Talarico beats Crockett in closely-watched Texas Dem primary, GOP has runoff

Voters in Texas and North Carolina cast their votes in primaries on Tuesday, with Texas Democrats choosing state representative James Talarico over Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) as their nominee for the Senate in one of the most closely-watched races for November.

GOP voters in the Lonestar State sent the race between incumbent Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Ken Paxton, the state attorney general, to a runoff, with neither candidate securing 50% of the vote.

The primary races reflected sharp contrasts in style, if not necessarily views, within each party. 

Crockett used much of her time in the House to develop a reputation as a progressive firebrand and avowed enemy of U.S. President Donald Trump, while Talarico is a soft-spoken seminarian, who often mixes left-wing politics with the Bible.

The GOP race pitted Cornyn, a 24-year Senate veteran, against the more MAGA-aligned but scandal-ridden Paxton, whom the Texas state House impeached in 2023 on charges of bribery and fraud. The Texas state Senate acquitted him.

Trump weighed in on the Texas race on Wednesday, saying that he would call on one of the candidates to drop out, as Republicans try to hold onto the Senate in the midterms.

“I will be making my endorsement soon, and will be asking the candidate that I don’t endorse to immediately drop out of the race,” Trump wrote. “Is that fair? We must win in November.”

Cornyn narrowly beat out Paxton in the first round 41.9% to 40.7%, while Talarico beat Crockett 52% to 46%, with more than 95% of votes counted.

Both Talarico and Crockett faced criticism from far-left groups over their support for Israeli self-defense and refusal to describe Israel’s conduct in Gaza as “genocide.”

Talarico has nonetheless been deeply critical of Israel, saying that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “does not have the right to bomb civilians, restrict aid or use forced famine and collective punishment as tactics” and that he would “ban offensive weapons to the Netanyahu government.”

With Crockett losing Tuesday’s race, her House seat is likely to be taken up by Frederick Haynes III, senior pastor of Friendship-West Baptist Church in Dallas, after he won the Democratic primary in Texas’s 30th Congressional District.

Haynes has previously described Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan as a “wonderful and great man,” and on Oct. 8, 2023, he accused Israel of being an “apartheid” state in a sermon.

“This country is going to stand on the side of apartheid because that’s its track record,” Haynes said on the day after Oct. 7. “It stood by apartheid in South Africa, because it created apartheid in this country.”

Supporters of Israel in the House could also still suffer a defeat in North Carolina where the race between incumbent Rep. Valerie Foushee (D-N.C.) and Nida Allam, a county commissioner, remains too close to call in the state’s 4th Congressional District.

Foushee lost the support of AIPAC after she rejected the pro-Israel group as part of a leftward backtrack from support for the Jewish State, but anti-Israel PACs backing Allam made Foushee’s previous support from the group the centerpiece of election ads.

Allam, who was the first Muslim woman elected to office in North Carolina, has called Israel’s actions in Gaza “genocide” and supports the movement to boycott Israel.

Foushee leads Allam by just over 1,200 votes out of more than 120,000 cast. Foushee declared victory on Tuesday, but Allam has said that she will invoke a North Carolina law guaranteeing a recount in races with a margin of less than 1%.

AIPAC said on Wednesday that 35 of its endorsed candidates won their primaries and will now advance to the general election.

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