James Talarico faces Black voter frustration in Texas Senate race

Texas Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico is facing lingering frustration from inside his own political backyard over the cancellation of an event that was supposed to take place on Oct. 5 with a Black civic-service group.

The Central Texas African American Civic Engagement Symposium (CT-AACES) expressed deep frustration in an email, sent to the Talarico campaign and obtained by Fox News Digital, after the campaign cancelled an event – which had 325 confirmed registrants – during Talarico’s two-week absence from the campaign trail due to illness.

CT-AACES said the cancellation left them with “irrecoverable financial loss,” and that Talarico’s campaign had not engaged in rescheduling efforts

“While we understand Representative Talarico’s health required priority, we are deeply disappointed by the campaign’s decision to issue a flat cancellation rather than committing to a rescheduled date,” the email reads. “It was a missed opportunity for Representative Talarico to directly address community skepticism and demonstrate the sincerity of his commitment to Central Texas African Americans.”

The cancellation is the most recent instance of the tensions that Talarico’s campaign has faced with the Black community. It also casts doubt on the effectiveness of his efforts to reach Black voteBlack voters through a $25 million outreach pledge aimed at mobilizing black voters is fully reaching the ground.

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The frustration isn’t isolated to CT-AACES.

At least one Austin-area Democratic operative who has met directly with Talarico told Fox News Digital that she remains frustrated by what she described as uneven follow-through on outreach to Black Democrats and candidates further down the ballot.

“Black voters aren’t a monolith,” the source cautioned, rejecting any blanket assertion that Black Texans distrust Talarico outright. “I think that there are pockets that do. There’s a pocket that doesn’t. And then there’s the pocket that’s really unsure,” she said.

The operative, who previously ran for Talarico’s prior state House seat and spoke to Fox News Digital, is particularly familiar with the nominee and the Democratic organizing landscape in the Austin region.

Asked about a $25 million investment to focus on door-knocking in Black neighborhoods, in-person community events and engagement with Black churches, the source said those investments haven’t manifested yet.

“We haven’t received the money, but we’re being told it’s coming,” she said of some accounts she has heard from the ground. “We received, you know, one or 2% of what we were told we were going to get. And then it’s been silence since,” she said.

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Democratic U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico speaks during a press conference at the Hyatt Centric Congress Avenue in Austin, Texas, on July 22, 2026. The discussion comes as data centers have emerged as a major political issue in Texas, with Gov. Greg Abbott calling for stronger oversight of their expansion. (Getty Images)

The comments come after Talarico appeared on a Black voter coalition Zoom last week, delivering brief remarks about “put[ting] in the money … time … and effort to win” before his feed disappeared from the call reportedly without a public question-and-answer session. At the July Houston town hall where Talarico announced the $25 million pledge, nurse Kandice Webber confronted him as the event approached its scheduled end and demanded that he remain to answer questions. “Black people don’t trust you for this reason,” she said, according to the Texas Tribune .

“And you cannot win without us, so you stay here and you answer our questions, or you suffer the consequences,” Webber said.

During his primary, Talarico also encountered controversy over the black vote when reports surfaced the he had characterized rival candidate and former NFL linebacker Collin Allred as a “mediocre Black man.” “He had the audacity to say to a Black woman that he had signed up to run against a mediocre black man,” Allred said in a video response posted to X.

“We should say ‘thank you.’ Thank you for taking off the mask. Thank you for telling us who you really are and what you really think… keep my name out of your mouth while you’re at it.”

Talarico, for his part, described the wording as a mischaracterization, stating that he “described Congressman Allred’s method of campaigning as mediocre” and that he would “never attack him on the basis of race.”

Talarico also received criticism from Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, his primary opponent in the Senate primary, after she accused him of darkening her skin in campaign ads against her.

“And you know, I’ve been asked a couple of times about it. And you know, I look at this specifically as a civil rights lawyer, and I see when they’re sending out ads and they’re darkening my skin. And I’m just like, I know what this is, right?” Crockett said at a press conference.

The operative said she personally pressed Talarico during a June meeting to do more to endorse and support down-ballot Democrats after hearing from campaigns that donors had already exhausted their political giving on his Senate bid and were asking whether he had endorsed those candidates.

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Senate candidate James Talarico waves as he approaches a gas station in Carrollton, Texas, Saturday, September 26, 2026. (Anja Schlein/The Dallas Morning News via Getty Images)

“He was very gracious. He said he understood,” she told Fox News Digital. “I followed up with his staff multiple times and to this day have still not heard anything, which has been really frustrating to me.”

Fox News Digital reached out to the Talarico campaign for a response to the characterizations and comments.