The tense Texas Democratic Senate primary has been roiled by yet another online firestorm after an influencer accused state Rep. James Talarico of calling a former opponent a “mediocre Black man” — a claim he said was a “mischaracterization of a private conversation.”
The influencer, Morgan Thompson, who posts under the username @morga_tt on TikTok, posted the accusation in a video on Sunday in which she claimed that Talarico told her in a private conversation after a Jan. 12 town hall in Plano, Texas, that he had “signed up to run against a mediocre Black man, not a formidable, intelligent Black woman.” That reference was allegedly to former Rep. Colin Allred (D-Texas), who was in the Senate race until December, when he dropped out right before Rep. Jasmine Crockett joined. Both Allred and Crockett are Black; Talarico is white.
Talarico pushed back on Thompson’s description of their conversation.
“In my praise of Congresswoman Crockett, I described Congressman Allred’s method of campaigning as mediocre – but his life and service are not. I would never attack him on the basis of race,” Talarico said in the statement.
Thompson said in a video Monday that she has no recording of the conversation but laid out evidence that she had been in contact with Talarico’s campaign to arrange it, including a photo of her standing with Talarico at the event, along with multiple texts she says were exchanged with an unnamed campaign staffer to plan the interaction. She had endorsed Talarico but said she now supports Crockett.
In an interview with POLITICO before Talarico issued his statement, Thompson said she anticipated that not having a recording of the conversation with Talarico would raise skepticism of her account, but she still “felt like it was important enough to bring forward, given the nature of everything.” She declined to provide the name and contact information for that staffer so that POLITICO could verify their connection to the campaign.
The alleged exchange threatens to upend a primary in which polls show voters are sharply dividing along racial lines, with most Black voters supporting Crockett, and majorities of white and Latino voters supporting Talarico.
Allred fired back. “James, if you want to compliment Black women, just do it. Just do it. Don’t do it while also tearing down a Black man,” he said in a video he posted to Instagram on Monday.
“When you make an accusation, you often have a bit of confession in it,” continued Allred, who is now running for Congress in the 33rd District against Rep. Julie Johnson (D-Texas). “Maybe you use the word mediocre because there was something creeping into your mind about yourself.”
Crockett, in a statement, said that by posting his response video, Allred “drew a line in the sand.”
“He made it clear that he did not take allegations of an attack on him as simply another day in the neighborhood, but more importantly, his post wasn’t about himself,” she said. “It was a moment that he decided to stand for all people who have been targeted and talked about in a demeaning way as our country continues to be divided.”
Thompson said in the video that she had been offered the chance to talk to Talarico because she was unhappy that Talarico’s campaign had sent out fundraising messages from Democratic strategist James Carville given Carville’s calls for Democrats to move away from “woke” politics. She had previously endorsed Talarico and said she worked with his campaign as part of its content creator outreach program but now supports Crockett.
It’s the latest online explosion related to the primary. Last month, the hosts of popular podcast “Las Culturistas” urged people not to send money to Crockett because she had a history of “making it too obviously about” herself, a comment from host Matt Rogers that cohost Bowen Yang agreed with. That some of her supporters said the remarks were racist and misogynist, setting off off a fierce debate about what type of Democratic candidate can do well in red states like Texas. The hosts later apologized.
A spokesperson for Allred, Sandhya Raghavan, said in a statement that his response to Talarico’s alleged remarks “speaks to a frustration that resonates far beyond this moment.”
“When a former NFL player, civil rights attorney, and former congressman can be dismissed as ‘mediocre,’ it reveals the impossible standards Black candidates are held to,” she said. “Colin refused to accept that disrespect in silence — and in doing so, he stood up for every Black professional who has had their qualifications unfairly dismissed.”
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