AUSTIN, Texas—Midway through a campaign rally at a quinceañera venue, Democratic Senate hopeful James Talarico brought up, as he often does, teachings from his Baptist preacher grandfather.
“Jesus could have told us to love our immediate family members or our close friends,” Talarico said. “But he told us to love our neighbors. That’s an inherently public thing.”
Talarico, a 36-year-old state representative who is now in seminary himself, is stirring national fascination as he tests whether progressivism wrapped in a faith-based message can excite Democrats and draw moderates and disaffected Republicans. At stake is whether Democrats finally achieve their hopes of winning a major seat in Texas after more than 30 years of losing statewide.
The March 3 primary is also a test case for whether Democratic voters in the nation’s second-largest state embrace the outspoken style that has lifted winning candidates elsewhere or opt for a gentler approach that aims for the center, in midterm races that will decide which party controls Congress.
Talarico’s main opponent, U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, has established a national brand with her willingness to spar with President Trump and Republicans at a time when polls show the Democratic base is eager for politicians to mix it up with the administration. When Crockett entered the race on the last day for candidate filing in December, political strategists expected her name recognition and ability to energize Democratic voters to help her eclipse Talarico. But since then, they have been surprised by Talarico’s ability to build momentum.
Talarico has outraised Crockett and the Republican Senate primary candidates, bringing in more than $7.5 million in the first six weeks of 2026 compared with Crockett’s $2 million. Since September, Talarico has raised more than $20 million. He got a boost this week when talk-show host Stephen Colbert released an interview with him only on YouTube. Colbert said CBS had blocked the interview from being aired on the show’s broadcast out of concern over a Federal Communications Commission rule giving equal time to political candidates.
Although Crockett is ahead in polls, the closer-than-expected race is increasingly being viewed as a tossup.
Whoever prevails will face the winner of a heated Republican primary in which incumbent Sen. John Cornyn is facing challenges from state Attorney General Ken Paxton and U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt. The race is widely expected to head to a runoff in May.
Paxton, a conservative firebrand, leads in polls. But the prospect of his nomination has caused angst among many establishment Republicans, who fear he would be vulnerable to a Democratic challenger.
Paxton has a long history of controversies, including securities-fraud charges he resolved with a pretrial deal. His top deputies referred abuse-of-office allegations to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and he was impeached by state House Republicans—then acquitted by state Senate Republicans. He denied wrongdoing. His wife filed for divorce last year, citing infidelity. Paxton called the divorce the result of “pressures of countless political attacks.”
While Democrats have overestimated their chances in Texas many times, Paxton’s potential candidacy and softening support for Trump is lending higher stakes to the Senate race.
Talarico has presented himself as a fresh-faced foil to firebrand politicians. He often refers to his time as a middle-school English teacher on the west side of San Antonio, a predominantly Hispanic and working class part of the city.
He began to gain national name recognition, particularly on social media, as a result of viral moments captured from his time in the Texas Legislature. One involved Talarico citing Bible passages to battle against religion in schools, and in another he pointedly questioned Republicans about their embrace of an unsubstantiated rumor that schools were installing litter boxes for children. In July, Talarico sat for an interview with right-leaning podcaster Joe Rogan, who told him he should run for president.
Talarico can be read as a study in contradictions for how he delivers left-wing orthodoxy in centrist packaging and fights Christian nationalism with Scripture. He is often billed as a different type of Democrat, though he is quick to remind his listeners that religious Democrats weren’t unusual in generations past.
“You had Jimmy Carter and Dr. King and Dorothy Day and Cesar Chavez,” Talarico said in an interview. “It’s just over the last 50 years you’ve seen that fall away and you’ve seen my party cede religion almost entirely to the far-right. That’s a travesty.”
He talks about religion, he said, so his supporters know what gets him out of bed in the morning. His fight when it comes to policy is for a separation of church and state.
Several Democratic strategists said they view the race as less about traditional ideological divides—progressive versus moderate—and more about who voters perceive to be the biggest changemaker.
“Talarico can credibly say he is turning the page on the politics of anger and vitriol that is coming from Donald Trump and Ken Paxton,” said Kristian Ramos, a Democratic strategist based in Washington, D.C. “And Jasmine Crockett can speak to change from a much different place—a place of much more urgency and passion and turning the page on a lot of what’s coming out of this administration.”
“The question is going to be who voters think will actually deliver change for them,” Ramos added.
Some Democratic and Republican strategists view Talarico as Democrats’ best shot to win the general election. Mike Madrid, a Republican strategist and co-founder of the anti-Trump Lincoln Project, said Talarico shows a different way to be a fighter in today’s political environment.
“His message is it’s better to be a fighter contrasting good and bad and right and wrong” than “being a better cheater than the cheaters,” said Madrid, who added that the appetite is growing for that message as Americans are “fighting ourselves to exhaustion.”
Crucial to who wins the Democratic primary are Latino voters, who make up a sizable share of the state’s Democratic electorate. In December, Talarico and Bobby Pulido, the Tejano singer and Democrat running to flip a South Texas congressional seat, endorsed each other—and Talarico has run two Spanish-language television ads in the lead-up to the primary. While a recent poll showed Crockett ahead with Latino voters, strategists are watching whether Talarico’s faith-based message resonates with a group that has swung toward Republicans in recent elections.
Crockett has focused largely on battling Trump. Her sole television ad features a cartoon of Trump yelling her name while lightning bolts zing around her. Talarico’s ads have shown him with supporters clustered around him, speaking against billionaires and about healthcare and education. Some strategists have questioned the strength of Crockett’s campaign and said she has lacked visibility.
Crockett’s deputy campaign manager Karrol Rimal said Crockett “always runs robust campaigns” and has been doing many events around the state. He said she has been working to reach voters in nontraditional ways, including going to bars and nightclubs in Houston to meet people who might not have voted before.
“The choice is: Pick your fighter,” Rimal said. “Who do you trust to stand up for you in the hardest times?”
At a recent Talarico rally, Beth Dawson, a 66-year-old nurse, said she liked both candidates but probably would vote for Talarico because she didn’t trust Texans overall to vote for a Black woman in the general election. Dawson, who wore a T-shirt with an image of Immigration and Customs Enforcement arresting Jesus, said she appreciated Talarico’s messaging.
“He’s somebody who you know he’s Christian by the way he acts,” Dawson said.
When Talarico took the stage, under the venue’s chandelier and hanging white roses, he told the crowd that his campaign was rooted in love for neighbors and that “if you extend an open hand” you might be surprised by who takes it.
“If you hate politics and you’ve never voted before, you have a place in this campaign,” he said. “If you have voted for Democrats, but you’re tired of D.C. Democrats always folding, you have a place.
“And if you voted for Donald Trump, but you’re fed up with the extremism and corruption in our government, you have a place.”
His last category received the biggest cheer of all.
Write to Elizabeth Findell at elizabeth.findell@wsj.com and Sabrina Rodriguez at sabrina.rodriguez@wsj.com
