Texas Senate candidate James Talarico is now endorsing reparations for slavery to black people as the Democrat continues to be haunted by allegations of racism first hurled against him during the final weeks of his primary campaign against Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D., Texas).
Claiming Texas still suffers from the "reverberations of slavery," Talarico threw his support behind reparations for black people during a town hall event, saying he would enact tuition relief, homeownership, and baby bonds for black people to help build generational wealth. The move comes at a fraught time for the Texas Democrat as recent polling shows he's struggling to shore up support from the black community and comes one day after he was dressed down by an angry voter who declared that black people don't trust him.
"Reparations, repairing past harms, is part of my faith tradition. It's part of the values I was raised with," Talarico told an audience of mostly black people on Monday. "Until we, as a society, are committed to restoring those past wrongs, of restoring our black communities, we're never going to be able to get this country back on track … if we win Texas with a room that looks like this, that is going to be an earthquake in American politics. It will transform the politics of this country and allow us to build the political will to repair those past harms."
At a town hall meeting in DeSoto @jamestalarico answers a question about reparations for descendants of enslaved Black Americans. pic.twitter.com/ix0EICKF01
— Gromer M. Jeffers (@gromerjeffers) July 21, 2026
Talarico's remarks mark a significant leftward shift in his messaging from his primary campaign, when he declined to comment on reparations (which were supported by Crockett) as he presented himself to voters as a progressive who could appeal across party lines. The messaging helped propel Talarico to a comfortable primary victory in March over Crockett, who is black and who now claims she lost her primary due to racism.
"It was racist. It was a racist race," Crockett said during a podcast appearance in July. "But we live in America as y'all are celebrating 250. We know what this country is."
Crockett's view appears to be shared by a significant portion of black Texas voters. A New York Times/Siena poll in June found that 12 percent of black Texas voters hold a "very unfavorable view" of Talarico. That sentiment boiled over onto the campaign trail on Sunday, when a black woman interrupted Talarico during a campaign event to declare: "Black people don't trust you for this reason. And you cannot win without us. So you stay here, you answer our questions, or you suffer the consequences."
Talarico's ongoing struggle to court black voters marks a significant political vulnerability for the Texas Democrat, and could haunt him in November as recent polls show him in a statistical tie against his Republican opponent, Texas attorney general Ken Paxton. Political experts say a Democrat will have a hard time winning a statewide race in Texas without strong support from black voters.
Talarico's troubles with black voters appears to stem from an episode in February in which former congressman Colin Allred (D., Texas), a black man who lost his 2024 election to Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) in a 9-point blowout, publicly accused Talarico of being a racist for having the "temerity and audacity" to allegedly refer to him as a "mediocre black man."
Allred briefly ran for Senate again in 2025, and after his early departure from the race, Crockett was considered a heavy favorite for the Texas Democratic Senate nomination. Commenting on Allred's departure in February, Talarico allegedly told a Dallas-based political commentator that "he signed up to run against a mediocre black man, not a formidable and intelligent black woman."
Allred seized on Talarico's alleged comments to cast him as a racist in a video message urging "all the young black men out there" to shrug off their "haters" by voting for Crockett.
Talarico denied making the offensive remark, calling the accusation a "mischaracterization of a private conversation."
