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Texas state Rep.<\/span> James Talarico\u2019s victory in a heated Democratic Senate primary on Tuesday offered a potential bright spot to the state\u2019s progressive organizers \u2014 not necessarily because they prefer his policies, but because some see him as more malleable than his opponent, U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett.<\/p>\n The bitter race was framed as a referendum on the style of Democrat Texas voters want, with Talarico known for bridging divides and Crockett for inflaming them. While the avowed Christian Talarico drew praise from pundits for assailing billionaires and describing wealth redistribution as a righteous cause, more voters perceived<\/a> him as the moderate in the race, according to a Texas Public Opinion Research poll. Organizers in Texas said they saw his openness as an opportunity to push him left, too.<\/p>\n Groups active in Palestinian rights work \u201cfeel like there\u2019s movement and space to move Talarico,\u201d said Cristina Tzintz\u00fan Ramirez, a labor organizer who ran against<\/a> the Democratic Party\u2019s pick<\/a> in Texas\u2019s Senate primary, even though currently \u201che\u2019s not where they want him to be.\u201d<\/p>\n As Talarico gears up for the November election against either incumbent Republican Sen. John Cornyn or Texas attorney general Ken Paxton, who are set to compete in a runoff in May, local progressive organizers are \u201cvery much going to push\u201d him, Ramirez said. They\u2019ll need to, she and other organizers pointed out \u2014 while Talarico and Crockett diverge in tone, local activists said that on key issues, including immigrants\u2019 rights and accountability for Israel, they offered little difference in substance.<\/p>\n \u201cTheir policies on Gaza are pretty much the same,\u201d said Azra Siddiqi, a community activist who met with both campaigns as part of a coalition of over a dozen Muslim organizing groups. Before the primary, she said her group couldn\u2019t \u201creally recommend one over the other.\u201d<\/p>\n Voters were able to scrutinize Crockett\u2019s federal record, which included voting to send weapons to Israel, whereas they couldn\u2019t do the same with Talarico, a state legislator. Siddiqi said she came away from the meetings feeling like Talarico didn\u2019t necessarily understand where her community was coming from on Gaza.<\/p>\n After the meetings, Siddiqi said, organizers were frustrated by what she described as Talarico\u2019s refusal to call Israel\u2019s destruction of Gaza a genocide pending an official international designation, or his attempt to delineate between his support for defensive weapons for Israel rather than offensive ones. Talarico has accused Israel of war crimes<\/a> in Gaza and said the destruction was a \u201cmoral disaster<\/a>\u201d and one of many reasons Democrats lost the 2024 presidential election. He stopped short of describing Israel\u2019s violence in Gaza as a genocide during a September interview<\/a> with HuffPost. Siddiqi and other activists also pressed him on accepting campaign contributions in the Texas state house from a pro-casino PAC bankrolled by pro-Israel Republican megadonor Miriam Adelson<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Sameeha Rizvi, the Texas policy and advocacy coordinator for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said refusing to describe the war as a genocide could turn away voters in Texas\u2019 Muslim community. And while Rizvi has heard the sentiment that Palestine is an unwinnable issue in a red state, she pointed to growing voter frustration with Israel on both the left<\/a> and right<\/a> over the genocide in Gaza and the U.S. and Israel\u2019s war in Iran<\/a>, connecting that outrage to the economic issues that powered Talarico\u2019s campaign.<\/p>\n \u201cWe can barely afford the cost of living, and health care is like inaccessible to half the population.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n \u201cEnding the genocide and standing with the Palestinian people essentially does benefit this country, because we wouldn\u2019t be sending billions of our taxpayer dollars over to a foreign entity for them to commit genocide. We look back at our state at home and we can barely afford the cost of living, and health care is like inaccessible to half the population,\u201d Rizvi said.\u00a0<\/p>\n In a mid-February email shared with The Intercept, organizers told Talarico they could not formally endorse him because he had not addressed their concerns on Israel and Gaza. They described being brushed off by the campaign and \u201cfeeling disregarded in this process.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI want to be candid,\u201d wrote organizer Hatem Natsheh, \u201cif Talarico wins the primary, success in the general election will require broad coalition support, including ours. We sincerely hope it will not be too late to rebuild communication and trust should the campaign wish to re-engage in a meaningful way.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Several days later, Talarico\u2019s campaign sent Natsheh a backgrounder saying he would support legislation to end offensive weapons to Israel, would push to make sure defensive weapons weren\u2019t used to harm civilians, and would \u201cnot take campaign contributions from any PACs on any side of this conflict \u2014 because I want people to know that my position is driven by my values, not any outside influence.\u201d<\/p>\n Organizers also requested a similar statement from Crockett\u2019s campaign, Siddiqi said, but they did not hear back.\u00a0<\/p>\n Beyond Israel and Palestine, immigration policy may feel closer to home for many Texas voters. Texas border towns have long been the front line for the militarization of immigration enforcement, and local immigration activists told The Intercept they hope the Democratic nominee will be more aggressive in halting violence from federal immigration agents than their party leadership.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIf anybody has a standpoint that is not abolish ICE, then I think they can do more,\u201d said Amerika Garcia Grewal, co-founder and co-director of Frontera Foundation, who said that applied to both Talarico and Crockett.<\/p>\n Garcia Grewal is based in the border city of Eagle Pass, which Gov. Greg Abbott has made ground zero for his immigration crackdown, known as Operation Lone Star<\/a>. Since 2021, the Republican governor has constructed dangerous barriers along the Rio Grande<\/a> to deter crossings, seized city property to house National Guard soldiers<\/a>, and sent hundreds of troops<\/a> and military vehicles to police the streets in what has been described as a military occupation of the city. Under the Biden administration, the city was touted by congressional Republicans as a success story of border security.<\/p>\n Now, Garcia Grewal sees the violence from federal agents who fatally shot Renee Good<\/a> and Alex Pretti<\/a> in Minneapolis as a continuation of a war on immigrants that has been raging in Texas for years. She criticized Texas Democrats who were quiet on defending Eagle Pass from Republican attacks as laying the groundwork for increased militarization of immigration enforcement elsewhere.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat happened on the border didn\u2019t stay on the border.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n \u201cWhat happened on the border didn\u2019t stay on the border,\u201d Garcia Grewal said. \u201cThe rest of the country is waking up to what we\u2019ve been experiencing here for years.\u201d She pointed out that Immigration and Customs agents killed another American citizen, Ruben Ray Martinez, in the coastal Texas town of South Padre Island nearly a year ago \u2014 which went largely unnoticed and was not linked to ICE until last month<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Talarico has decried the killings of Americans by federal agents, calling for the prosecution of ICE agents who have broken laws, but has stopped short of saying he would abolish ICE. Instead, he has stuck closer to the route of party leadership<\/a>, which emphasizes \u201creining in\u201d ICE and Customs and Border Protection with reforms and more accountability around use of force. He has also advocated for at least partially defunding<\/a> the agency\u2019s budget in favor of social services, such as healthcare.\u00a0<\/p>\n Aspects of Talarico\u2019s border security policies would continue militarized immigration enforcement. Talarico has likened the border to a front porch that \u201cshould have a welcome mat out front and lock on the door.\u201d <\/p>\n While the welcome mat is for refugees, asylum-seekers, or anyone who wants to contribute to the economy, according to his campaign platform<\/a>, Talarico\u2019s lock shows up in his calls for continued investment in border security. His policy says the border should keep out people \u201cwho mean to do us harm,\u201d listing cartels and gang members, and that ports of entry should be modernized<\/a> \u201cto better detect threats before they come.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDemocrats are missing the opportunity to really show the way and how to fix what\u2019s going on with immigration,\u201d said Jos\u00e9 Palma, the Houston-based coordinator of the National Temporary Protected Status Alliance. The party\u2019s dominant strategies, he added, represent \u201ca very, very low ask.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n
The Border to Minneapolis<\/h2>\n
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