Originally published at: Talarico Wins Texas Senate Primary as He Tries to Bridge-Build His Way to 30-Year Upset
State Rep. James Talarico (D) will be Democrats’ standard-bearer in November, as they try to take advantage of President Trump’s unpopularity and a potentially deeply flawed Republican opponent to do the impossible — finally, finally flip Texas blue. Talarico beat Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D), a primary battle that quickly became overlaid with some of Democrats’…
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Ideally, come November, Talarico buries the villainous Paxton in a blizzard of blue votes. But November is eons away and - it’s Texas!
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Your lips to the gods’ ears, Billy! Good to hear from you. (Thought you were getting away from winter in RI, eh?)
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Anyone know whether President Trump’s domestic Drill-Baby-Drill program and the US military’s plan to seize and obtain Venezuelan crude and oil tankers by force will offset the loss of production from the Middle East in a week or two?
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Be careful. With your tongue in cheek like that there’s a risk of biting it. 
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Talarico won over Crocket 53% to 46%, and he won in rural areas, while Crocket won in more urban areas. I think we should acknowledge the elephant in the room, which is that Texas has a lot of racism, and Crocket would be going in with a 2-3%+ disadvantage as a minority. Talarico might have the better chance to win in November.
Election results: Texans are voting in the 2026 primary | The Texas Tribune
The horse-race is ugly, but it still exists. We can’t escape it.
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“Little daylight separated Talarico from Crockett on the issues, though their drastically different styles — and race and gender …”
Remember this is still Texas, so yes, race and gender, in a nutshell played a big role.
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Same issues Kamala Harris faced.
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Talirico wore his religion on his sleeve and came across to me as just as smarmy as House leader Rep. Mike Johnson. Hopefully his politics will be as liberal as he claims they are.
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The only thing that bothers me about Talarico is a fear that he might be a wolf in sheep’s clothing: a Democrat in name only, similar to Manchin, Sinema and Fetterman. I’ve heard rumors that this is the game he’s playing, but only time will tell and it be relevant only if he’s elected.
This is the problem with the Dems. One never hears about Republicans getting elected and then switching to the other side (Massie is a true exception to the rule), but Dems always seem to get buffaloed into voting for someone who then switches and screws over the constituency that put them in office.
I’m not sure how that changes in the future, but Talarico just might, MIGHT, be one of those and that will be disappointing.
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Talarico is very eloquent on the need for separation of church and state.
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Since it does not relate to Talarico winning the Texas Senate primary, your comment would be better if it was posted on a Morning Memo comment thread, which is more of a “catch-all” discussion.
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Talarico has crafted a message stolen pretty much verbatim from William Barber, the Moral Mondays guy from N Carolina. I think that’s a good thing not just for winning in Texas, but for finally having an effective counter to white Christian Nationalism. A lot of Latinos also respond favorably to this kind of message. I still wonder in my moments of doubt if he’s the real deal or if he just crafted himself a persona, but I do think the country desperately needs a prominent Christian left right now to break the fascist stranglehold over low info Christian voters. the future of the republic might depend on it.
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I’ve known and met a few very liberal Christians, and they are genuine, thoughtful, and beautiful people. I believe that Talarico is most likely the same.
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Hegseth:
“We used more exquisite standoff munitions at the start, but no longer need to. Our stockpiles of those, as well as Patriots, remains extremely strong. The enemy can no longer shoot the volume of missiles they once did, not even close,” he continued. “We can sustain this fight easily for as long as we need to,” he continued.
Macho Pete doesn’t seem to realize how absurd he is, strutting for a country that can’t even arrange municipal daycare for its youngest citizens.
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Okay, deleting post.
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I know that, and I hope he sticks with it. I do believe he has a much better chance of beating whoever the Republicans decide on than Crockett did. I hope she is able to stay in the House. She’s valuable there
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Me as well, but I don’t like it when candidates appeal to religious belief. Their morals? Of course. But I think their religion should be irrelevant. Update: In retrospect, I would also change morals to values. I was a young adult when Kennedy was elected. There was a huge discussion on his Roman Catholicism and what impact it would have on his presidency. Would he inject his church’s teachings on issues such as abortion?
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In a word, the word would be, “No.” A few facts for the discussion:
- Oil, like cash, is fungible.
- Refineries are optimized for particular feedstocks.
- The good part of the Venezuelan petroleum infrastructure is decrepit
- About 20% of the crude consumed in the world passes through the (now closed) Strait of Hormuz.
- Although the US is technically self-sufficient in petroleum, Fact 1 and Fact 2 mean that we export a lot of the crude we produce and import crude more suited to our refineries.
Basically, 20% of the world’s crude has been shut off for the time being. Nobody can ramp up production to make up for that. Oil is going to go where it’s most profitable to sell it. DonOLD Drumpf is stupid enough to try to stop US exports of crude. That could become amusing.
The good news (to the extent that there is any good news in this Gordian knot) is that the Chinese buy a lot of their crude from Iran on the down-low, and every drop of that passes through the Strait of Hormuz. So China’s going to be hurting: they buy that oil at a hefty discount (because Iranian oil is sanctioned), but they’ll have to pay elevated market prices for the replacement. Perhaps this will quiet the saber-rattling about Taiwan.
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