A top Democratic strategist who advised both Barack Obama and Kamala Harris just delivered brutal news to Texas Senate candidate James Talarico: Black voters feel “betrayed” by the party — and that could cost him the race.
Ashley Etienne, who served in the Obama White House and as a senior advisor to Harris, told Fox News that despite Talarico’s strong position in the Senate race, he faces one massive vulnerability.
“Black voters are feeling like they were betrayed by what happened to Jasmine Crockett.”
Talarico, a Texas state lawmaker and Presbyterian seminarian, defeated Black congresswoman Rep. Jasmine Crockett in the Democratic primary earlier this year. The loss has left a sour taste with Black voters — especially Black women.
Etienne explained the fallout: “Some voters, Black women in particular, are feeling as though the Democratic Party and Democratic candidates want our labor, but not our leadership.”
She pointed to two losses that crystalized the feeling: Kamala Harris’ 2024 defeat and Jasmine Crockett’s primary loss.
Etienne co-authored an opinion piece in the Houston Chronicle quoting one Black female voter who said, “We as Black women give 92 percent of our vote to the Democratic Party, and we get nothing out of the deal.”
“That’s one example of what I think is a larger sentiment across Black women,” Etienne said.
Why does this matter? According to Etienne, approximately 1.1 million registered Black voters in Texas are not voting. To flip the traditionally red state, Talarico will need to mobilize that untapped base — and Black women are the key.
“Black women aren’t just another constituency. We are a force multiplier effect when it comes to Black voters.”
Etienne explained that Black women have the proven ability to “bring the entire community to the polls” cycle after cycle. But if their mood is low, the entire Black turnout operation collapses.
“If the mood of Black women is low, then you lose an opportunity to really reach and mobilize and engage and energize the rest of the Black community,” she said.
“That’s the nut he’s going to have to crack.”
Dallas Jones, a Democratic strategist who served as Texas political director for the 2020 Biden-Harris campaign, echoed the warning. He criticized Talarico supporters for pressuring Crockett to campaign for him. Crockett has endorsed Talarico but has been notably absent from the trail.
“There’s rhetoric that’s being turned up that she has to come and support him, and a lot of that is coming from people that support him,” Jones said. “So, what it translates to is people basically telling this accomplished, decorated, Black female member of Congress what she ought to do.”
That pressure, Jones said, is backfiring. “All that does is stoke flames and fires for her supporters, who are saying, ‘She really doesn’t have to do anything. You won, you’re the nominee, you come earn our vote, she doesn’t have to help you do that.'”
“There are millions of Black Texans out there ready for the taking, ready to support the campaign,” Jones continued. “But every day that goes by there’s an erosion of that support.”
Jones said he doesn’t think Talarico’s controversial past statements — including saying he “hates Christianity,” calling God “nonbinary,” and claiming there are six sexes — will hurt him with Black voters “considering the alternative” is Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton.
“Black Texans that show up in November are not voting for Ken Paxton,” Jones said. “The challenge is creating the enthusiasm to get enough of them to go and vote for him.”
“He himself has admitted that he cannot win the state without Black voters,” Jones added. “It’s not a persuasion game, it’s an enthusiasm game.”
Talarico faces Paxton in the general election. The race is being watched nationally as a potential flip opportunity in a state that hasn’t elected a Democrat to the Senate in decades.
