An outside group backing James Talarico targets Jasmine Crockett as too weak to beat Republicans.
By Gromer Jeffers Jr.
Dallas Morning News
https://www.dallasnews.com/
Compos
The first major attack of the Democratic Senate primary came Thursday from an outside group supporting James Talarico, attacking his rival Jasmine Crockett as too weak to win.
The TV ad says Crockett, a U.S. House member from Dallas, is “backed by Republicans” because she would be easier for the GOP to defeat in the November.
“If she wins, we lose,” says the narrator of the ad, which uses clips from media commentators who say that Crockett would struggle in the general election against Republican incumbent John Cornyn.
The spot marks a major escalation in advance of the March 3 primary in which the Democratic candidates mostly have campaigned on competing visions for breaking their party’s long statewide losing streak.
Bob Daemmrich / AP
In January, Talarico, a state representative from Austin, said that Crockett, seemed poised to run negative ads against him and that Democrats should not spend time turning on each other.
But it was a pro-Talarico super PAC, Lone Star Rising, that struck first, with ads are running throughout Texas.
Talarico’s campaign on Thursday said it wasn’t involved in the Lone Star Rising ad. JT Ennis, a Talarico spokesman, noted that federal law prohibits coordination between political campaigns and super PACs.
“James has made it crystal clear…he wants to run a positive campaign focused on records and ideas,” Ennis said.
He did not denounce the ad, but said Talarico would fight to ban an independent political committee like Lone Star Rising that raise unlimited donations and spend freely on ads, as long as they do not not coordinate with candidates.
Crockett’s team labeled the ad “hypocrisy on par with the Republican playbook” and showed why “people don’t like politicians.”
Karen Warren / AP
In a statement, a campaign spokesman said the spot was bankrolled “by the same millionaire mega-donors Talarico claims not to have,” adding, “Texas voters recognize when games are being played.”
Meanwhile, the Talarico campaign said it will air an ad in the Houston market during Sunday’s Super Bowl, aimed at empowering working people and pushing billionaires to pay their fair share in taxes.
The Howard University graduate and Chicago native has covered four presidential campaigns and written extensively about local, state and national politics. Before The News, he was a reporter at The Kansas City Star and The Chicago Defender. You can catch Gromer every Sunday at 8:30 a.m. on NBC 5’s Lone Star Politics.
This story, originally published in The Dallas Morning News, is reprinted as part of a collaborative partnership between The Dallas Morning News and Texas Metro News. The partnership seeks to boost coverage of Dallas’ communities of color, particularly in southern Dallas.
