Jasmine Crockett accuses primary rival Talarico of racial remarks, warns about what 'well-intentioned White folk' say behind closed doors

Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, isn't letting her Senate primary opponent walk back what she believes he said — and she's using her background as a criminal defense attorney to make the case.

Crockett reacted Monday in an interview with The Grio's Gerren Keith Gaynor to allegations that Texas state Rep. James Talarico, who is white, privately called former congressman Colin Allred a "mediocre Black man." The remark was first publicly attributed to Talarico by Morgan Thompson, a TikTok political influencer, who said Talarico made the comment to her directly.

Talarico has acknowledged using the word "mediocre" but denied the racial component. Crockett isn't buying the denial — and she laid out why in terms that sounded less like a campaign statement and more like a closing argument.

The Denial That Wasn't

According to Fox News, Talarico issued a statement calling Thompson's allegation a "mischaracterization of a private conversation." His version of events:

"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."

Note the construction. It's not "I didn't say it." It's "I said a version of it that doesn't sound as bad." Crockett noticed the same thing — and she walked through the concessions Talarico made on his way to denying the charge.

"I mean, it's all these things, but you admitted to the time. You admitted to the conversation. You admitted that the conversation took place with this person, and you admitted to actually using that word."

That's a lot of confirming details for someone who says the whole thing was mischaracterized. Crockett said a prosecutor would find Talarico "guilty" — her word, used as rhetorical analysis, not a legal finding. But the structure of the argument is hard to dismiss: everything surrounding the core claim checks out, and the only part being disputed is the part that does the most political damage.

His campaign did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.

Allred Weighs In

Colin Allred, the Black former congressman who dropped out of the Senate race to run for a U.S. House seat, responded in a video of his own. His message to Talarico was blunt:

"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."

Allred went further during a Tuesday podcast conversation with former DNC Chair Jaime Harrison. He said he didn't think Thompson had any reason to fabricate the story and added a new detail — that Talarico had told him, before entering the race, that he thought he'd be a better candidate because he doesn't have a family and could spend more time campaigning.

Not exactly the kind of thing that builds trust between colleagues. And it paints a picture of a candidate who was already measuring the field in personal terms before any of this became public.

Allred, described by Crockett as typically "even-tempered" and "measured" — a former NFL player not known for public outbursts — clearly felt the moment demanded more than diplomacy.

The Bigger Point Crockett Is Making

Beyond the campaign trail skirmish, Crockett drove at something that resonated well past the Texas Senate primary. She turned the episode into a broader observation about how minorities fear being discussed when no one's recording:

"I think it is what so many Black people fear — is that even the most 'well-intentioned White folk,' sometimes behind closed doors, may say things about us."

She continued, noting this fear crosses political lines — that minorities broadly worry about how they're discussed in private, regardless of affiliation.

Then Crockett zeroed in on the specific mechanics of the denial — the way it shifted blame onto the person who reported it:

"'Oh, you said it.' Right? Because, now, it's 'Oh, she misinterpreted.' Because of course the Black woman would misinterpret, right?"

This is worth sitting with. A white progressive accused of making racially dismissive comments about a Black man responds in a way that a Black woman reads as racially dismissive toward the woman who reported it. The accusation becomes evidence of the very thing being accused.

Democrats, Meet Your Own Mirror

For conservatives watching this unfold, the lesson is familiar but no less instructive for its repetition: progressive racial politics doesn't resolve conflict. It multiplies it. Every interaction becomes a potential offense, every denial becomes a secondary offense, and every attempt to move on gets reframed as erasure.

This is a Democratic primary where the candidates are publicly accusing each other of racial insensitivity, performative allyship, and behind-the-scenes condescension. These are the exact dynamics that conservatives have pointed to for years within progressive coalition politics — the unbridgeable gap between the party's stated commitment to racial justice and the paternalism that often lurks underneath it.

Crockett herself deconstructed Talarico's logic with surgical precision:

"Because why would you be saying that you didn't expect to run against a formidable Black woman and then the other part of that sentence was about not mentioning his race and only talking about his race, like his actual campaign? It's not how sentences go when you're doing a comparative side of the sentences."

In other words: you can't praise someone by explicitly referencing their race and then claim the adjacent criticism had nothing to do with race. The sentence doesn't parse that way. Crockett knows it. Allred knows it. And anyone who's spent time around progressive allyship culture — where complimenting one minority often comes at the expense of another — knows it too.

The left has spent years constructing a framework in which language is scrutinized for hidden bias, intent matters less than impact, and private conversations are fair game for public accountability. It is fascinating to watch that framework deployed not against a Republican, but against a white Democrat running in a contested primary. The machinery works exactly the same. The targets just rotate.

Talarico released a video urging his supporters to treat Crockett with respect the day after she announced her candidacy back in December. A few weeks later, the two shook hands at a debate. Now one is accusing the other of racial condescension, a third former candidate is backing the accusation, and the whole thing is playing out across podcasts and TikTok.

The respect tour lasted about as long as it took to become inconvenient. In Democratic politics, it always does.