Talarico’s Bet on Hispanics Pays Off With Primary Win

BY SABRINA RODRIGUEZ AND ANTHONY DEBARROS

AUSTIN, Texas—Campaigning in the Rio Grande Valley, State Rep. James Talarico delivered a faith-based progressive message alongside a Tejano music star running for Congress. He aired Spanish-language ads during major soccer matches and the Premio Lo Nuestro music awards. And, he was boosted by a Spanish-language influencer with 14 million TikTok followers.

On Wednesday, the freshfaced seminarian’s bet that Hispanic voters would make him the Democratic nominee for Texas U.S. senator paid off. His strategy for courting them could offer insights for Democrats looking to energize the key group of voters who have drifted rightward in recent years.

Going into the primary election night, one central question for Democrats was whether Talarico would sway Latino voters with a hopeful message focused on bringing down the temperature in politics— or whether they would back U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, a firebrand with a more confrontational approach to the Trump administration.

Texas, home to 6.5 million Hispanic voters, is one of the states where Republicans have seen major gains with Hispanics, and Democrats have been desperate for clues on how to win them back in the midterms and looking to the 2028 election. Talarico’s win doesn’t necessarily indicate whether Latinos are shifting back to Democrats, but it does offer a snapshot of what they are looking for in candidates and campaigns.

In the state’s heavily Latino areas, Talarico drew a dominant share of the vote. Across counties where the population is 60% or more Latino, Talarico outperformed Crockett roughly 62% to 35%, according to the Associated Press.

Talarico was able to win over Latinos with a message centered on “faith and family and jobs and bringing people together,” said Chuck Rocha, a senior adviser to the Talarico campaign.

“Latinos are an aspirational people, and they want to aspire. And they are also religious people, and they’re…for economic populism,” said Rocha, who has long advised Democratic campaigns on Latino voters. “They didn’t know James four months ago, we had to go introduce him, tell them who he was, and they liked what they saw.”

Talarico made a concerted effort to court voters across the political spectrum, making stops in counties President Trump won. But he especially courted Hispanics. He recruited several Latinos to key positions and campaigned heavily in Hispanic districts. Talarico, who represents the Austin area in the statehouse, frequently mentioned his time as a middleschool English teacher on the west side of San Antonio, a predominantly Hispanic and working- class part of the city.

In Bexar County, where San Antonio is the county seat and 60% of the population is Hispanic, Talarico took 57% of the vote.

He also forged alliances with key Latino candidates. In December, Talarico and Bobby Pulido, the Tejano singer and Democrat running to flip a South Texas congressional seat, endorsed each other in a joint rally in Weslaco. Pulido won his primary race on Tuesday night. In Hidalgo County, where Weslaco is located and Latinos make up 92% of the population, Talarico took 67% of the vote.

Talarico also leaned on Carlos Espina, a popular Spanishlanguage influencer with more than 14 million TikTok followers. Espina was on the campaign trail with Talarico for various stops across the state, including in Dallas and Houston, recorded videos championing Talarico and was featured in one of Talarico’s Spanishlanguage TV ads. Espina has become a go-to voice for Democratic candidates looking to connect with Latinos.

Crockett, for her part, cast herself as the Democratic candidate best equipped to fire up the party’s base and turn out a multiracial coalition in the nation’s second-largest state.

But she has faced scrutiny for past comments related to Latinos and immigrants. Shortly after the 2024 election, Crockett said in an interview with Vanity Fair that Hispanic voters who backed Trump had “almost like a slave mentality” and that they held deep anti-immigrant attitudes. And last year, she drew criticism for suggesting during a speech at a historically Black church that the country needed migrants because “we’re done picking cotton.”

Crockett later said she never intended to “actually offend somebody.”

Talarico’s success with Hispanics could pay dividends in the November general election, in which he will face either Sen. John Cornyn or Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Republicans are worried that Talarico would have a real chance, especially if the race is against Paxton who has been dogged by legal and personal scandals throughout his career.

More broadly, the outcome is a potential positive sign for Democrats as the midterm elections ramp up nationwide, lifting their hopes that Hispanic voters’ dissatisfaction with Trump will benefit them at the polls.