Viral moments: What James Talarico and Jasmine Crockett both get about politics in 2026

On Saturday, two Texas Democratic hopefuls for the U.S. Senate will go head to head in Georgetown.

State Rep. James Talarico, of Austin, and Dallas-area Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett will square off in their first debate before the Texas party primaries in March.

And while they make their cases on the debate stage, the pair may also be hoping to create some new viral moments.

Both Crockett and Talarico have successfully leveraged social media to boost their political profiles throughout their political careers. But the candidates’ approaches are very different. 

“Rep. Crockett is really known for being more combative in her style. Rep. Talarico [is] more, I think, measured,” said Joshua Blank, research director of the Texas Politics Project at UT Austin.

However you view their approach, there’s one thing that’s clear.

“Both candidates are clearly very well-versed at social media. They know how to use it, they’ve been using it to reach people, and they both have good followings on a variety of different platforms,” said Talia Stroud, the director of the Center for Media Engagement at UT Austin’s College of Communication.

Stroud and Blank believe that, in today’s times, politicians have to know how to use social media to their advantage.

“It’s just required because people don’t tune into the news every night as they once did,” Stroud said.

A Pew Research Study done in September shows that 53% of adults consume news through social media.

Stroud says that means politicians “need to be on multiple social media platforms. They need to be attracting news attention.”

The benefit of being on social media is that with a simple like or repost, your message can meet people not just all over Texas, but across the globe.

And on top of that, it doesn’t even have to be something that’s paid for – it can happen organically. That’s called earned media.

“Earned media is ultimately media that a candidate is able to generate without paying for its placement, to a large extent,” Blank said. “An obvious example of this is Beto O’Rourke skating around the Whataburger parking lot during the 2018 election.”

That moment, although simple and having nothing to do with policy, helped increase O’Rourke’s popularity. This generated attention to him as a candidate without the need to spend a dollar – a major benefit for any campaign.

“In a state as large as Texas, with as many expensive media markets as we have, it’s really hard for a candidate to rely solely on paid media,” Blank said.

Both Crockett and Talarico have clever ways of using social media, or allowing social media to work for them. Both often use moments while debating in their respective chambers to do so.

Take, for instance, in 2023 when Talarico critiqued Republicans’ attempts to pass gun legislation days after the mass shooting at a mall in Allen, TX.

That video has 54,000 views on Talarico’s YouTube page, and likely thousands more on other social media platforms.

Creating such a video likely didn’t take a lot from Talarico and his staff — presumably screen recording the caucus meeting and cutting out that specific section before uploading it. The internet and people sharing it did the rest. 

Since then, the former teacher and seminarian has become known for the way he connects Christianity to values of the Democratic Party.

This has led to more viral moments. Videos of Talarico giving a sermon at church, or debating 20 undecided voters have continued to go viral — increasing his name recognition across the state and the country. 

Crockett has similar moments — whether in a House committee or speaking on the news. One moment came in a May 2024 committee meeting when she clashed with Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. 

It wasn’t Crockett who explicitly highlighted that moment, but social media influencers clipped it and posted it. It went on to gain millions of views and eventually led to Crockett appearing on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” to talk about the moment.

That video alone on has 3.3 million views on YouTube.

But it didn’t stop there. It eventually caught the eye of an American hip-hop and trap music producer and songwriter known as DJ Suede the Remix God. He put his own special mix on the moment.

Moments like these can help spread a person’s name to places a normal television ad might not have access to, and in ways that is especially particular to social media.

“People can encounter their messages when they aren’t even seeking them out,” Stroud said. “Even coming across just for a quick second and maybe even you’re scrolling right past can still help people to learn what your name is and who you are. And that is, again, the critical first step.”

But no matter who wins the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate, they’ll face an uphill battle in Republican-dominated Texas. 

For now, though, Crockett and Talarico are likely focused on Saturday’s debate, and any viral moments it may bring.

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