The Democratic U.S. Senate primary between state Representative James Talarico and Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett was marked by subtle, if unremarkable, policy differences and questions around whose fighting style better reflected the desires of Texans.
Then, on February 2, former U.S. Senate candidate Colin Allred posted a video amplifying the claims of Morgan Thompson, a popular political content creator on TikTok, who alleged in a viral video that in a private conversation with Talarico on January 12, the state legislator referred to Allred as a “mediocre Black man.”
As a Black man in Texas, I am required to know how white men, particularly white men like Talarico, talk about Black men. That particular combination of words seemed off, particularly for a politician who is as circumspect as Talarico. Arguably, Talarico’s greatest strength is that he is an effective communicator, in particular when he flips the arguments of the religious right on its head by reminding them that the Christian dogma they desire to use as a weight is actually a liberating force. So, for someone who is so effective as a communicator to label Allred, himself, as mediocre, did not pass the smell test.
