Texas Primary's MVP Leading Crusade
to Chase Corrupt Politicos from Temple
Capitol Inside
March 7, 2026
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James Talarico MVP
U.S. Senate - Democrat
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GOP politicians are running scared from the Rio Grande to the Potomac after a victory by James Talarico in the Texas primary election with a U.S. Senate campaign that a congressional Republican and former colleague cogently characterized as "picture perfect" in a national television interview in the countdown to the vote.
A product of the last blue wave in 2018, Talarico was in a different league with all of the other candidates on the Texas primary ballot this week. After winning the most competitive Democratic primary fight at the statewide level here in three dozen years, the state representative from Austin was the obvious choice for most valuable player honors on the Capitol Inside All-Star team for the Texas primary election in 2026.
Talarico was as close to flawless as it gets en route to a 6-point win against rock star rival Jasmine Crockett - the most famous U.S. House member whose initials aren't AOC when she entered the ring at the eleventh hour in December as the immediate favorite based on the early polling in the contest. The Dallas lawyer was willing to give up a safe U.S. House seat because she truly looked invincible in round one. But she and everyone else underestimated the former public school teacher who doubles as a Presbyterian minister - and the Republicans are freaked by the prospects that Talarico may just be warming up after winning the nomination with almost 53 percent of the primary vote this week.
Talarico's triumph was an epic paradox - the most unique and unconventional race that anyone around here had ever seen in a quest for votes that he would have to earn the old-fashion way in some respects with a superior fundraising effort, organization, tireless work ethic and a ground game like none other. The Talarico Take Back Texas campaign was a magnet for folks from all walks of life and partisan persuasions - packing houses to the rafters from rural outposts like Lubbock to border towns to Houston where it ended round one as the place with the most potential votes.
But Talarico was a one-of-a-kind original - and he transformed a debut statewide race into a movement on a mission of love with the first faith-based campaign by an unapologetic liberal. Talarico won the primary election in large part on the strength of his support from Hispanics who'd bucked the Democrats for President Donald Trump in recent years. Republicans in Austin based projections for a five-seat gain on a new congressional map on the assumption that the 2024 president's race represented a permanent realignment of the Latino vote here. Talarico fared better with voters from the opposing party than any candidate here for either party has done since George W. Bush in bids for governor.
Out of 1,212,486 that Talarico received in the first round - more than U.S. Senator John Cornyn and Wesley Hunt had combined across the aisle - a significant number came from Republican and independent voters who were fed up with the country's Trump-fueled chaos and division and moved by the Democrat's message that transcended partisan divides.
The polls didn't pick up on the legions of young people including many first-time voters flocked to Talarico.
Governor Greg Abbott demonstrated the depth of the fear and desperation the Democrats' new Senate nominee inspired in GOP partisan ranks when he spent millions of dollars on ads attacking Crockett on the premise that Democrats would be more inclined to vote for her if they thought the governor hated her that badly. So much for getting cute.
But Talarico has warned the faithful to expect the kitchen sink and more from the Republicans in the fall.
"They're going to throw everything they have at us," Talarico said in a victory speech this week. "They're going to call me a radical leftist. They're going to call me a fake Christian. They'll call our movement un-American. They'll call us a threat. The only truth is we are a threat to their corrupt system."
The Democrats' Senate nominee in Texas is Forrest Gump with a Harvard-level IQ and an uncanny ability to articulate views and visions in ways that are easy for everyone to understand. Abbott and the Republicans have been scrambling for answers to the juggernaut Democrat - and the best they've come up with so far are some old quotes from five and six years ago they've dug up in an attempt to make him look like a nerdy left-wing radical who isn't manly enough to represent them.
The best players in team sports always seem to get the best breaks. Talarico got the biggest of all with the gushers of publicity that he attracted when the Trump administration launched an investigation into The View after he appeared on the show. The God-fearing Republicans here had to wonder if the good Lord was pulling for Talarico when CBS News refused to air an interview with Stephen Colbert for the Late Show amid ostensible pressure from the FCC.
Talarico has emerged as the most eloquent, effective and credible critic of Christian nationalists on the planet. He captures the essense and overriding goal of his campaign when he shares the story from the Bible on the cleansing of the temple in Jerusalem at campaign stops with overflow crowds that fly to their feet with cheering and applause when he gets to the point. Talarico is leading a revolt against corruption in politics - and the roaring that erupts when he declares that the time to start flipping the tables in the temple has come in the Lone Star State.
Coming to Capitol Inside: Best of the Texas primary election all-star selections with installments for incumbents, challengers and candidates in open races and more ...
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