The Texas Senate Primary Was a Preview of Creator Wars to Come
Tuesday, James Talarico, On Tuesday, James Talarico, a 36-year-old Presbyterian seminarian and state representative from Austin, Texas, defeated Rep. Jasmine Crockett in what became one of the most closely watched primary races so far this year.
Although both candidates have huge followings on social media (Talarico with 1.6 million followers and Crockett with 2.6 million followers on TikTok), it wasn’t just the candidates who led the conversation. It is the creators around them who offer a taste of the digital battles to come throughout the midterm elections and, ultimately, the 2028 presidential election.
The Talarico and Crockett campaigns used markedly different digital strategies. Crockett built his brand in Congress on confrontation, going massively viral last year after denouncing Marjorie Taylor Greene for having a “bleach blonde, poorly built, butch body” and telling Elon Musk to “fuck off.” Talarico’s digital presence seems more like a populist sermon delivered on his own social media accounts. He has taken these preachings to unconventional platforms, like the Joe Rogan Experience, which has rewarded him with countless viral clips.
But for the most part, the incendiary aspects of digitally-focused campaigns came from outside the candidates. In January, the hosts of “Las Culturistas,” a podcast about pop culture and comedy, unleashed a firestorm of criticism after discouraging listeners from supporting Crockett in an episode of the show. “Don’t waste your money sending Jasmine Crockett, don’t do it,” said Matt Rogers, one of the hosts at the time. The show faced immediate backlash from its audience members and Crockett supporters, forcing them to apologize.
It was the first in a series of online feuds that would come to a head in February, when a Dallas-based creator, Morgan Thompson, claimed that Talarico had called Colin Allred, a former House representative, a “mediocre black man.” The video shared with his nearly 200,000 followers on TikTok went viral, breaking out of pro-Crockett communities online and into the mainstream press. In response to the allegation, the Talarico campaign called the comment a “distortion” of an off-the-record conversation the candidate had with Thompson in which he called Allred’s campaign method “poor,” not the man himself.
“I would never attack him [Allred] on the basis of race,” Talarico said at the time. “As a black man in America, Congressman Allred has had to work twice as hard to get where he is. I understand how my criticism of the congressman’s campaign could be interpreted given this country’s painful legacy of racism, and I care deeply about the impact my words have on others.”
This episode highlighted a key question among strategists heading into the 2026 midterm elections and the upcoming presidential race: What role should creators play in campaigns? And how do you manage them? Although working with creators has become commonplace in Republican and Democratic campaigns, the relationships are often poorly defined and difficult to monitor.
“There are so many factors that campaign staff themselves have to consider and think about,” says Kyle Tharp, author of the digital politics newsletter Chaotic Era. “Do I put them in the press columns at the rally, or do I give them VIP access up front? Do I give them a few minutes with the candidate? Do I screen their questions? Or do I just let them riff and hope for the best?”
President Donald Trump’s 2024 re-election campaign relied heavily on creators and podcasters to reach young, mostly male voters. But many of those same creators have turned against Trump over the past year. As the 2024 election approaches, Trump appeared on “Flagrant,” a popular podcast hosted by comedian Andrew Schulz. But Schulz’s support for Trump quickly turned to anger. Last summer, Schulz challenged the administration’s failure to release records related to the Justice Department’s investigations of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Since then, Schulz has repeatedly used his platform to criticize the administration.
