On Sept. 9, 2025, a little-known 36-year-old former center college instructor and seminarian named James Talarico introduced he was leaping right into a crowded Texas Senate race, becoming a member of a number of different Democrats vying for GOP Sen. John Cornyn’s seat.
He’d first made information by flipping a Trump-leaning state legislative district in 2018, and have become one thing of a rising star inside Texas Democratic circles. Outdoors of Texas, nevertheless, he nonetheless had work to do.
However he was sensible — over the subsequent seven years he began going the place formidable and savvy younger Dems go to succeed in new voters, locations like Joe Rogan’s podcast and Pod Save America. He gained extra nationwide consideration in the course of the Texas redistricting battle in 2025 when Texas Dems determined to depart the state in protest.
However when he entered the Senate race, he was nonetheless very a lot an underdog. He informed Politico on the time, “[M]y life has all the time proven me that it’s a good suggestion to guess on the underdog.”
However Talarico wasn’t wanting like such an excellent guess. When media-darling Rep. Jasmine Crockett jumped within the race in December, it regarded like his bid was all however completed. If he’d been a rising star, she was, for a lot of Dems, the North Star, with common appearances on cable information, “The View” and Jimmy Kimmel, and even presidential buzz swirling round her.
Main as much as the Democratic major, as not too long ago as Feb. 22, Crockett was main Talarico by as many as 18 factors.
Lower to Tuesday night time, the place Talarico pulled off a powerful win towards Crockett, beating her by greater than 7 factors. He’ll face the winner of the Republican runoff, both Cornyn or Texas Legal professional Normal Ken Paxton, within the normal.
So what occurred? How did Talarico go from underdog down by double digits to a convincing win? Two phrases: Stephen Colbert.
On Feb. 16, slightly greater than two weeks earlier than the first, Talarico acquired an enormous enhance when Colbert accused CBS of blocking an interview with him from airing, a call Colbert implied was out of concern of the Trump administration’s crackdown on media retailers he deemed unfriendly.
The fracas ate up the nationwide airwaves, and Colbert posted the interview on YouTube as a substitute, the place it gained 5 million views in simply two days. The Talarico marketing campaign stated he raised $2.5 million in 24 hours. All of a sudden Talarico was the frontrunner.
Similar to it had Sen. Mark Kelly and impartial journalist Don Lemon, the Trump administration had focused Talarico for censorship and intimidation and inadvertently made him a resistance hero, boosting his title ID, his fundraising, and his future prospects.
To make certain, Republicans needed to face Crockett within the normal, figuring their probabilities in Texas have been higher towards a progressive Black lady relatively than a Presbyterian white man.
And their calculus was most likely proper. However Trump’s GOP, in its bloodlust for lefty scalps, nonetheless doesn’t notice it retains handing the opposition large presents — if Kelly needs to run for president, if Lemon needs to compete with company media, if Talarico needs to turn out to be the primary Texas Democrat to win the Senate in three a long time, all of them acquired loads nearer to their objectives because of Trump’s hamfisted makes an attempt at censoring them.
He’s failed all thrice — a grand jury wouldn’t indict Kelly, Lemon is sort of definitely going to be acquitted, and now Talarico is poised to offer Republicans a run for his or her cash in November, particularly if the scandal-plagued Paxton is the nominee.
These are embarrassing personal objectives that Republicans merely can’t afford. And so they clarify that Trump is not the efficient dragon-slayer he as soon as was. Excellent news for the left.
S.E. Cupp is the host of “S.E. Cupp Unfiltered” on CNN.
