Texas State Rep. James Talarico won the Texas Senate Democratic primary, booting left-wing firebrand Trump foe Rep. Jasmine Crockett from Washington, D.C., at the end of her term.

Talarico took 53.1% of the vote compared to Crocketts’ 45.6%, with 86% of the vote counted, according to the Associated Press. Talarico’s Republican opponent will not be decided until late May, giving him a head start in the general election campaign as longtime incumbent Republican Texas Sen. John Cornyn and Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton head to a runoff.

The two Democrats ran starkly different campaigns. Crockett, who declined to run for reelection to her safe House seat to enter the Senate race against Talarico, eschewed traditional campaign methods while presenting herself as a foil to President Donald Trump. After initially hesitating to take her message to the airwaves, she finally aired an anime-style ad that included artificial intelligence-generated crowds.

Talarico, a former middle school teacher currently working toward a divinity degree, meanwhile blasted the airwaves with ads in both English and Spanish. The candidate doled out $10,000 to air an ad during the Super Bowl and spent over $8.6 million on ads throughout his campaign. Lone Star Rising, a political action committee affiliated with Talarico, also spent $4.1 million on ads.

Crockett was widely seen as the weaker general election candidate, as recent polling showed Paxton trailing Talarico in a hypothetical November matchup and Crockett behind both Cornyn and Paxton.

Crockett has committed to supporting Democrats up and down the ballot to flip Texas in November.

Talarico hit the ground running in the final month before the primary and raked in $2.5 million after his appearance on Stephen Colbert on Feb. 17.

Talarico also spurred controversy online ahead of election day after Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott fired back at the Democrat’s statement following the terror-linked shooting outside a bar in Austin on Sunday.

Dangerous people should not be allowed into the country.

Dangerous people should not be allowed to get guns.

Texans understand this — you apparently don’t. https://t.co/axkGhpC6bi

— James Talarico (@jamestalarico) March 1, 2026

“You and your immigration policies would make America less safe,” Abbott posted on X. The post got 1.6 million views ahead of election day.

Crockett has also notably sparred with Abbott in the past. The Democrat called the Republican, who uses a wheelchair, “Governor Hot Wheels” in March 2025. The congresswoman claimed the comment was referencing the trains Texas’ government was using to transport illegal immigrants. She also made headlines when she called Trump “Temu Hitler,” a reference to a Chinese e-commerce platform, later that year.

Crockett, in 2006, rented a car alongside a man who was previously convicted of robbery, the Daily Caller News Foundation first reported in December 2025. The man’s car crash prompted the future lawmaker, who was at the time in her 20s and just beginning her legal career, to be sued and have to defend herself in court.

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Andi Shae Napier

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