HOUSTON (AP) — Juli McShay had a few pointed questions for James Talarico, the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate in Texas, when she stood up during a town hall in Houston.
Black audiences like this one are key to Talarico's effort to defeat Republican state Attorney General Ken Paxton and become the first Democrat to win a statewide race in Texas since 1994. But McShay's questions represented lingering apprehension about his campaign's outreach.
She told Talarico, who's white, that she and others had given his campaign ideas for engaging Black voters yet “it has never happened.”
“You’re saying one thing, but we’re waiting on the action,” said McShay, who's a political science professor.
“I want to ask for two contradictory things,” responded Talarico, adding that he had implemented some ideas and more were coming. “One is patience. The other is urgency.”
That was in July. Polls over the summer indicated that a large majority of Black voters already supported Talarico, but the candidate has labored to expand that and erase any doubt, saying he wants to make sure the Democratic Party doesn't continue taking Black voters for granted.
His campaign announced what it described as a historic investment of $25 million to reach Black voters in Texas. He has also received an endorsement from the political arm of the Congressional Black Caucus and elected leaders, hired veteran Black political operatives and Black-owned firms, visited Black churches and businesses and appeared on Black media shows.
Two months after McShay confronted Talarico, she said she's been encouraged by some of the candidate's decisions. She's working on what she calls a report card to publish in the Houston outlet the Forward Times.
“He’s not getting an A+,” she said, but maybe a “C or a B.”
Talarico beat U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, who is Black, in the Democratic primary. Crockett had faced some racially charged attacks on social media, creating some raw feelings during the race.
Although Talarico had welcomed her to the primary and said “we will always treat Crockett with the utmost respect," McShay said she wanted him to come down harder against online posters' vitriol.
So she asked about that, too, at the town hall, and Talarico replied with a sharper edge. “If you claim to be my supporter, if you claim to be a part of this movement that we are building, please keep Congressman Crockett’s name out of your mouth," he said to some applause. “She is a leader in the state, she’s a leader in this country, and she deserves the utmost respect.”
Talarico's outreach to Black communities, getting people energized and to the polls in November, is also working against some of the residual wariness from voters like Edward Richard, which is applied to most Democratic politicians.
Richard said in July that he will likely vote for Talarico, but he wanted to see more of him to answer a boiled-down question: “Are you for us?” The answer wouldn't necessarily change his vote, but it could spark an enthusiasm that he said would push him to attend rallies and talk up Talarico to his friends and church colleagues.
Richard and his wife, both in their 70s, lived through the Civil Rights Movement, the Voting Rights Act and the politicians who touched down in their neighborhoods just long enough to fix the cracks in the street ahead of an election, returning only when it was time to vote again.
Now, they said, there are food deserts and food swamps — a glut of fast-food restaurants — and thefts at the grocery store. Their son was pulled over for no clear reason, and police sat him down in wet grass. When someone calls in hazardous tree limbs or problems with sewage or running water, Richard said, “no one comes out for days, for months.”
“And so, you know, our concern is about our people,” he said. “We’re looking for the candidate that’s going to at least meet us halfway, at least listen to us.”
Talarico is facing a similar “kind of a litmus test that Black communities put on every politician, if they’re white, brown and even Black," said Houston-area U.S. Rep. Christian Menefee, a Democrat who has campaigned with Talarico.
“He has been intentional in coming into Black spaces and humbling himself to hear feedback, whether it be positive or constructive, and is working to earn people’s votes,” he said, adding that he couldn’t think of another statewide candidate in a general election who has done more to reach Black communities.
“When I see people in other states who are tweeting, ‘Oh, James Talarico is going to have a problem in Houston,’ I’m like, ‘Did you come to Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church with me the other day? Because he sure got a rousing applause,’” he said.
One of the requests from an attendee at the town hall was for Talarico to attend in Houston a Sunday Funday, when younger generations spend time together on the last day of a weekend.
“He did it," said McShay. "He went to a couple of places and engaged people, and I know some people are like, ‘That’s pandering,’ but that’s the role of someone running for office: They’re all pandering for votes.”
One of the political operatives Talarico's campaign brought on board was Delilah Agho-Otoghile, a hire that McShay said would be listed as an achievement on the report card. McShay said she can identify which campaign events Agho-Otoghile has been behind because of the “intentionality."
“He has improved. He’s done many of the things. Is there still room for improvement? Yes,” said McShay, noting that she's waiting to see where and how that $25 million is spent.
