Democratic strategist James Carville has some advice for Texas’ Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico.
While Talarico might be the left’s best hope of getting a desperately-needed foothold in the state of Texas, past comments about gender ideology and other cultural topics may threaten to dwindle his support base. After all, Democrats in Texas are still Texans, and they’re likely to shun the same kind of woke nonsense that has taken over blue states like New York and California.
Watch:
“I think Talarico has to be smart, and he has to be aggressive. As you just suggested, the GOP already aired an ad accusing him of saying all kinds of weird things,” said Carville’s co-host Al Hunt.
“Some of it is true,” Carville admitted. “And you gotta deal with it.”
Yeah, but he said there’s six genders. Well, I don’t know whether he said it or not, but if he said it, god damn it, he better walk it back right now or explain it,” Hunt exclaimed. “But most importantly, I think James, what he has to do is say, ‘Hey, I may have said some dumb things, but Ken Paxton has committed dumb, corrupt acts that hurt Texas citizens.’ And his source material is rich, that Paxton is a liar, a crook, unfit for office. All that from Republicans. If he stays on the offensive and Hispanic and black voters are energized … I think Talarico has a 50/50 shot to be the first Democratic senator elected since Lloyd Benson.”
“On that, we can agree. It’s a pure toss-up,” Carville conceded, noting that any successful Democratic candidate running for a seat in Texas would “have a bruising, expensive, negative, drawn-out Republican primary. Check. It would need a Democrat who would defeat an urban progressive in a Democratic primary to at least give a patina of moderation. Check!”
“You would need to have a political climate where Democrats would be consistently overperforming. Check. You would have to raise an inordinate amount of money for a Texas Democrat because they have no power. Check,” he continued. “In other words, everything that you would say in a lab had to happen to get this thing to the point that here we are, almost post-Memorial Day, saying it’s a 50/50 race.”
Talarico addressed some of the comments that were used in Ken Paxton’s campaign ads, even admitting that he regrets a few of them.
“There are some statements that I have made that I certainly regret. There are statements that I have made where I have missed the mark. I will be the first to admit that,” he said in a CBS interview. “But Ken Paxton is intentionally clipping my cringey comments to distract from his career of corruption.”
Writers and editors can be contacted at [email protected] with feedback, tips, or corrections.
Sierra Marlee is a millennial whose hunger for the truth in a world of fake news has led her to write. Marlee also contributes to BizPac Review.
Comment
We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.