James Talarico Defeats Jasmine Crockett in U.S. Senate Primary in Texas

AP Photo/Talia Sprague

Texas state Rep. James Talarico (D) won the Democratic Senate primary in Texas on Tuesday, defeating U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) in the highly publicized battle for their party’s nomination.

Multiple outlets called the race just before 3 a.m. ET.

With 84% of the vote in, Talarico led Crockett 53.2% to 45.5%.

The state representative will face the winner of May’s runoff election between Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) and Attorney General Ken Paxton, neither of whom managed to notch a majority in Tuesday’s primary. President Donald Trump refused to endorse either candidate in what has been a shockingly bitter campaign.

Talarico announced his bid for the U.S. Senate seat in September, following a wave of national interviews over Texas Democrats’ decision to flee the state in an effort to stymie Republican redistricting efforts. A student at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Talarico made his Christian faith a centerpiece of his campaign, speaking out against economic inequality and conservative “co-op[ting] of Christianity.”

Crockett, a second-term congresswoman, joined the race in December, campaigning in part on the repeated insults the president has directed at her. Known outspoken critic of the Trump administration, Crockett’s prospects looked less than rosy early in the day, when prediction markets gave Talarico a sweeping advantage, despite Crockett’s last-minute endorsement from ex-Vice President Kamala Harris.

The race gained national attention earlier this year, when The Late Show host Stephen Colbert claimed CBS told him not to broadcast an interview with Talarico over fears about the FCC’s Equal Time rule. Despite the network’s claims that the show was only presented with legal guidance and was not prevented from airing the interview, the controversy rocketed Talarico into the spotlight.

The candidate gained massive media attention, and the interview itself, released on YouTube, garnered millions of views.

Crockett, for her part, made headlines in the final weeks of the campaign over her alleged hostilities with reporters– including allegations that her staff called the police on CNN reporter Edward-Isaac Dovere and kicked Atlantic reporter Elaine Godfrey out of a campaign rally.

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