Blue State Dreams

James Talarico's win signals Democrats may have found a national star in deep-red Texas after decades of statewide losses

- - BY JESUS MESA

JAMES TALARICO'S VICTORY DID MORE than settle a primary. It confirmed what many Democrats had been whispering for months—that the party may have found its next national star in a place it has not won statewide in more than three decades. For years, “turning Texas blue” has been more fever dream than strategy. Democrats have pointed to demographic shifts, narrowing presidential margins and booming suburbs as their ticket out of the wilderness in the Lone Star State. Yet no Democrat has won statewide office since the first Clinton administration.

State Representative Talarico won 52.5 percent of the vote, compared with Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett's 46.2 percent on March 4. The 36-year-old's win over Crockett in the Democratic Senate primary does not change that history. Not yet, at least. But it does alter the conversation.

Talarico did not run as a culture war progressive; he ran as a coalition builder. A former public school teacher and current seminarian, he campaigned in heavily Republican counties, spoke frequently about his Christian faith and centered his message on economic affordability—housing, energy costs and health care.

His argument was direct: Texas cannot be won by energizing Democrats alone. It requires persuading Republicans and independents. “I'm extending an open hand, rather than a closed fist, to folks who haven't voted for the Democratic Party in the past,” Talarico said—a calculus that strategists consulted by Newsweek described as essential in a state like Texas.

“In Texas, you cannot do this with just Democrats,” political strategist Mike Madrid, co-founder of the Lincoln Project, told Newsweek. “You have to win Republicans. His whole approach has been about building a bigger coalition.”

A Narrow but Real Opening