Crockett Declines to Campaign With Texas Primary Foe Talarico

Representative Jasmine Crockett of Texas announced she will not campaign alongside Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico, her former primary opponent, instead choosing to focus her efforts on downballot candidates across the state. The decision, revealed during an interview on CNN's "Laura Coates Live" on August 28, 2026, has sparked debate about party unity ahead of the competitive general election. When pressed by host Laura Coates on whether she would use her voter appeal to help Talarico, Crockett stated, "I will be campaigning down ballot." She argued that Texas Democrats should not rely on a single top-of-the-ticket race to drive voter turnout, citing the 2018 and 2022 campaigns of Beto O'Rourke as examples where immense focus on one candidate proved insufficient. "We've tried this where we've got one amazing candidate that's running at the top of the ticket... raising all the money, doing all the things, running around the entire state, but it's not enough," Crockett said. Coates questioned whether supporting downballot candidates was an "either-or" proposition that precluded campaigning for Talarico.