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Veteran Democratic strategist James Carville and his running mate Al Hunt agreed last Thursday that Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico needs to retract his previous views if he wants to win in the Lone Star State.
Talarico, his co-hosts agreed, is in strong position to secure a historic victory in Texas if he plays his cards right. Previously, they were happy about his victory over Rep. Jasmine Crockett, the Democratic nominee, said she would likely push the same policies as Crockett but without sharing her history of controversial comments.
However, some of his past statements about race, sexism, abortion, and religion are now causing a headache for his campaign.
“I think Talarico should be smart, and he should be aggressive. As you just suggested, the GOP has already run an ad accusing him of saying all kinds of crazy things,” Hunt said.
JAMES TALARICO ADMITS PAST RESULTS ‘MISSED THE MARK’ WHEN COMMUNICATING CLAIMS LIKE GOD ‘IS NOT LIKE THAT’
Veteran Democratic Alliance strategist James Carville and his colleagues agreed that US Senate representative James Talarico must watch his words if he wants to win in Texas. (Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for SCAD via Getty | Bob Daemmrich/The Texas Tribune/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“The rest is true,” Carville admitted, before adding, “He’s got to deal with it.”
“Yeah, but he said there are six genders. Well, I don’t know if he said it or not, but if he said it, God d— that, he better take it back right now or explain it,” Hunt said. “But more importantly, I think James, what he needs to do is, ‘Hey, I may have said some dumb things, but Ken Paxton did some dumb, depraved actions that hurt the citizens of Texas.’
Hunt went on to argue that Texas has a 50% chance of selecting him.
“If he stays in an offensive position and Hispanic and Black voters are strong, I might not be like — I mean, I think Texans — I think Talarico has a 50/50 shot.”
“On that, we can agree,” Carville said. “It’s a neat tossup.”
Carville argued that all the essential ingredients for the return of a good Democracy are there.
“First, you’re going to have a damaging, expensive, ugly, struggling Republican primary. Check. It’s going to take a Democrat to win over urban progressives in the Democratic primary to at least give it a patina of moderation. Check!” Carville said.
RISING STAR TALARICO TOPPLES PROGRESSIVE FIREBRAND CROCKETT AT THE TOP OF THE TEXAS SENATE DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY
Texas Senate candidate James Talarico speaks at a campaign rally in Houston on March 2, 2026. (Danielle Villasana/Getty Images)
He continued, “You’re going to have to have a political climate where the Democrats are going to be overactive. Look. You’re going to have to raise a lot of money for the Texas Democrat because they’re out of power. Check.”
“In other words,” Carville concluded, “everything you can say in the lab had to happen for this thing to get to the point where we’re here, probably after Memorial Day, saying it’s a 50/50 race.”
In a recent CBS interview, Talarico criticized Paxton’s campaign to backtrack on his past controversial statements, as he admitted he regrets some of them.
“There are words I said that I really regret. There are words I said where I missed the point. I will be the first to admit that,” said Talarico. “But Ken Paxton is deliberately suppressing my views in order to interfere with his corrupt work.”
