Texas Democrats called out over ‘circular firing squad behavior’ in Senate race

Democrats in Texas were called out for “circular firing squad behavior” in the state’s Democratic Senate primary in an article published in the Atlantic on Friday.

“The party’s latest and most egregious circular fireteam behavior occurred earlier this week, when Democrat Colin Allred, who had previously dropped out of the Senate race, endorsed Jasmine Crockett, one of the two remaining primary challengers. He explained why in a video posted on social media on Monday,” the Atlantic writer Jonathan Chait wrote.

The article cited comments made by political influencer Morgan Thompson, who posts on TikTok under the username @morga_tt, alleging that state Rep. James Talarico, a Democrat, referred to former Rep. Colin Allred, D-Texas, as a “mediocre Black man.” Talarico, who is currently facing Rep. Jasmine Crockett, allegedly told Thompson that she “signed up to run against a mediocre Black man, not a terrific, intelligent Black woman.”

Allred responded to the comments with a video on social media and encouraged people to vote for Crockett.

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Allred withdrew from the Senate Race in December.

Chait wrote that Allred chose the most “provocative response” to post on TikTok.

“Allred did not do this to have He didn’t have to record and share his response to Talarico, and he didn’t have to accept the allegation at face value. “He chose the most provocative response,” he wrote.

“We are tired of people praising Black women to mask criticism of Black men,” Allred said.

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“Everything about this incident reveals pathological levels of incompetence. Crockett and his supporters are probing for gaping cracks that will wound whichever candidate emerges. They express themselves in social justice jargon that may be effective in the student council race at Wesleyan but is completely foreign to most Texans,” Chait wrote.

Chait also criticized Crockett for his plan to win over historically unreachable voters. The progressive firebrand said she doesn’t need to win over voters who support President Donald Trump. “Our goal is to make sure we’re able to engage people who haven’t been talked to in the past,” he told CNN in an interview in December.

“Crockett argued that it could help increase the turnout of infrequent voters. The belief that there is a hidden reservoir of left-wing voters who will only bother going to the polls if a sufficiently progressive candidate galvanizes their interest is a decades-old myth,” Chait argued.

State Rep. James Talarico, left, a Texas Democrat and U.S. Senate candidate, and Rep. Jasmine Crockett, a Texas Democrat and U.S. Senate candidate, shake hands during a debate at the 2026 Texas AFL-CIO COPE Convention on Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026, in Georgetown, Texas. (Bob Daemmrich/The Texas Tribune/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

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He also argued that concerns about Crockett’s electability were not racist as he suggested. Chait specifically referenced podcast hosts Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers telling listeners not to waste money on his campaign.

In response, Crockett said the hosts said “the quiet part out loud.”

“I really think the host said the quiet part out loud, which was basically: If a White man can’t do this, then why would a Black woman have the audacity to think she could?” Crockett said.

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“A fatal flaw of progressive identity norms that treat women and people of color as experts on racism and sexism whose accusations of bias cannot be refuted is that they isolate bad arguments from scrutiny. The belief that undecided voters in Texas are too racist and sexist to compromise implies that defeat is the only morally acceptable option,” he wrote.