker from Austin will test whether a smiling message of unity and change is enough to answer voters\u2019 frustrations amid discord at home and now a war abroad.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re done being divided. We\u2019re done being played,\u201d Talarico said, several times invoking his Christian faith and promising a \u201cpolitics of love.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not just trying to win an election. We are trying to fundamentally change our politics,\u201d he said, adding that he\u2019s \u201ctired of being told to hate my neighbor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Talarico acknowledged that his immediate challenge is consolidating support from Crockett\u2019s supporters who flocked to the congresswoman\u2019s unapologetically pugilistic approach to Trump and Republicans. He told them, \u201cI hope to earn your trust.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crockett conceded to Talarico on Wednesday morning, saying that Texas \u201cmust remain united because this is bigger than any one person.\u201d<\/p>\n

Talarico also got an endorsement and a fundraising email blast from former Vice President Kamala Harris, who previously backed Crockett in the primary. <\/p>\n

Democrats\u2019 long losing streak in Texas <\/p>\n

Talarico will need all the help he can get in a Republican-dominated state where Democrats have gone three decades without winning a statewide race. He will face either U.S. Sen. John Cornyn or state Attorney General Ken Paxton, who advanced to a Republican runoff<\/a> on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Conventional political wisdom has Talarico as the stronger Democratic candidate for November, especially if Republicans nominate Paxton, a conservative firebrand who has weathered allegations of corruption and infidelity over the years. <\/p>\n

Although Democrats are often choosing between moderate and progressive candidates in primaries, they faced a largely stylistic choice in Texas. <\/p>\n

Talarico, 36, is a Presbyterian seminarian and rarely raises his voice. Crockett, 44, is an unapologetic political brawler who hammers Trump and other Republicans with acidic flourish.<\/p>\n

But Talarico\u2019s broader argument is one that he could have made regardless of whether Trump was in the White House. He regularly assails the rise in Christian nationalism. A former teacher, he advocates for public education. And he\u2019s said often, and again Wednesday, that the country\u2019s fundamental divide is not partisan but \u201ctop vs. bottom.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s not running, he said, against Cornyn, Paxton or \u201cany one politician\u201d but against \u201cthe billionaire mega donors and their corrupt political system.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lea Downey Gallatin, 40, an Austin resident who met Talarico when they interned together for a congressman, described him as \u201ca serious advocate for the disenfranchised and a serious policymaker.\u201d<\/p>\n

Talarico campaigned on the theory that he could pull new people into the party\u2019s tent, while Crockett promised she could increase turnout within Democrats\u2019 base.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you hate politics and you never voted before, you have a home in this campaign,\u201d he said. He also reached out to erstwhile Trump voters who are \u201cfed up with the extremism and the corruption in our government.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the closing stretch of the primary campaign, Talarico posed for pictures and greeted the singer of a Tejano band playing in a San Antonio neighborhood. Inside his campaign rally that day, Lori Alvarez, a 39-year-old who works for a disaster relief nonprofit, said she supported Talarico because \u201che really listens to what we need.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he\u2019s going to be able to make change in Washington for us,\u201d said the married mother of three young girls.<\/p>\n

Crockett\u2019s voters must decide whether Talarico is a fighter<\/p>\n

Unofficial primary returns showed Talarico with a dominating performance around his home base of Austin, including in mostly white areas. He outpaced Crockett across much of rural and small-town Texas, including in the Rio Grande Valley, where Trump made gains in his 2024 presidential victory among Hispanic voters. Crockett was strongest in metro Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth, including areas with large concentrations of Black voters. <\/p>\n

Crockett is Black, and Talarico is white. <\/p>\n

A Democratic win in Texas would require stitching together that multiracial and multiethnic coalition, spanning the metro areas and heavily Latino South and West Texas, while limiting Republican margins in whiter rural counties. <\/p>\n

In 2018, Democrat Beto O\u2019Rourke came the closest to that mix, losing to Republican Sen. Ted Cruz by about 215,000 votes or about 2.5 percentage points. With both parties holding competitive primaries Tuesday, Democratic primary voters outnumbered Republicans by about 180,000 out of more than 4.4 million \u2014 with some ballots still being tallied.<\/a><\/p>\n

Talarico and other Democrats say enthusiasm is on their side this year. But there were plenty of Democratic Texans who saw Crockett as their champion. <\/p>\n

Troy Burrow, a 61-year-old Navy retiree, called her \u201crugged\u201d and \u201cthe only one I see fighting for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added, \u201cI like how she doesn\u2019t back down from anybody.\u201d<\/p>\n

Burrow said some voters probably saw Talarico as more electable because he is more soft-spoken. But, he said, \u201cWe\u2019ve got to get into the gutter with these folks, because that\u2019s where they are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Talarico, meanwhile, promised to fight in his own way \u2014 again invoking his faith. <\/p>\n

\u201cTwo thousand years ago, when the powerful few at the top hurt those at the bottom, that barefoot rabbi didn\u2019t stay in his room and pray,\u201d Talarico said, referencing Jesus and the Biblical story of his anger in the temple. \u201cHe walked into the seat of power and flipped over the tables of injustice.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that \u201cit\u2019s time to start flipping tables.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Barrow reported from Atlanta, Figueroa from Austin, Texas, and Beaumont from San Antonio. Associated Press writer Maya Sweedler in Washington contributed to this report.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

This story has corrected the last name of Texas voter Troy Burrow, from Burroughs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUSTIN, Texas (AP) \u2014 James Talarico barely mentioned Donald Trump when he finally got to give his victory…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":504823,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[164749,23,6778,28867,12,1070,793,69123,8644,21482,5744,6590,229845,229846,3,111,3766,6999,9669,1022,19081,229844,1059,8638,21,19,22,20,25,24,800],"class_list":{"0":"post-504822","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-2026-elections","9":"tag-america","10":"tag-austin","11":"tag-beto-orourke","12":"tag-donald-trump","13":"tag-elections","14":"tag-general-news","15":"tag-james-talarico","16":"tag-jasmine-crockett","17":"tag-john-cornyn","18":"tag-kamala-harris","19":"tag-ken-paxton","20":"tag-lea-downey-gallatin","21":"tag-lori-alvarez","22":"tag-news","23":"tag-politics","24":"tag-race-and-ethnicity","25":"tag-san-antonio","26":"tag-ted-cruz","27":"tag-texas","28":"tag-texas-state-government","29":"tag-troy-burrow","30":"tag-tx-state-wire","31":"tag-u-s-democratic-party","32":"tag-united-states","33":"tag-united-states-of-america","34":"tag-unitedstates","35":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","36":"tag-us","37":"tag-usa","38":"tag-washington-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=504822"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504822\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/504823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=504822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=504822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=504822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}