Campaign Talarico gives defiant victory party speech: ‘There is something happening in Texas’ by Tara Suter - 03/04/26 10:22 PM ET by Tara Suter - 03/04/26 10:22 PM ET Share ✕ LinkedIn LinkedIn Email Email NOW PLAYING Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico gave a defiant and hopeful speech at a victory party Wednesday night, a day after he won his party’s primary . “The number of Texans who have never voted before but showed up in this election is unprecedented. The number of independents and Republicans who voted in this Democratic primary is unprecedented. There is something happening in Texas,” Talarico said in his speech. “The people of this state have given this country a little bit of hope, and a little bit of hope is a dangerous thing,” he added. Talarico won over Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) in Tuesday’s Democratic primary, a notable victory in a race that had received national attention.  Democrats have looked to notch statewide victories in the Lone Star State in recent years to little success. However, the party has seen success in recent electoral wins and polling, with Democrats leading in a generic congressional ballot polling average by nearly 6 points, according to Decision Desk HQ. If Democrats win the House as well as the Senate after the midterm elections in November, they would most likely become a strong bulwark against the aggressive policy-making of the Trump administration, which has largely gone unchecked by the current Republican-led Congress. The Texas Republican primary for Senate is going to a runoff, featuring a May 26 battle between incumbent Sen. John Cornyn and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.  “It doesn’t matter what happens in this Republican runoff, we already know who we’re running against: the billionaire mega-donors and their corrupt political system. Not any one politician, not any one political party, we are running against the broken system and the powerful people who broke it. They’re scared of the movement we are building. They’re going to throw everything they have at us,” Talarico said in his Wednesday speech. “They’re going to call me a radical leftist. They’re going to call me a fake Christian. They’ll call our movement un-Texan, un-American. They’ll call us a threat. The only truth is, we are a threat. We’re a threat to their corrupt system,” he added. Add as preferred source on Google Tags 2026 midterms 2026 Texas Senate race James Talarico Jasmine Crockett John Cornyn Ken Paxton Senate Texas Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Share ✕ LinkedIn LinkedIn Email Email More Campaign News See All Campaign Greene fumes over Trump’s demand in Texas Senate runoff by Tara Suter 20 minutes ago Campaign  /  20 minutes ago