Texas Primary: Race between Jasmine Crockett, James Talarico heat up

Texas Primary campaign meddling

The Primary Battleground in Texas had a change in tone somewhat on Thursday. FOX 7 heard trash talk about outsides meddling in races, and saw a feud between two hip-hop celebrities spill over into the Senate race.

AUSTIN, Texas - The Primary Battleground in Texas had a change in tone for the Thursday Battleground Texas segment. 

There was a chorus of political trash talk regarding outsiders meddling in races, and an old feud between two hip-hop celebrities spilled over into the Texas U.S. Senate race.

The backstory:

Jasmine Crockett continued to complain about attack ads from dark money super PACS. In an interview with FOX 26’s Greg Groogin, Crockett linked some of the ads to James Talarico. In the interview, she pushed back on his pledge not to take money from big dollar donors.

"And so it does feel like hypocrisy. To have an entire platform that is based on getting big money out of politics that talks about dark money, yet right now seemingly, it is begging and begging and begging dark money to go ahead and pour in," said Crockett.

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In a New York Times article, it was suggested that Crockett is getting help from Governor Greg Abbott. The Times looked at Abbott’s recent campaign ads that show Crockett with other so-called "radical democrats." 

Talarico spoke to FOX 4’s Steven Dial about how his supporters believe the ads are part of a GOP plan to prop up Crockett.

"This is not the only time that we've seen Republicans meddling in this primary. They did it at the very beginning of the primary fight. They're doing it now. I would tell every Republican elected official to stay out of our business and stay out of our primary," said Talarico.

Dig deeper:

This week, rapper Cardi B went on social media and endorsed Jasmine Crockett. That provoked a quick response from Ken Paxton. He posted that he was on team Nicki Minaj. The two musicians have reportedly been feuding since 2017, but recently things got political after Nicki Minaj aligned herself with the Republican Party.

The Cornyn camp also launched a tough attack ad. It essentially called Ken Paxton a "home wrecker" for allegedly having an affair with a married woman. 

Paxton countered with an ad that featured his daughter. In the ad she said her dad may be flawed, but he is a God-fearing man.