James Talarico faces GOP attacks after Texas Senate primary win

AUSTIN, Texas — Republicans didn’t wait for the call to target James Talarico, the Democratic nominee in the high-stakes midterm election battle in the Democratic Senate primary in Texas.

Hours before the Associated Press reported early Wednesday that Talarico, a Democratic state lawmaker with a rising national profile, had defeated Rep. Jasmine Crockett, a nationally known politician and progressive ardent supporter, Republicans wasted no time in characterizing Talarico as a “far-left radical.”

Talarico, a 36-year-old former middle school teacher and Presbyterian seminarian, is trying to become the first Democrat to win a Senate election in right-wing Texas in nearly four decades and will face the winner of a tedious May 26 Republican primary runoff between longtime incumbent Sen. John Cornyn and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.

This year’s Senate showdown in Texas is one of the few events in midterm elections across the country that could determine whether Republicans can gain a majority in the chamber. The GOP currently controls chamber 53-47.

“James Talarico is an open-border, Trump-hating radical who should never be allowed to step foot in the U.S. Senate,” National Republican Senatorial Committee Communications Director Joanna Rodriguez said in a statement Tuesday evening.

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Paxton claimed in a primary night speech in Dallas that Talarico “is a far-left radical who wants to abolish ICE. He says God is non-binary — I’m not even sure I know what that means — and he thinks Christians are commanded to put boys into girls’ sports. He will be nothing more than a puppet for Chuck Schumer and the national Democrats.”

Republican Senate candidate Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton speaks to supporters at a campaign event on the eve of the primary on March 2, 2026 in Waco, Texas. (Paul Steinhauser/Fox News)

In an interview with Fox News Digital on Sunday, Cornyn said both Talarico and Crockett “should be running for Senate in California, not Texas. They’re way out of the mainstream in Texas.”

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A senior Republican operative working in Senate races described Talarico as “Beto 2.0,” a reference to former Democratic Rep. Beto O’Rourke; He was a onetime rising star who unsuccessfully tried to take on conservative firebrand Sen. Ted Cruz as a 2018 Democratic Senate candidate and later ran for the White House and governor of Texas.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, speaks during a campaign stop on Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026, in The Woodlands, Texas. (Annie Mulligan/AP Photo)

“Republicans recognize that Talarico is a formidable candidate, but they also know that Texas is still a very conservative state, and they will try to brand him as a far-left radical so that center-right voters in the state and independent voters in the state will not choose him over the Republican candidate,” Texas-based GOP consultant Brendan Steinhauser told Fox News Digital.

“Republicans will find every speech Talarico makes in the Texas House progressive or leftist in nature, and they will use that over and over again to brand him as a far-left guy. That’s the kind of playbook I expect, and they won’t waste their time doing that,” he added.

Talarico, who was first elected to the Texas House in 2018 by flipping the red district in northeast Austin and surrounding suburbs, has highlighted his ability to win over Republican voters. He campaigned across the state, including in areas where Democratic candidates don’t often show up. And he questioned whether Crockett could run a competitive general election campaign.

While Talarico has dramatically outperformed and spent more than Crockett in the last two months, he has portrayed himself as the underdog in the primary fight against the better-known congressman.

U.S. Senate Democratic candidate Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, speaks at a primary election watch party in Dallas on Tuesday, March 3, 2026 (Tony Gutierrez/AP Photo)

For two terms, Crockett, who represents predominantly Black and Hispanic-majority neighborhoods in Dallas and the surrounding inner suburbs south of the city, has attracted considerable attention for his high-profile clashes with Republicans on the House Oversight Committee. In 2024, Marjorie Taylor Greene from Georgia went viral.

He also made headlines last year for calling longtime Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott “Governor Hot Wheels.”

Talarico, who speaks openly about his faith and how it shapes his progressive policy agenda, began garnering national attention last year with a series of social media appearances that went viral. Her TikTok videos, which have been viewed millions of times, and her appearance on Joe Rogan’s top-rated podcast last July, have also boosted her profile.

Rogan suggested during the interview that Talarico should run for president.

A month later, Talarico was a regular on cable news networks, conducting dozens of national media interviews; He and dozens of his fellow Democrats in the Texas House fled the state for weeks to delay the eventual Trump-led redistricting push in Texas to create up to five more right-leaning seats in Congress.

Talarico launched his Senate campaign a month later, in September.

State Rep. James Talarico, Democratic Senate candidate in Texas, shakes hands with supporters during a first night celebration in Austin, Texas, on March 3, 2026 (Paul Steinhauser/Fox News)

Last month, Talarcio gained further national attention when his appearance on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” was removed from broadcast TV and instead posted on YouTube. Colbert accused his network CBS of blocking the interview, citing Federal Communications Commission (FCC) guidelines.

The controversy appeared to give Talarico a boost, with his campaign saying they raised $2.5 million in donations in the 24 hours after his “censored” interview.

Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee chairman Sen. “Talarico spent years fighting for Texans in the state House, where he fought for teachers and students, fought to lower the cost of health care, and fought corruption in politics. Now he’s ready to take that fight to the U.S. Senate,” Kirsten Gillibrand said Wednesday.

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And Talarico was receiving praise from both the center and left of his party.

Adam Green, co-founder of the Campaign Committee for Progressive Change, said, “Talarico’s victory shows that voters are hungry for Democrats to boldly fight for workers, corporate responsibility, and an improved quality of life, not just against Donald Trump. When we talk to voters, it’s clear that they are both inspired by Talarico’s economic populist message and believe he can win in the general election.” he said.

And Adam Jentleson, president of the center-left Searchlight Institute, said Talarico’s victory was “a refreshing break from a history of division and polarization and an embrace of candidates who can unite broad swathes of Americans behind the big tent we need: the super-majority coalition.”

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