The Democrat also acknowledged trailing his challenger in polls.

DALLAS — While he may be trailing U.S. Representative Jasmine Crockett, D-30th District, in polls, it hasn’t slowed down state Representative Jame Talarico’s fundraising.

The Austin-area Democrat raised nearly $7 million during the last quarter, a huge figure adding to his overall total of $13 million raised since he entered the race last September.

“All of that money was raised by 215,000 individual contributors who are giving $5, $10, $15 at a time,” Talarico told us on Inside Texas Politics. “This is a people powered campaign. That’s exactly how we take on this broken, corrupt political system.”

There’s no question Talarico will need that money to close the gap before the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate on March 3.

In the latest poll, conducted by Texas Southern University in December 2025, he trailed Crockett by eight points, 51% – 43%, something even Talarico acknowledged with us.

6% said they were still undecided.

“We’re going to have our work cut out for us in this race so that we can introduce ourselves to more voters across the state of Texas,” he said.

Talarico expects affordability to be the most dominant political issue this year.

Watch the full episode of Inside Texas Politics here:

And the Democrat tells us if elected, his first priorities would be to set even more limits on campaign contributions and ban super PACS. Talarico also says he’d like to ban lawmakers from trading individual stocks while they’re in office. This, he argues, would help level the playing field and ensure government works for everyone.

The Texas AFL-CIO will host the first debate between Talarico and Crockett scheduled for Saturday, Jan. 24.

While he’ll continue to try to introduce himself to Texas voters and win them over during that debate, we also asked Talarico directly why he thinks they should vote for him over Crockett.

“I think we need outsiders in Washington, D.C.. I think we need someone who has experience fighting for working people. My public service career began in the classroom as a public school teacher on the west side of San Antonio. And then I flipped a Trump district that no one thought was winnable to win a seat in the state legislature,” the Democrat responded. “And in the Texas Legislature, a Republican dominated body, as a Democrat, I’ve been able to not only stand up to Republican extremism, I’ve also been able to pass transformational legislation to help working people.”

There is a three way race between Republicans for the U.S. Senate. Incumbent John Cornyn is facing the stiffest competition of his political career against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt, R-38th District.