David Frum

Why can't Democrats in Texas play nicer with one another?

But when race did turn nasty, the weapons everyone reached for, or the nuclear weapons in the Democratic arsenal, accusations of race, and it escalated very fast.

And Colin Allred, and I know you don't want to talk about personality, so I'm not making this a personal issue about anybody.

But who had also had done a statewide race instead of being, as you have been, a kind of calming force, became an accelerant force.

What is missing from the party that it doesn't have a way to sort these inevitable disputes?

As you say, they are inevitable in a hotly contested primary, but in a way where people do not reach for the deadliest weapons at hand.

You keep reminding us of the size of Texas.

And as obvious a point as that is, it's really important to keep in mind.

And sometimes people in the rest of the country just, the idea that Texas is not just massively large in physical space, but so overwhelmingly populous.

I did not know the point you just made that there are more black voters in Texas than in any other state.

If you'd asked me that in advance, I would have guessed that question wrong.

So that's another reminder.

But let me test a theory on you.

One of the consequences of the vastness of Texas and the fact there are so many different large metropolitan areas,

means it just takes a lot of money to mount a competitive campaign.

And Texas then becomes a magnet for money from all over the country, and especially from national donors who are much more progressive than Texas voters.

And so you get this push of candidates farther to the left than really suits the Texas electorate.

And one of the reasons the Texas Democrats have not done well since the time of Lloyd Benson and Ann Richards is they are pushed, unlike Benson and Richards, away from the Texas voter by the national donor.

And when you look at Tallarico, he seems to have staked out a lot of issue positions in pursuit of donations that are not going to suit him as he becomes a general election candidate against whoever the Republicans produce, especially if it's John Cornett.

Well, let me push you a little more on this.