Big State, Bigger Scandals: The Texas Primary Wipeout

As results started pouring in after Tuesday’s primary elections in the Lone Star State, the only constant was that established careers ended and rookie hopefuls made headlines.

In the Democratic U.S. Senate primary, an unknown State Representative from Austin, James Talarico, defeated rising African American star U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett.

In the Republican U.S. House District 2, north of Houston, U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw (a well-known former Navy SEAL and incumbent) lost to a MAGA star, State Rep. Steve Toth. Crenshaw was seen as insufficiently Trump-centric in a state that Trump has never lost.

Were it not for the spoiler candidacy of U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt (R-Houston), a second-term congressman representing Texas’s 38th District who entered the Republican Senate primary in October 2025, that race would not have gone to a runoff in May. Now, the most expensive Senate primary in America’s history will continue to involve even more spending as incumbent Sen. John Cornyn and MAGA star Attorney General Ken Paxton go one-on-one. Already, the focus is on who President Trump will endorse.

And in a last-bit tabloid play, incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales faced a serious challenge and was forced into a runoff against Brandon Herrera (an avid gun rights activist and YouTuber known as “The AK Guy”). Gonzales sacrificed his safe seat by engaging in a sexual relationship with one of his staffers, who later committed suicide. He did not reveal the details until after the primary election in an effort to come clean. That hesitation (and the illicit behavior) will likely cost him his seat.

Update: Hours after this column was published, Gonzales announced that he will not seek re-election. This means that Herrera will become the GOP nominee in a relatively safe district.

On the ballot this time were many statewide seats, including governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, land commissioner, agriculture commissioner, comptroller, the State Board of Education, and several judicial seats.

I live in Bedford, TX, about 8 miles west of Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. As election day grew nearer, my mailbox could no longer hold the stuffed mailers from every candidate in the region wanting my vote. Even as a political junkie, I couldn’t recognize 95% of the names, far less judge their electability to high office - no wonder the robot calls, and SMSs were incessant.

But the Senate primary grabbed my attention in part because I had spoken briefly to Rep. Jasmine Crockett more than two years ago. I was covering a sports event in November 2023 when, in a world where government actions are suspect and political division rules, a rare moment of unity was on display in Southwest Dallas.

Crockett headlined the event to announce that a cricket ground and a sports complex would be built on Roland G. Parrish Park on Morrell Avenue, minutes from Interstates 30 and 35.

The Morrell Avenue area has been the result of environmental neglect for years. A smelter operated for years, contaminating the air quality. In July 2013, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) reported that nickel levels were high enough to remain on the agency’s Air Pollutant Watch List. This fact qualified the area for inclusion in the Biden administration’s Environmental Justice40 Initiative.

With persuasion from Congresswoman Crockett, who worked directly with the EPA, the community became eligible for a federal grant to finance, procure, and cover staffing costs to help set up the cricket and sports complex.

Most Americans have limited exposure to cricket, a game similar to baseball in terms of terminology (batter, dugout, ball, catch, run, inning, umpire), but vastly different. Created in England, cricket has been popular for decades in the former British colonies of the Commonwealth (Australia, West Indies, New Zealand, South Africa). It has since spread to South Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, and Sri Lanka) during the British Raj.

Today, India dominates the mammoth sport, attracting over 2 billion viewers as diaspora populations from these original countries have settled worldwide. It is growing steadily in America. On March 8, India will face New Zealand to determine who will lift the 2026 T20 World Cup.

When I asked Crockett, she admitted she knew nothing about cricket. But for a young legislator in Congress, she appeared to have mastered the political talent of working across the aisle to get a project completed, in Dallas, the State Capitol in Austin, and Washington, D.C.

By the time Crockett announced that she would run for her party’s nomination for Senate, she had changed her political profile considerably. Perhaps all that anger had built up in her, and she refused to let us see it at that lazy morning event at Roland G. Parrish Park.

But the transformation was complete. Crockett became a fixture on TV, radio, and podcasts, highlighting the plight of Black people and charging into attacks on whites. Critics mocked her statements as bizarre, racially insensitive, or out of touch.

Each utterance led to widespread online roasting and accusations of playing into stereotypes. Each got Crockett more clicks and even more invitations to appear in front of hosts who lured her into making even more incendiary statements.

In May 2024, during a House Oversight Committee hearing, Crockett fired back at Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, calling Greene’s appearance a “bleach blonde, bad built, butch body.”

Last March, Crockett quipped about Governor Abbott (who uses a wheelchair): “Y’all know we got Governor Hot Wheels down there, come on now. And the only thing hot about him is that he is a hot ass mess, honey!”

In April 2025, Crockett said, “We done picking cotton! We are. You can’t pay us enough to find a plantation.” She argued Black Americans aren’t interested in low-wage farm jobs that immigrants fill.

In announcing her run for the Senate primary, she voluntarily gave up her safe House seat. Now, defeated by James Talarico, a weird 36-year-old never-married white pastor-politician, Crockett fell to the very race she found distasteful.

Talarico is himself weird, making extraordinary statements in support of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) in a state that detests it. He has also spread the welcome mat to illegal immigration in a state that furiously defends its borders.

To be sure, details on both Gonzales and Talarico are still emerging as of this writing, so it is wise to hold judgments.

But, the big drama in Texas just got bigger for the upcoming general election.

Rajkamal Rao has been a TIPP Insights columnist and member of the Editorial Board for over four years. He also publishes on Substack, with all of his work available for free. Readers may subscribe to get new articles sent straight to their inbox.

Data Highlights Intensity Of Iran’s Attacks On United Arab Emirates

Statistics released by Gulf defense ministries on the number of missiles, drones, and aircraft that Iran has used against them show the UAE enduring the brunt of their attacks.

Iran is attacking the United Arab Emirates more than any other Gulf country, possibly because the UAE is an Arab state that has moved toward integration with the West rather than revolutionary resistance – resulting in the most connected, prosperous, and diplomatically agile state in the Arab world.

Ukrainian Interceptors Could Counter Iran’s Drones

The U.S. and at least one Gulf state are in talks to buy Ukrainian interceptors to overcome the cost imbalance of using expensive missile defenses to counter swarms of Iran’s low-cost drones.

While the cost of Iran’s medium-range Fateh-110 ballistic missile is estimated at around $110,000, and the U.S.-supplied PAC-3 Patriot missile costs up to $4 million, the Shahed-136 drone can be produced for as little as $20,000. The Iranian strategy of launching hundreds of drones could very quickly overwhelm and exhaust air defenses, enabling the more destructive ballistic missiles to reach their intended targets more easily.

Ukraine now has more experience than any nation in dealing with specifically these kinds of attacks. Russia began using Iranian-made Shahed drones early in the war and now produces its own version, the Geran. To counter this threat, Ukraine developed a number of low-cost systems for detecting and intercepting them, including acoustic sensors that use AI to filter out extraneous noise and identify the distinctive acoustic signature of the drones, as well as kinetic interceptors such as the Wild Hornet Sting.

The Sting costs from just $2,200, requires only 2 days of training to pilot, and has a typical hit rate in Ukraine of 80-90%.

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