General Discussion

Texas is not quite that cut and dried, but close.

The Democrats hold Dallas, Houston, Austin and El Paso. The Republicans hold the land in between. The four cities are not enough to win a statewide race. Therefore, a Democrat running for statewide office is forced to hold some appeal to those not fully batshit crazy out in the boonies or the smaller cities. Crockett held fervent appeal, but not enough of it in the hinterlands to put us over the top. Talarico may or may not, but his chances are better, and it is more important to us to flip the seat in the Senate than it is to have a spectacular headline-getting candidate whose numbers will never be sufficient to to appeal to enough people out in the hinterlands to get us a majority in a Senate race.

Both Republican front-runners for the Senate nomination are singularly uninspiring, so it makes sense for the TX Democrats to put forth a candidate who might have enough statewide appeal to win the race. As it is, it's still an uphill battle, but one we stand a chance (as things stand now) of winning. A rural Texas Republican who is fed up with Republicans right now might consider voting for Talarico, where he would never consider voting for Crockett. Flip his vote once, and he might just be happy with his choice. If he never flips at all, TX Democrats will never have a chance either. Like Tip O'Neill said, "all politics is local." That goes for Texas as well as anywhere else.