Subscribe here: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | Overcast | Pocket CastsThis week, the Atlantic staff writer Elaine Godfrey was covering a campaign rally in Texas when she was ushered out. Elaine has been covering national politics for years, and has been turned away before—but, she says that has usually happened to her at Trump rallies. This time, she was turned away by a Democrat running in a Senate primary. Representative Jasmine Crockett is known for her confrontational style, and it serves her well with her constituents, voters, and Democrats who are tired of playing nice when Republicans don’t. Last year, Godfrey profiled Crockett for The Atlantic, a story that Crockett tried to “shut down” when she found out her House colleagues were being interviewed. “Crockett is testing out the coarser, insult-comedy-style attacks that the GOP has embraced under Trump, the general idea being that when the Republicans go low, the Democrats should meet them there,” Godfrey wrote at the time. Is that where the rest of the party might be heading? We talked to Godfrey about her experience at the rally and the upcoming primary election in Texas.The following is a transcript of the episode:Adam Harris: The Texas Senate primaries are drawing national headlines. You may have heard of the Democratic candidates: Representative Jasmine Crockett, whose spat with Marjorie Taylor Greene in 2024 lit up social media Representative Jasmine Crockett: If someone on this committee then starts talking about somebody’s bleach-blonde, bad-built, butch body, that would not be engaging in personalities, correct? Representative James Comer: A what now? Harris: —or James Talarico, who was recently interviewed by Stephen Colbert—an interview Colbert said CBS tried to bar him from airing. State Representative James Talarico: I think that Donald Trump is worried that we’re about to flip Texas. (Applause.) Harris: And both candidates would have a big hill to climb. No Democrat has won a statewide election in Texas since 1994, and promising candidates, from Beto O’Rourke to Wendy Davis, have tried and failed to change that fact.But people think Crockett or Talarico really could. And it’s making them wonder: Is this the year for a Democrat in Texas?This is Radio Atlantic, and I’m Adam Harris, sitting in for Hanna Rosin. Atlantic staff writer Elaine Godfrey has been covering this Texas race and also following Representative Crockett. She profiled her last year.And then, while Elaine was at a Crockett… [TheTopNews] Read More.
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