{"id":791442,"date":"2026-03-04T13:11:17","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T13:11:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/791442\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T13:11:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T13:11:17","slug":"james-talarico-beats-jasmine-crockett-in-democratic-primary-for-u-s-senate-houston-public-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/791442\/","title":{"rendered":"James Talarico beats Jasmine Crockett in Democratic primary for U.S. Senate \u2013 Houston Public Media"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\"James<\/a><\/p>\n

Michael Minasi\/KUT News<\/p>\n

State Rep. James Talarico, a U.S. Senate candidate, speaks at an Election Night watch party at Emo\u2019s in Austin on March 3, 2026.<\/p>\n

Austin state Rep. James Talarico beat Dallas Rep. Jasmine Crockett in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate, prevailing in a tight race that boosted the party\u2019s hopes for a statewide win in November.<\/p>\n

With all but one of Texas\u2019 counties and 85% of its polling locations reporting, Talarico had received 53.1% of the vote compared to 45.6% for Crockett, according to the Texas Secretary of State\u2019s Office<\/a>. The Associated Press early Wednesday morning called the race in favor of Talarico, who got a surge of exposure and financial backing at the start of early voting after his appearance on \u201cThe Late Show\u201d with Stephen Colbert was scrapped from the CBS broadcast<\/a> but viewed by millions on YouTube. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re about to take back Texas,\u201d Talarico said in a Wednesday morning statement, referring to Democrats\u2019 quest of winning a statewide election for the first time in more than 30 years.<\/p>\n

Sign up for the Hello, Houston!<\/a> daily newsletter to get local reports like this delivered directly to your inbox.<\/p>\n

In the November general election, Talarico will face the winner of the Republican primary<\/a>, which is headed to a May 26 runoff between incumbent Sen. John Cornyn and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.<\/p>\n

Results were delayed in places such as Dallas County, where Crockett is based. A judge there ordered polling locations to stay open until 9 p.m. \u2014 two hours after the usual time \u2014 because hundreds of voters arrived at polling locations where they thought they could vote, according to KERA<\/a>. The Texas Supreme Court subsequently ordered all Dallas County ballots cast by voters who got in line after 7 p.m. to be separated.<\/p>\n

Crockett’s campaign said she planned to sue over the voting issues in Dallas, according to the AP.<\/p>\n

A judge in El Paso also ordered polls to stay open past the usual 7 p.m. cutoff time. And there were issues with delays<\/a> at polling locations in Williamson County, north of Austin.<\/p>\n

Ahmad R. Hassan placed a distant third in the Democratic primary, garnering support from 1.3% of voters.<\/p>\n

Talarico<\/a>, 36, is an eighth-generation Texan and a former San Antonio middle school teacher who recently earned his Mastery of Divinity degree from the Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary.<\/p>\n

Talarico first won election to the Texas House in 2018, flipping a district then-President Donald Trump had won two years earlier. During the first legislative special session in 2025, he emerged as one of the leaders of a Democratic walkout<\/a> to protest the Republican-led congressional redistricting. Talarico declared his Senate candidacy<\/a> soon after the second special session ended in September.<\/p>\n

\"Jasmine<\/a><\/p>\n

ASSOCIATED PRESS<\/p>\n

Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, speaks to reporters after announcing her run in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate, Monday, Dec. 8, 2025, in Dallas. (AP Photo\/LM Otero)<\/p>\n

Crockett led Talarico in most of the polling, starting months before her formal entry into the primary in December. But Talarico dominated the campaign finance struggle, outraising not only Crockett but even the incumbent Republican Cornyn.<\/p>\n

RELATED: Senate candidate James Talarico raises $2.5 million after Stephen Colbert interview controversy, campaign says<\/a><\/p>\n

A January debate between Crockett and Talarico in Georgetown showed little daylight between the two candidates on most major issues. Both committed themselves to dramatic reforms, if not abolition, of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and to the impeachment of U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem. Both said they would vote to raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans. And each avoided personal attacks on the other.<\/p>\n

That civility didn’t last. Within days, a Crockett supporter revealed that attack ads against Talarico were coming.<\/p>\n

In early February, former congressman Colin Allred, who dropped out of the Democratic Senate primary in December, publicly accused Talarico of having referred to Allred as “a mediocre Black man<\/a>” and endorsed Crockett. Talarico called the allegations a \u201cmischaracterization of a private conversation,\u201d adding he had called Allred\u2019s 2024 Senate campaign against incumbent Sen. Ted Cruz \u201cmediocre,\u201d but not his \u201clife and service.\u201d In her own statement, Crockett said it was \u201cunfortunate that at the start of Black History Month, this is what we’re facing.”<\/p>\n

A pro-Talarico super PAC soon launched an attack ad of its own against Crockett, which argued she would be unable to win a general election against the eventual Republican nominee. Crockett released a statement calling Talarico \u2013 who has said, if elected, he would fight to ban such super PACs \u2013 a hypocrite.<\/p>\n

Talarico’s fundraising edge and aggressive ad campaign helped turn the race in his favor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Michael Minasi\/KUT News State Rep. James Talarico, a U.S. Senate candidate, speaks at an Election Night watch party…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":791443,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2056],"tags":[111433,107011,111434,27717,7,221,253,2368,111435,111436,88,6,4239,111437,222,51,111438],"class_list":["post-791442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston-texans","tag-2026-senate-race","tag-election-2026","tag-election-results","tag-elections","tag-football","tag-houston","tag-houston-texans","tag-houstontexans","tag-james-talarico","tag-jasmine-crockett","tag-news","tag-nfl","tag-politics","tag-senate-race-in-texas","tag-texans","tag-texas","tag-texas-u-s-senate-race"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116171080123370802","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=791442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791442\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/791443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=791442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=791442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=791442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}