Rep. Jasmine Crockett’s attempt to move from the House to the Senate ended Tuesday when state Rep. James Talarico defeated her in the Democratic primary, the Associated Press reported.
Talarico, 36, who has built a quickly rising national profile, now becomes the Democratic nominee in a state Democrats have not won at the Senate level in nearly four decades.
He will meet the winner of a heated Republican runoff pitting Sen. John Cornyn against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in the general election.
The Texas Senate contest is among the cycle’s most consequential races and could play a role in whether Republicans retain control of the chamber.
The GOP currently holds a 53-47 Senate majority.
Crockett, 44, entered the race as a progressive firebrand and a frequent critic of President Donald Trump in Congress.
National outlets and Democrats had often labeled her a rising star, but her confrontational style turned divisive inside Texas and raised questions about broad electability.
In the final stretch, the campaign increasingly centered on electability, identity politics and the party’s path forward in a right-leaning state.
The closing weeks of the primary featured ugly exchanges that placed race at the center of the battle.
An influencer alleged a month ago that Talarico had called former Rep. Colin Allred a “mediocre Black man” in a private conversation.
The influencer Morgan Thompson, known as @morga_tt on TikTok, claimed Talarico told her he had “signed up to run against a mediocre Black man, not a formidable, intelligent, Black woman.”
Talarico denied the allegation and rebutted it publicly.
“In my praise of Congresswoman Crockett, I described Congressman Allred’s method of campaigning as mediocre — but his life and service are not. I would never attack him on the basis of race,” he said in a statement.
Allred, the party’s 2024 Senate nominee, responded with his own warning shot.
BREAKING 🚨 Rep Jasmine Crockett just lost her Democrat Primary for the Senate. I LOVE THIS
SHE IS NO LONGER GOING TO BE IN CONGRESS
GOOD RIDDANCE pic.twitter.com/KspQdH2wqK
— MAGA Voice (@MAGAVoice) March 4, 2026
“James, if you want to compliment Black women, just do it. Just do it. Don’t do it while also tearing down a Black man,” Allred said in a video.
Crockett seized on the controversy, saying Allred “drew a line in the sand.”
She also accused a super PAC aligned with Talarico of darkening her skin tone in an advertisement and called that move “straight up racist.”
She framed criticism about statewide electability as a “dog whistle” aimed at tearing down a Black woman and insisted she was the most qualified candidate.
Talarico ran the contrasting argument that he could win over Republican voters and make the party competitive statewide.
He pointed to flipping a formerly Republican district in northeast Austin and its suburbs as proof of that ability to attract swing voters.
Talarico entered the closing months with stronger fundraising and momentum, out-raising and out-spending Crockett in the final two months.
His viral social clips, TikTok reach and an appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast expanded his name recognition far beyond Texas politics.
Rogan even suggested Talarico should consider a future presidential run.
Crockett’s defeat is a significant setback for Democrats who counted on her as a national foil to President Trump.
Instead, Texas Democrats chose a younger nominee with a more measured public persona and an argument that the party needs to expand beyond its base to win statewide.
Talarico now moves on to a general election in a state where Democrats have struggled at the Senate level for decades and where Republicans will seek to link him to the national party’s unpopular positions.
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