How James Talarico is working to win over Black voters who strongly backed Jasmine Crockett

On: James Talaricofirst rally after Ken Paxton Rodney Ellis, one of Texas’ most prominent Black leaders who became his rival in the U.S. Senate race, acknowledged that he supported Talarico’s opponent, Rep. Jasmine Crockett, in her election. tough Democratic primaries.

“That was then, this is now,” Ellis said Wednesday. “Too much is at stake for it to be unimportant.”

It was a remarkable vote of confidence from Ellis, a Harris County commissioner and former state senator from Houston. But it also showed how Talarico is still making inroads with Black voters nearly three months after overwhelmingly favoring Crockett, a bloc the state representative desperately needs if he wants one. Is there a chance for a historical breakthrough? For his party in Texas.

After losing to Talarico, Crockett called on Democrats to unite behind all of their candidates. But he has yet to campaign with Talarico, and his team made clear in a new statement to CNN that it believes Texas Democrats have made significant progress if they want to end Republican rule.

In the statement made by Crockett spokesman Karrol Rimal, it was stated that it would be “foolish to underestimate” Paxton and that “we still have a long road ahead of us until November.”

“Hard decisions will have to be made about where Democrats prioritize their spending; do they invest in a long-term investment in Texas or double down on their statewide wins in states like Alaska and Georgia?” The statement said: “Texas Democrats have filed a slate with the top three spots filled with lawmakers from Austin. They will need to do a lot of work outside of Central Texas and resonate with constituencies in our state, one of the largest and most diverse states in the world.”

The statement said Crockett still believes turning Texas blue “lies in energizing the Democratic base,” including voters of color. The statement said that Democrats “could chase disgruntled Republicans all day, but there were not enough of them to change the outcome.”

While Crockett’s spokesman said his team is not criticizing any particular candidate, Talarico says he wants to win over Democrats, independents and Republicans who have long been fed up with their party. On Tuesday night, after Paxton defeated Sen. John Cornyn in his party’s runoff, Talarico made a public appeal to Cornyn supporters, telling them they “have a place in our campaign” in an X post.

No Democrat has won statewide in Texas since 1994.

“I’m proud of the work we’ve done to bring our coalition together across Texas — because our state deserves a Senator who will do what’s necessary for Black Texans,” Talarico said in a statement to CNN. “As the top candidate, it is incumbent on me to earn the trust and support of Black voters that the national Democratic party has guaranteed for so long.”

‘He’s doing everything he can’

Talarico emerged from the contentious primary knowing he needed to make amends with Black voters who supported Crockett.

Since the primary, Talarico has delivered the commencement address at Paul Quinn College in Dallas, the oldest historically Black college in the state; He visited Prairie View A&M University, another HBCU outside Houston; and launched a plan to combat maternal mortality, which disproportionately affects Black women.

He held meetings with Black leadership groups in the Dallas area, Houston, and Austin; and separately met Fort Worth civil rights activist Opal Lee and Dallas pastor Freddie Haynes, the Democratic nominee to replace Crockett in the House. And earlier this month, Talarico made a surprise visit to an Austin taco shop with the most well-known Black Democrat in the country: former President Barack Obama.

“I truly believe he did everything he could,” said State Rep. Christian Manuel, a Black Democrat and former Crockett supporter who represents Jefferson County in southeast Texas, where Crockett won nearly 80% of the primary vote.

If there’s one problem, he said, it’s “people in the social media stratosphere.” [who] We’re still stuck with what happened in January, February, March, and the rest of us are trying to drag as many people as possible along to show up in November.

Manuel added that some Black Democrats have lobbied Talarico’s campaign to “give extra leeway” to campaign pushes to reach communities of color. “They acted sensitively,” he said.

The second stop of Talarico’s post-runoff tour took him Thursday to Nacogdoches, in the heart of East Texas, where Crockett carried most counties in the primary. He was introduced by Black county commissioner Sandy McCorvey, who said Talarico “understands the issues of this community” and “energizes a Democratic base” as part of his campaign strategy.

Talarico continues to make progress in unifying the party. He met with the Texas Organizing Project, a progressive statewide organizing group that backed Crockett after the primary, and will seek the group’s endorsement in the coming days, according to a source familiar with his plans.

Brianna Brown, the group’s general manager, said in an interview earlier this month that members were relatively unfamiliar with Talarico because the group does not operate in Austin. But he said he had a chance to get to know her better after the primary and emphasized to her that “the path to victory is not about centering White undecided voters.” He said he had “back and forth” on the issue, but he “kept an open mind” and showed that he had done his homework on the group.

“What was really encouraging about Jasmine’s race was that there was a whole new wave of voters who showed up because they were excited about what she represented,” Brown said, adding that Crockett has a “close kinship” with Black voters and that “James should be valued, respected and engaged.”

A controversial primary election

Surveys conducted ahead In the March primary, Crockett led Talarico by a significant margin among Black voters. Crockett swept the 10 counties with the highest shares of Black residents and won those counties by a nearly 24-point margin. In Jefferson County, which has the largest share of black residents in the state at nearly 33%, Crockett won by nearly 60 points.

There were sharp tensions between Crockett and Talarico supporters during the primary, and they often focused on the race. Former Rep. Colin Allred, who dropped out of the Senate race as Crockett entered, criticized Talarico after an influencer claimed Talarico privately referred to Allred as a “mediocre Black man”; Talarico said that was a “mischaracterization.” And days later, after a pro-Talarico super PAC began running ads questioning Crockett’s ability to win in November, he publicly called his line of attack racist. (Talarico himself said he thought he could win.)

After Talarico won the Senate nomination, Allred said she would support him. Allred won a U.S. House primary runoff against Rep. Julie Johnson on Tuesday; where Crockett campaigned for Allred and Talarico for Johnson.

After Talarico won the Senate primary on March 3, Crockett said he called her to congratulate her and told her Democrats “needed to rally around our candidates and win.” He has yet to campaign with her, instead focusing his political efforts on helping other Texas runoff candidates, including Allred and Christian Menefee in the 18th Congressional District.

Crockett also travels to other states to persuade candidates; This includes California for Xavier Becerra to become governor.

Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke, who Democrats nominated for the Senate in Texas in 2018 and became governor four years later, said Thursday on CNN’s “Laura Coates Live” that winning over Black voters in the state was a “ball game” for Talarico. He noted that Talarico’s support of Black voters so far has been “very encouraging,” but that he would like to see Crockett campaign with him.

“He has more star power than anyone I can think of in Texas except James Talarico,” O’Rourke said. “When he uses that to connect with voters here, I think James will have a more than good chance of winning this in November.”

Manuel, a Texas state representative, said he was confident Crockett supported Talarico and said it was more important for Black voters to “get to know him” than to see the congressman be surprised by him.

This sentiment is shared among other former Crockett supporters. Grand Prairie City Councilman Junior Ezeonu, one of the Black leaders who met with Talarico in Dallas after the primary, said he and most of the others at the meeting were Crockett supporters but understood the need to unite for the November election.

He said they also emphasized that Talarico needs to “take on the issues and fight for people like us” that are important to Black voters.

“We cannot assume that black voters will vote en masse because Trump is in office, because we are angry with Trump,” Ezeonu said. “We have to give them a reason to vote… They have to do it every day.”

CNN’s Edward Wu contributed to this report.

This story has been updated with additional information.

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