Recent Reports Point To Talarico’s Uphill Fight For The Black Vote in the U.S. Senate Race
James Talarico has been trying to win over Black voters across Texas, but some congregants at Friendship-West Baptist Church in Dallas say he has not yet made his case in one of the state’s most important Black political spaces.
“Come and make the ask. Come and try to earn the vote,” Alan Williams, a Crockett voter and Friendship-West congregant, told Politico in April. “I think he thinks our vote is just a default and he doesn’t have to earn it.”
This captures the central challenge now facing Talarico, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Texas. If he wants to defeat Republican nominee Ken Paxton and become the first Democrat to win statewide office in Texas since 1994, he will have to win over the state’s nearly 3 million Black voters who largely backed Crockett in the primary.
According to Politico, he has visited some Black churches, held meetings with faith leaders and elected officials, block-walked in majority-Black cities and visited Prairie View A&M University, an HBCU. He has also spoken at Paul Quinn College, released a plan addressing Black maternal mortality and made a surprise Austin appearance with former President Barack Obama.
Still, those efforts may not be enough to overcome the skepticism Talarico faces from parts of the Black community.
A recent CNN article detailed how Talarico is still building inroads with Black voters nearly three months after they overwhelmingly favored Crockett, a bloc he needs for any chance at a historic Democratic breakthrough in Texas.
Talarico has built a campaign around his Christian faith, decency, public education, affordability and a rejection of Christian nationalism. His language about loving neighbors, feeding the poor and resisting cruelty gives him a moral contrast against Paxton, whose campaign is rooted in culture war politics and Trump-backed grievance.
That message may help Talarico reach disillusioned Republican voters. But if he wants to make history, he will have to persuade a group that may be harder to win over: Black voters, especially Black women, who saw Crockett as a fighter.
Crockett did not win the Democratic nomination, but she proved something important during the primary: the Black vote still matters.
According to CNN, Crockett swept the 10 Texas counties with the highest share of Black residents by about 24 points and won Jefferson County by nearly 60 points.
The tension is also about what happened during the campaign. The primary included allegations that Talarico privately referred to Colin Allred as a “mediocre Black man,” a claim Talarico denied and called a mischaracterization. Allred sharply criticized the alleged remark, while Crockett said the controversy reflected a fear many Black people and other minorities have about how they may be discussed behind closed doors.
Then there were ads from a pro-Talarico political action committee that questioned Crockett’s electability. Crockett called one of the ads racist and said it darkened her skin. Talarico has said the PAC was not affiliated with his campaign and that he disagreed with its message.
Crockett has called for Democrats to unite, but she has not yet campaigned with Talarico. According to Politico, Talarico said he and Crockett have exchanged messages since the primary and that he would “love nothing more” than to have her on the campaign trail.
Also Read: Jasmine Crockett’s Proxy Win Over Talarico Puts Texas Rivalry Back In Focus
Even Colin Allred, who said he supports Talarico, told Politico that Talarico’s challenge is less about persuading Black voters to support him over the Republican nominee and more about persuading them to turn out. Allred said Talarico needs to show comfort in Black spaces and Black communities, adding that there is “no substitute for it.”
For Talarico, the question is not whether Black voters will choose him over Paxton. It is whether he can give them enough reason to show up with the same force they gave Crockett — and prove that his campaign is willing to earn what Democrats have too often expected.
