In a weird state, Houston is one of the weirder cities. It is deep, dark blue and has been for more than forty years, but it has had two Republican mayors, one in 1875 and one from 1978 - 1982. Its city council is predominantly Democrat. Harris County, where Houston is located, is one of the few counties in Texas that went for Kamala Harris in 2024. You can see it on a map of which counties voted for whom. A tiny spot of blue surrounded by red. Houston has also contributed its share of dingbats to Congress: Al Green (D-Texas), Shelia Jackson Lee (D-Texas), and Sylvester Turner (D-Texas). Houston is blue; people vote Democrat. It should be a walk in the park for any Democrat to campaign in Houston, right?
Usually, yes. There’s always an exception to the rule, and that exception is James Talafreakco (Hat tip to Jesse Watters for that), uh, Talarico. The Democrats' best attempt at a serious Senate candidate is Mr. Lily White himself, aka Beto 0.5. It will amuse me till my dying day that the Democrats acted just like Democrats of old and bounced the black woman in favor of a white man. The chef’s kiss is that the black woman, Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas), doesn’t blame the Democrats. She blames everyone else!
Talarico came to Houston on July 19 to campaign for the Senate seat he is hoping to win. He spoke at the Kingdom Builders Center in southwest Houston. The area where the center is located is a lower-middle-class, working-poor area, with lots and lots of Democrats, lots of black Democrats. The people that Talarico needs in order to win. Everything started well; Talarico was greeted with applause and cheers, waving campaign signs and chanting “Take Back Texas." He spoke for 90 minutes, answered a wide variety of questions, and people appeared to be accepting his stance on the issues.
It was when the last question was presented to Talarico that the problems appeared. Kandice Webber, 50, black, a resident of Houston and connected to the Houston chapter of Black Lives Matter, stood and said, “Our people don’t trust you for this reason, and you cannot win without us. So you stay here and you answer our questions, or you suffer the consequences.” Apparently, 90 minutes was not enough for Webber.
When Talarico attempted to smooth things over by saying he appreciated her being there, she told him, “I came for my people, not for you.” Which set the assembled crowd to murmuring. Making another attempt to lower the tension, Talarico said, “It’s all right, it’s all right, it’s all right. This is what this conversation is supposed to be about.” He went on to answer other questions, but Webber was not happy and appeared visibly disappointed.
Therein lies the major problem Talarico faces. Can he convince enough black voters that he’s a serious candidate and that he will make black voters' lives better if he wins the Senate seat? Is it possible? If he can’t, he loses, plain and simple. The Democrats have relied on the black vote for decades. They learned long ago that if they get enough black people voting for them, they can pretty much do whatever they want once they’re in office. Look at Los Angeles and Chicago and Detroit if you don’t think that’s true.
However, some Democrats can schmooze better than others. Talarico appears not to have that ability yet. He may develop it more as the campaign grinds on, but if he has problems in a solidly Democratic stronghold such as Houston, then what does that say about the rest of the state? He was elected as a state representative, but all that means is that he was able to convince one specific section of the state that he was their guy. It is vastly different when you try to convince a state the size of Texas, the second most populous state in the U.S., that you’ll represent everyone properly. That is not what black Democratic voters want. They want someone who will listen to them and only them. Should Talarico win, will he? If he does, which is assumed, will he be able to get anything done? That remains largely to be seen. Should he win, he will be the junior Senator from Texas, with no power to do much of anything. The Senate is like the House of Representatives in that it is seniority-based. The longer you’re there, the more power you have. Will the black voters who put him there be willing to wait for him to collect the needed power? Again, that remains to be seen.
The other matter that needs to be considered is the group who voted for his opponent, Crockett. As noted earlier, the black woman got pushed to the side for the white man. While Crockett did endorse Talarico after she lost, she has been completely absent from anything having to do with his campaign, to the point of claiming that the race she lost was racist and rigged against her. This does not surprise anyone. Crockett is a typical black Democrat. Everything is racist. EVERYTHING! Had Crockett decided to help Talarico by going on campaign stops with him, he would be farther along with the blacks that voted for her. As it is, there are a lot of blacks who are not happy with who won the primary, and they are making themselves known, like Webber did at the Houston campaign stop. Research on Webber does not say who she voted for in the primary, but it’s a pretty good guess that it wasn’t the white guy.
Not to put too fine a point on it, Talarico needs the black vote, probably more than any other Democratic Party candidate in this election year. He needs it, he knows he needs it, but aside from throwing money at it — $25 million spent on black voter outreach — he doesn’t quite know what to do to get it. All the black voters have to do is stay home. All they have to do is not vote, and Talarico’s Senate hopes will crash faster than a two-year-old coming off a sugar high. He knows that, too, which probably keeps him up at night more than anything else.
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