Texas’s Primary Losers Really Don’t Like the Primary Winners

Democratic representative James Talarico and state Republican attorney general Ken Paxton emerged victorious from their contentious primaries and are facing off in Texas’s most-contested Senate race since at least 2018. But don’t expect to see their primary opponents lining up to support them.

In new remarks this week, Republican senator John Cornyn and Democratic representative Jasmine Crockett both indicated that they plan to direct their electoral efforts toward their parties’ other races — and didn’t exactly hide the tension between them and the candidates who bested them a few months ago.

In an interview with the Texas Tribune, Cornyn gave some of his most expansive postprimary comments yet, revealing his plans to help the party fundraise in states like New Hampshire, Michigan, and Alaska and “some of these other states where I think we’ve got close races.”

Cornyn also didn’t hold back about his frustration with Paxton, the scandal-laden Republican nominee who ended Cornyn’s reelection bid, boosted heavily by a late-in-the-game endorsement from President Trump.

“Paxton’s a poor campaigner,” Cornyn told the Tribune. “He’s lazy and doesn’t raise money. And he basically is not offering a very compelling case for his election. He’s making this harder than it needs to be. But so be it — we are where we are.”

On the Democratic side, Crockett recently appeared on CNN, where she warned that Democrats shouldn’t get too “comfortable” with polling leads, pointing to the much narrower margin that occurred in Michigan’s primary, where public-health official Abdul El-Sayed just eked out a win over Representative Haley Stevens. “Whatever we do, the energy has to be kept up. Polls don’t vote; people do,” she said.

But anchor Laura Coates then turned to the congresswoman herself, asking about her ability to energize voters and whether she intended to join Talarico on the campaign trail. “I will be campaigning down ballot,” Crockett said.

When pressed by Coates, Crockett pointed to former representative Beto O’Rourke’s unsuccessful 2018 Senate bid, suggesting that voters need more than just a singular focus on one prominent race to boost turnout and that she wants to work toward “amplifying” lesser-known candidates and raising their profiles.

“For me, I’m really invested in a number of candidates that I didn’t get to do anything for because I was running my own Senate race. Candidates that I really do believe can make a difference no matter what happens, ultimately, at the top of the ticket. We’ve got to have wins,” she said, while stopping short of naming specific races she intends to get involved in.

Crockett did issue a subtle endorsement of Talarico after conceding the primary back in March, urging voters to support the state’s Democratic slate. “Texas is primed to turn blue and we must remain united because this is bigger than any one person. This is about the future of all 30 million Texans and getting America back on track,” Crockett said in a statement. “With the primary behind us, Democrats must rally around our nominees and win. I’m committed to doing my part and will continue working to elect democrats up and down the ballot.”

But in the months since, the outgoing congresswoman has seemed less than enthused by Talarico’s campaign and, at times, appeared to suggest the state representative’s chances of flipping the Senate seat were low. Earlier this month when asked by NBC News if she thought Talarico could win, Crockett said, “I don’t know,” citing the lack of investment from Republicans in the state at that time. “I watch money,” Crockett told the outlet. “When I look at the money, if Republicans start spending money in Texas, then I’ll be convinced. But right now, national Republicans decided they wanted to dump money into North Carolina, as well as Georgia. That’s where they’re fighting, and national Democrats have not decided to dump money into Texas either.”

The weeks leading up to the Democratic primary were frequently tense. In one high-profile incident, Talarico denied a claim from a Texas-based political influencer that he called his other primary challenger, former representative Colin Allred, a “mediocre Black man,” with Talarico claiming he was merely comparing Allred’s campaign to Crockett’s and that he “deeply respects” Allred. The congresswoman accused a pro-Talarico super-PAC of running ads that darkened her skin, calling it “straight-up racist” during a campaign appearance February. Talarico’s campaign noted at the time that it had no involvement with the ads, as it’s illegal for super-PACs and candidates to coordinate. At a town-hall event last month, Talarico specifically called out supporters of his over their criticism of Crockett.

“Let me say this as clearly as I possibly can. If you claim to be my supporter, if you claim to be a part of this movement that we are building, please keep Congresswoman Crockett’s name out of your mouth,” Talarico said, describing her as a friend dating back to her time in the statehouse. “The congresswoman has been incredibly helpful. She’s done more than she needed to do, and so I am demanding that anyone who claims to be a supporter of mine anywhere treat the congresswoman with the respect that she has earned.”

Recent polls have shown Talarico consistently holding a slim lead over Paxton, an unprecedented position for a Democratic candidate in the deep-red state. A Texas Public Opinion Research poll published Wednesday showed the state representative receiving 48 percent from likely voters to Paxton’s 42 percent. While Talarico has also consistently out-fundraised Paxton, the attorney general is poised to get a much-needed boost. Trump traveled to Houston Thursday to headline a Republican National Committee fundraiser for Paxton’s Senate bid, with the New York Times reporting that tickets for the event went as high as $443,000 for a host couple. Axios reported last week that Texas senator Ted Cruz’s Truth and Courage PAC began a $1.7 million ad campaign in the Senate race.