The Mess in Texas

I like Jasmine Crockett, and it’s OK for her to be mad/sad/not glad about losing the Texas primary. But this is kinda nuts:

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Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, said she’s skeptical her former Senate primary rival James Talarico can turn Texas blue this fall.

“I don’t know,” she told NBC News last night at an election night party for Rep. Wesley Bell, D-Mo.

Crockett said she doesn’t buy the general election polls, saying they’ve historically overstated Democrats’ prospects in Texas.

“I watch money,” Crockett said. “When I look at the money, if Republicans start spending money in Texas, then I’ll be convinced. But right now, national Republicans decided they wanted to dump money into North Carolina, as well as Georgia. That’s where they’re fighting, and national Democrats have not decided to dump money into Texas either.”

“I look at where does the NRSC stand? Where does DSCC stand? Right now, neither one are investing, which tells me that their internals are saying the same thing," she said. "So it looks like status quo. I won’t get on the ground to really start to feel it until maybe end of September, October, as I start to dig into which races I’m going to help out in, the races that I really feel like we can win.”

NBC News

I don’t disagree with much of what Crockett said, but I will note that the polls look better than they did when Beto O’Rourke ran against Cruz. Still, she’s not dumb. She knows that saying this to a national reporter will generate a story. So, here we are. If she sincerely thinks that Talarico would lose, some comments about how great he is and how she’s going to help the best she can would be the smart move. If she thinks Talarico can win and doesn’t want it to happen, doing what she did will hurt him. It’s disqualifying for a bigger role in Democratic politics, in my sad opinion.

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Cheez Whiz3 months ago

She sounds like she's trying very hard to sound Savvy, above it all, and focused on where she can best reenforce her brand by picking progressive winners to back. Absent from her Money analysis is small-donor contributions. It all comes across very Consultant.

Tam R3 months ago

I think Crockett is correct. I hope it changes. My mom lived in Houston for many years so I used to follow politics there. Lots of voter suppression especially in Harris County which is the Dem stronghold.

Kay W.3 months ago

I’m not in the camp of people who think Trump is funny - I think he’s horrifying, even evil, a nasty piece of work. But that wig he’s wearing! When you pick a wig they give you many choices - Donald Trump CHOSE that ash blonde cotton candy confection that is sitting atop his head. He thought that looked great 😂

TBone Dinosaur3 months ago

It's a solace for me to see the memes everywhere when I need to take a break. My cousin in Michigan recently experienced a horrible trauma and we've been trading memes about the wig for comic relief!

Kay W.3 months ago

I don’t know anything about Texas - I have visited only Austin and Corpus Christi. She does sound unhappy, but as mm wrote, what she said also rings true. Disappointing- I thought Texas was looking competitive but she’s probably right about money shifting being the best indicator. I think Talarico stands out for what seems to be his ability to bring in Latinos who have fallen away from the Democratic Party. That’s just huge - the only other Dem who has done this is Gallego. Lefties resent Talarico because they think he has adopted Lefty rhetoric but is a secret centrist, which is amusing. If it’s true I don’t blame him at all 🙂

C P3 months ago

Lefties resent Talarico because they think he has adopted Lefty rhetoric but is a secret centrist, which is amusing. If it’s true I don’t blame him at all 🙂

On the one hand, people aren't wrong to fear that every vote for a leftist might just be a vote for a slick opportunist who won't actually do anything to help them once in power.

On the other hand, it's also true that any successful coalition is going to include a bunch of people who are just along for the ride. To a certain point, we want people who are "only doing thing X because it gets them votes."

David J3 months ago

Texas Tribune had a great rundown on what happened in the Democratic primary.

https://www.texastribune.org/2026/03/06/jasmine-crockett-texas-james-talarico-democrat-us-senate-primary/

tldr; Crockett got in three months after Talarico. She ran a disorganized campaign that relied mostly on name recognition. Talarico built an effective campaign by organizing volunteers and visiting every county in the state.

David J3 months ago

But, to your point, I have no idea what Crockettt is thinking and won't venture a guess as to why she's said some of the things she said since losing in the primary. She did learn a tough lesson about getting all the fundamentals of campaigning right. Texas is to big a geographic area to think name ID is enough to carry you through a statewide election.

Busted Knee3 months ago

A lot of politicians buy into the fact that being on camera a lot and having a rabid fan base behind them translates into broader appeal. There's also a trap of confusing out of state popularity for in state popularity.

TBone Dinosaur3 months ago(edited)

My smartass response

Maybe she should smile more

Scott H3 months ago

A lot of people I network with are in TX and they, to a person, have said that since she lost the primary, "her true colors", have come out.

These aren't people predisposed to dislike her from the gitgo but her post-primary behavior has been, from their perspective, completely off the rails. As in she's making Katie Porter's repeated losses and craptastic post-loss behavior look decent by comparison.

Again from what they say, they're now incredibly glad Talarico won the primary because she's gone cookooforcocoapuffs.

C P3 months ago

Yeah, this feels like the kind of thing we're glad to see happen in smaller governmental positions? If she's as much of a schlemiel as she seems to be, better to find out now than after, y'know, a presidential primary. (Or nomination).

Busted Knee3 months ago

One of the problems with media attention grabbing "stars" is they tend to be the types who are addicted to attention. They can be incredibly nice and have a lot of grace when they are the star of the showing and people are looking at them. But when the tables turn and they get rejected they turn just as dark and nasty right after. If you've run into this type of person in your life you can see it coming a miles off.

Busted Knee3 months ago

There's something else going on here that's really ugly and reveals a lot about our party.

If you look at say, a certain other place on the internet, Crockett should have won because she was a Black woman. Anyone who voted for Talarico was sexist/racist and Talarico should have dropped out. They aren't being coy about it either. If her rabid backers online are saying this I wouldn't doubt that people in her own circle are saying this. Same places also insist that Black voters should pick our candidates and everyone else should follow them. This is usually from well of white people.

C P3 months ago

Same places also insist that Black voters should pick our candidates and everyone else should follow them. This is usually from well of white people.

I swear to God, the way those guys treat the black electorate is straight out of the Noble Savage playbook: a group with a unique, elemental, almost supernatural understanding of the nature of things (albeit politics rather than life or Mother Earth or whatever), that the boring normies should just unquestioningly accept as spiritual guides.

Black voters are people. They fuck up as much as anyone, including in ways that actively screw the party (in recent times, backing Cuomo even after his Trump endorsement, and before that teaming up with Republican voters to put a black Donald Trump in the NYC mayor's office). They're no worse than anybody else, but for fuck's sake stop treating them like they've got some kind of crystal ball the rest of us don't.

C P3 months ago

I don't follow Texas politics closely enough to really have a prior opinion on her. The main thing I know is what I've heard in this election cycle; namely, that Talarico explicitly asked her if she wanted to run, saying he'd say out of her way if she did, and she said no... until the last possible minute.

Frankly that already felt pretty disqualifying. But if it wasn't, this definitely is.

mister mixAuthor3 months ago

I hadn’t heard that story, and I don’t follow Texas politics closely either, but this is weird.

C P3 months ago

I heard it from Murc at LGM, but a quick googling says it came from an interview Talarico gave.

The Mess in Texas

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