U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico, D-Austin, speaks during a campaign stop at San Antonio’s Assembly Hall on Sunday. Credit: Michael Karlis

State Rep. James Talarico, D-Austin, a contender in Texas’ U.S. Senate race, emphasized party harmony after U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crocket, D-Dallas, filed Monday to enter the same contest.

Even though Crockett’s entry sets up a primary battle between two of Texas’ rising Democratic stars, Talarico said he doesn’t want the contest to devolve into a bare-knuckle brawl.

​“Our movement is rooted in unity over division — so we welcome Congresswoman Crockett into this race,” his campaign said in a statement.

Crockett’s entry into the race comes hours after former U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, D-Dallas, announced he’s dropping out to instead run for the U.S. House in North Texas’s redrawn District 33.

​Monday’s filing also comes after months of speculation about Crockett’s political aspirations, which intensified after the U.S. Supreme Court last week ruled that Texas’ new GOP-friendly map can stay in place as legal challenges move ahead.

The new map essentially forces Crockett out of her House seat representing District 30.

​The outspoken Crockett has won fans on the left for her pointed takedowns of President Trump and other MAGA politicos. At the same time, she’s taken heat for her controversial remarks — something political strategists warn could energize Texas Republicans.

​In March, Crockett took flak for referring to Gov. Greg Abbott, who’s confined to a wheelchair, as “Governor Hot Wheels” during a Human Rights Campaign dinner in Los Angeles.

Political watchers caution that Crockett’s sharp tongue could win her the primary but cause her to falter in the general. In deep-red Texas, she’d be required to win over at least some Republican voters to unseat incumbent U.S. Sen. John Cornyn.

​Nonetheless, Talarico — a Presbyterian seminary graduate — appears to be sticking to “love thy neighbor” messaging, which was on full display at a San Antonio rally on Sunday.

​“I am tired of being pitted against my neighbor,” Talarico told the crowd at Assembly Hall in Northwest San Antonio. “I am tired of being told to hate my neighbor. It’s been more than 10 years of this kind of politics, politics as blood sport, politics as trolling and owning, and name-calling politics as total war. It tears families apart, and it ends friendships. It leaves us all feeling terrible all of the time.”

​Talarico told the Current that during a one-on-one interview that he’s met moderates and even former Trump voters at his campaign events who have embraced his message and crossed the aisle.

​“I think people are naturally rejecting the extremism and the corruption that they’re seeing in our politics, and they want leaders in both parties who will stand up and do the people’s business, not the business of billionaire megadonors,” Talarico said.

​Despite Talarico’s constant railing against billionaires — including blaming their “hoarding” of wealth for poverty on San Antonio’s West Side — he stopped short of comparing himself to “progressives” including U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Bernie Sanders.

​“I don’t know if that view is progressive, or moderate, or conservative, all I know is that it’s the truth,” Talarico told the Current. “What people can expect from me is that I’m always going to shoot straight with them.”

Talarico continued: “I guess that makes me a Texas Democrat.”

​The Texas Democratic primary is March 3, in which the winner will take on either Cornyn or Attorney General Ken Paxton in the general election.

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Michael Karlis is a multimedia journalist at the San Antonio Current, whose coverage in print and on social media focuses on local and state politics. He is a graduate of American University in Washington,...