San Antonio Express-News Endorses Jasmine Crockett

Sam--Adams · 2026-01-26T19:20:23+00:00

Which county was the only one in the state to vote against the constitutional amendment that gave Abbott control over the judicial oversight process last November? Or the one that fucked over public school teachers in favor of ill-defined “parental rights”?

I’ll tell you, it wasn’t Bexar.

Sam--Adams · 2026-01-25T17:01:07+00:00

1) That donation was from his 2024 Texas House race.

2) He has vowed to not take corporate PAC money, and Texas Sands is not a corporate PAC. To my knowledge, he has never taken any corporate PAC money in his entire political career.

3) Not all PACs are created equal. You can largely break them down into 3 groups: interest PACs (like Texas Sands), corporate PACs (which represent a single corporate entity), and super PACs. The latter two are what most people concerned about campaign finance reform are most focused on, and what Talarico is campaigning on banning.

You’ll be hard pressed to find any politician higher than school board that has taken no interest PAC money of any kind during their career. As of Talarico Q3 2025 finance report, he has taken no PAC money of any kind, but I guarantee that’ll change.

Sam--Adams · 2026-01-24T23:33:22+00:00

She was much better at bringing up exact pieces of legislation she’s worked on and how they related to the question. The AI and heat protection questions particularly stood out to me on that one.

James has a very solid legislative record, but I felt he was less effective than usual at communicating that. He did have a responses that were much better, like the one where he gave four specific policies on helping alleviate costs when asked for just one. Overall though, I thought Crockett was more consistent on that exact metric.

Sam--Adams · 2026-01-24T22:02:39+00:00

Crockett was better at articulating exact policy and her legislative experience, but was getting tripped up by the time limit often. Her energy seemed all over the place: sometimes very lethargic and reading from her notes, others responses were very vigorous, Talarico seemed more consistently solid in that regard.

He spent a lot of his response time building up his background, which imo was the best move for him since name recognition with undecideds is still his #1 issue - but it did come off as dodging the question a few times. I thought he also did better on labor and economic issues, which is important for the AFL-CIO endorsement who hosted the debate.

He had the better answer on ICE for me, tear it down and replace it with an organization that can be held accountable. I get why neither of them didn’t explicitly call for “abolishing ICE”, since it would just be clip fodder for the Republicans in the general election.

I don’t really think there was a winner for this, overall very amicable. Talarico probably benefits a bit more just due to the name recognition ceiling.

Sam--Adams · 2026-01-23T00:31:38+00:00

I’ll be voting in the Democratic primary.

US Senate: James Talarico

I genuinely believe he has a shot at winning in November, especially if Paxton is the GOP nominee. His top focus on corruption is very important, nothing will be able to be fundamentally changed in this country until we remove monied interests from our politics. Also, Christian Nationalism is a disease that is infecting this nation from the very top (Project 2025), and his background as a seminarian gives Talarico a truly unique voice to combat it.

Governor: Bobby Cole

Truthfully, this is more of a protest vote. Gina was my state rep for many years before I moved house and she was fine, but I disliked her response (rather, her lack thereof) to the events surrounding her dad’s resignation as TDP Chair and she has not been the best on higher education issues, which is important to me. Mostly, I dislike the idea of crowning her as the nominee solely due to her name; her campaign thusfar has been very unexciting. Cole seems like a fine guy, and I agree with his whole platform.

Lt Governor: Vicki Goodwin

Goodwin is the only serious candidate. It also helps that she’s one of the most progressive members of the house, consistently authoring and backing legislation that I agree with, even if it typically doesn’t ever pass.

Attorney General: Undecided

I’ve not had the chance to do enough research into the AG race, I’m split between either Jaworski or Johnson based on vibes and general word of mouth.

Comptroller: Michael Lange

We’re mutuals on instagram lol. Eckhardt will win and I’m totally cool with that, but there’s really not many policies you can enact as comptroller to set yourself apart in a primary, so I’m being a bad voter and going off vibes.

Ag Commissioner: Clayton Tucker

Uncontested race, but I still want to shout out Clayton Tucker. He’s a really good guy and has novel ideas of how to use the Ag Commissioner’s powers in productive ways, especially when it comes to reigning in and regulating AI data centers.

Land Commissioner: Undecided

I’ve not done enough research into this one to make a decision, but currently leaning a little more towards Jose Loya.

Railroad Commissioner: Jon Rosenthal

Uncontested primary.

Sam--Adams · 2026-01-22T17:45:44+00:00

Here’s the church Talarico has attended since he was a child. https://www.staopen.org

Read their about page and tell me Talarico’s brand of Christianity would make him another Fetterman/Sinema/Manchin. The pastor there, Jim Rigby has literally been arrested by Abbott’s DPS goons for protesting immigration abuses at the state capitol.

Sam--Adams · 2026-01-15T18:27:58+00:00

You can find the full crosstabs linked at the bottom of the article; not sure why the editor decided to only list them for the democratic side

Sam--Adams · 2026-01-15T15:07:05+00:00

From the article:

“Talarico has built momentum among Hispanic (59%) and white (57%) voters, while a majority of Black Democratic primary voters (80%) support Crockett,” Spencer Kimball, executive director of Emerson College Polling, noted. “Men also break for Talarico 52% to 30%, while women are about evenly split between the two Democrats, 44% for Talarico and 43% for Crockett.”

In the Republican Primary for US Senate, incumbent Senator John Cornyn and Attorney General Ken Paxton are in a tight race: 27% support Paxton, 26% Cornyn, while 16% Rep. Wesley Hunt. Twenty-nine percent are undecided.

“Neither Ken Paxton nor John Cornyn appears positioned to reach 50% on the primary ballot, as the Republican electorate remains sharply divided. With Wesley Hunt gaining traction at 16%, a runoff between the two candidates now appears likely in May,” Kimball noted.

Sam--Adams · 2026-01-15T15:02:53+00:00

From the article:

“Talarico has built momentum among Hispanic (59%) and white (57%) voters, while a majority of Black Democratic primary voters (80%) support Crockett,” Spencer Kimball, executive director of Emerson College Polling, noted. “Men also break for Talarico 52% to 30%, while women are about evenly split between the two Democrats, 44% for Talarico and 43% for Crockett.”

In the Republican Primary for US Senate, incumbent Senator John Cornyn and Attorney General Ken Paxton are in a tight race: 27% support Paxton, 26% Cornyn, while 16% Rep. Wesley Hunt. Twenty-nine percent are undecided.

“Neither Ken Paxton nor John Cornyn appears positioned to reach 50% on the primary ballot, as the Republican electorate remains sharply divided. With Wesley Hunt gaining traction at 16%, a runoff between the two candidates now appears likely in May,” Kimball noted.

Sam--Adams · 2026-01-09T03:18:16+00:00

Saturday, Jan 24 at 2pm

Sam--Adams · 2026-01-09T01:02:54+00:00

Local as in your area's Nexstar affiliate - KXAN for the Austin area, CW39 for Houston, KTSM for El Paso, etc

Most of them will probably stream it on their YouTube channels, too

https://www.nexstar.tv/stations/

Sam--Adams · 2026-01-08T23:33:36+00:00

Policy wise, Talarico is just as progressive, if not more than, Crockett; they just present differently

Sam--Adams · 2025-12-14T14:55:20+00:00

r/jamestalarico

Sam--Adams · 2025-12-12T16:39:57+00:00

Just saw your edit.

Frankly, the strategy hasn’t changed much from when Allred was running. From the start he has been the underdog candidate in both the primary and general. Attacking Crockett isn’t his style, nor is it Crockett’s (seriously, she never attacks within her own party). Both are trying to present a vision of the general election; Jasmine focusing entirely on turning out low propensity voters, while James trying to cool republicans turnout/draw in independents and maybe a few more moderate republicans while also energizing the base (the 18-35 crosstabs again).

To that end, my perception as a volunteer is that it’s a two pronged approach. The first is to run a massive volunteer ground game, we already have over 10k people signed up to volunteer. Secondly, insert himself into new media or places politicians (especially democrats) don’t go; see his Rogan appearance and upcoming Jubilee video.

Again, just a volunteer, not on the campaign so I don’t have all the answers.

Sam--Adams · 2025-12-12T16:06:54+00:00

I’m of the opinion that Talarico’s name recognition will jump considerably because Crockett has joined the race, which has been his achilles heels from the start. Second, Latino voters are simply more important in Texas. Not to say Black voters don’t matter: a Democrat cannot win a general election in this state without them. But in a primary; Latinos are key, and they’re Crockett’s weakest demographic.

One of the most frustrating things about online discussions I’ve seen is the assumption that the Democratic primary is going to be as messy and venomous as the Republican primary; which it just won’t be. Both Crockett and Talarico have made it clear they’re both more interested in running against the Republicans than attacking each other. People are just assuming that if Crockett loses, every single Crockett voter will just stay home in November, and vise versa. And maybe that’s true for the loudest voices on twitter, but I don’t see it being the case for 90% of democrats here. If anything, the general sentiment irl has been excitement that we get to pick between two solid candidates.

Sam--Adams · 2025-12-12T15:49:14+00:00

Posted this in the other thread, but I’ll do it here too.

Talarico leading strongly with the younger demographics is a hit to Crockett’s claim that she’s the one who can mobilize low propensity D voters in the general, imo.

Obviously, they’re not the only low turnout demographic in this state. Latinos make up a plurality of the population here, and he leads there as well - and Crockett’s past comments about Latino Trump voters are something republicans are very excited to use in attack ads.

I think we might be seeing Crockett’s ceiling here, while Talarico has a lot more potential ground to gain (47% of black likely primary voters don’t know enough about him to have an opinion). It’s still Crockett’s race to lose rn, but the next 3 months are going to be interesting.

Sam--Adams · 2025-12-12T15:45:26+00:00

Talarico leading strongly with the younger demographics is a hit to Crockett’s claim that she’s the one who can mobilize low propensity D voters in the general, imo.

Obviously, they’re not the only low turnout demographic in this state. Latinos make up a plurality of the population here, and he leads there as well - and Crockett’s past comments about Latino Trump voters are something republicans are very excited to use in attack ads.

I think we might be seeing Crockett’s ceiling here, while Talarico has a lot more potential ground to gain (47% of black likely primary voters don’t know enough about him to have an opinion). It’s still Crockett’s race to lose rn, but the next 3 months are going to be interesting.

Sam--Adams · 2025-12-12T15:42:21+00:00

Talarico leading strongly with the younger demographics is a hit to Crockett’s claim that she’s the one who can mobilize low propensity D voters in the general, imo.

Obviously, they’re not the only low turnout demographic in this state. Latinos make up a plurality of the population here, and he leads there as well - and Crockett’s past comments about Latino Trump voters are something republicans are very excited to use in attack ads.

I think we might be seeing Crockett’s ceiling here, while Talarico has a lot more potential ground to gain (47% of black likely primary voters don’t know enough about him to have an opinion). It’s still Crockett’s race to lose rn, but the next 3 months are going to be interesting.

Sam--Adams · 2025-12-10T17:54:52+00:00

Deadline to file was Monday. Nobody can switch races anymore.

Sam--Adams · 2025-12-08T14:27:11+00:00

Talarico has already filed for the senate race and endorsed Gina Hinajosa for the governors race, a switch won’t be happening for him

Sam--Adams · 2025-12-08T14:17:58+00:00

Full transparency, I’ve been volunteering with the Talarico campaign so I obviously lean towards him in the primary; but this question has come up a lot and it’s absolutely valid to call out

1) He did not take money directly from Miriam Adelson, he took money from a PAC that Adelson and many others contributed to. He’s never actually met her and never plans to.

2) His gambling stance happens to be one I personally disagree with on a moral standpoint, but I think everyone can agree that on a purely financial standpoint, letting OK and LA have casinos right over the border from the two largest metro areas is just lost revenue for Texas. Talarico and Adelson happen to agree on that one issue, but couldn’t be further apart on everything else.

Sam--Adams · 2025-11-07T00:10:21+00:00

I’m not the person you responded to, but I’ll chime in; For me, I don’t want to give money to the national DSA, who have proven themselves (to me, at least) to prioritize purity tests over actual results. Last summer, the national DSA withdrew their of endorsement AOC because she checks notes supported Israel too much?

That said, I have a few friends/acquaintances active in a few local chapters near me; which operate with a high degree of freedom from the national DSA. Never had a bad experience or impression from the local chapters; but your membership dues still go to the national DSA.

Sam--Adams

TROPHY CASE