James Talarico beat Jasmine Crockett in the Texas Senate primary back in March.
Now she is telling a very different story about how she lost.
What Crockett just said about her own party could cost Talarico everything.
Crockett Told a New Orleans Crowd Her Own Party Turned On Her
Crockett sat on a panel at the Essence Festival in New Orleans over the Fourth of July weekend.
She was there to talk about Black voter turnout.
Instead she relitigated her March primary loss to James Talarico in front of a crowd of her own supporters.
She started to say one thing and corrected herself mid-sentence.
"You see, a lot of haters got a lot of things to say about me and my race and how I ran it," Crockett said.
"But the reality is that there was a lot of racism – not a lot, it was racist. It was a racist race."
She caught herself softening it, then said it anyway.
"But we live in America as y'all are celebrating 250, okay? We know what this country is."
Crockett did not name names.
She did not need to.
Talarico is the Democrat nominee her own party spent millions elevating over her.
He is also the man Crockett now refuses to share a stage with.
"The best thing that I can do for James Talarico isn't me standing on a stage with him," Crockett said.
Instead she pointed to five Black men she endorsed in Texas runoff races.
All five won.
Crockett says that is her real contribution to the ticket – not campaigning, just running her own parallel operation.
She confirmed she is skipping next week's Texas Democrat Party convention too.
"I've not heard a bunch of kumbaya," Crockett said of the party's enthusiasm for Talarico.
Democrats Have Blamed Racism for Losses Before and It Never Ends Well
This is not a new script for Crockett's party.
Democrats lose an election and the first thing they reach for is the racism card – not their own candidate, not their own message, the voters.
After Kamala Harris lost in 2024, Democrat strategists spent weeks blaming racist and sexist voters instead of their own candidate.
The Texas primary itself was framed the same way months before a single vote was cast.
Crockett's allies accused Talarico's supporters of racism and misogyny for questioning her viability in a state Donald Trump carried by nearly fourteen points.
Colin Allred even claimed Talarico privately called him "a mediocre Black man," a charge Talarico denied.
None of it stopped Talarico from beating Crockett by nearly eight points once actual voters weighed in.
Crockett still insists the math tells a different story.
She claims her turnout was the best in Texas history outside of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
She also says she personally turned out more than double the votes of the party's last presidential-year nominee in Texas – and still lost the primary.
She wants credit for the turnout and none of the blame for the loss.
Talarico Is Stuck Running a Race His Own Bench Wants to Sabotage
James Talarico now has to beat Republican Ken Paxton in November without his party's highest-profile Black congresswoman anywhere near his campaign bus.
Crockett carried roughly seventy percent of the Black Democrat vote in the primary.
Talarico built his coalition in Central Texas and among Latino voters – not in the base Crockett just walked away from.
If she sits out the general election – or worse, lets her supporters read between the lines – Talarico's path against Paxton gets a lot narrower.
Democrats haven't won a statewide race in Texas since 1994.
They are betting their best shot in three decades on a nominee whose own primary rival just called the process that nominated him racist, on tape, at a festival, days after the country's 250th birthday.
Crockett didn't apologize for the timing.
She didn't walk it back the next day either.
Paxton doesn't have to attack Talarico over this.
Crockett is doing it for him.
Sources:
- Mariane Angela, "Jasmine Crockett on Talarico Win in Primary: 'It Was Racist, It Was a Racist Race,'" Breitbart, July 8, 2026.
- "Jasmine Crockett Blasts Her Texas Democratic Primary Loss as 'Racist Race,'" Fox News, July 8, 2026.
- "Racist Race: Jasmine Crockett Still Angry with Dem Party for Backing and Electing James Talarico Over Her," Twitchy, July 7, 2026.
- Amy Curtis, "Jasmine Crockett Won't Campaign with Talarico: Sour Grapes," Townhall, July 7, 2026.
- Jordan Conradson, "Jasmine Crockett Goes on Unhinged Rant at Black Festival, Reveals Why She Really Lost Texas Senate Primary," Gateway Pundit, July 8, 2026.
