What’s Going on With Texas’s Democratic-Primary Mess?

Things kicked off when Morgan Thompson, a Dallas-based content creator focused on Texas politics, recounted a story to her more than 185,000 TikTok followers regarding an off-the-record meeting she had with Talarico about the Democratic primary on January 12. Thompson claimed that during their conversation, Talarico made an offensive comment comparing Crockett to Allred, a former representative whom Talarico was initially running against. (Allred, who dropped his bid after Crockett entered the race, was also Texas’s Democratic Senate nominee in 2024, losing to Ted Cruz, and is now running for Congress again.)

“Talarico told me that he signed up to run against a mediocre Black man, not a formidable and intelligent Black woman,” Thompson said in a video posted on Sunday.

Thompson explained that she initially supported Talarico over Allred but expressed concern after his campaign pushed out a fundraising appeal under the name of James Carville, the storied political consultant who authored a New York Times op-ed last year looking to warn Democrats against embracing what he called “performative woke politics.”

“I’m always going to advocate for Black people ’cause I don’t care about how much you talk about affordability, housing, health care, whatever. If ‘woke politics’ is not included in that — which directly impacts Black people — then we’re left out of that conversation and policy,” Thompson said.

Thompson said she reached out to the campaign and shared her concerns to a staffer, who offered her the chance to speak with Talarico one-on-one about the issue. In a subsequent video, Thompson said her conversation with Talarico had been going well and that the comment came as talk turned to which offices the various candidates could have run for besides the Senate. Thompson acknowledged that she doesn’t have a recording of their conversation. She has since endorsed Crockett’s campaign and said the representative was not involved in her decision to speak about her interaction with Talarico.

Talarico-campaign spokesman J.T. Ennis confirmed to CNN that Thompson and Talarico did meet in Plano, adding that “the Talarico campaign works with lots of creators in Texas to keep them updated on the campaign.”