In Texas Senate race, Crockett campaign says she is best candidate to reassemble Democratic base and expand the electorate in general election
With electability being one of the most important issues in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate in Texas, Rep. Jasmine Crockett's campaign says she will do a better job of reassembling the Democratic base and expanding the electorate in this November's general election than her main opponent, state Rep. James Talarico of Austin.
The Crockett campaign said she is trying to attract the 2.2 million registered of voters of color who did not vote in the general election in Texas in 2024. Among them, the campaign said are 700,000 Black Texans who are registered to vote who did not participate in the 2024 presidential election in 2024.
Crockett's campaign released an internal poll Tuesday evening by HIT Strategies showing that Crockett has 46% support to 33% for Talarico and 21% undecided. The poll surveyed 1,005 Democratic voters who have voted in past primaries and the 2024 general election.
The poll stands in contrast to a poll released last week by Emerson College Polling and Nexstar Media that showed Talarico ahead, 47% to 38%. Crockett's campaign called the Emerson poll an outlier; Last month, a poll released by Texas Southern University showed Crockett ahead of Talarico, 51% to 43%.
Early voting for the March 3 primary begins on Tuesday, Feb. 17, less than four weeks away. Crockett's campaign said it has not yet spent any money advertising. She has not released her Senate fundraising numbers since she entered the race Dec. 8, the same day as the candidate filing deadline.
Talarico's campaign recently announced it raised a total of $13 million through Dec. 31 and has assembled 13,000 volunteers to conduct a door-knocking campaign statewide. The campaign also said an town hall event last week in plano attracted 2,000 people.
In an interview, Talarico told CBS News Texas that electability is an important issue.
"I think it's the central question in this primary, who can win in November. Every Democratic primary voter who shows up in this primary needs to have one question on their mind, and that who is best positioned to win in November because if we don't win, we can't help people," he said.
Talarico has said he wants to not only attract Democrats, but also independents and disillusioned Republicans. Crockett has said the way to win is to focus on motivating Democrats. Last week, Crockett conducted a two-day, 17-stop bus tour in South Texas, from San Antonio to Corpus Christi and the Rio Grande Valley. She and Talarico are set to debate this Saturday at the AFL-CIO convention in Georgetown.
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