President Donald Trump's administration may have elevated a Democratic Senate candidate by strong-arming CBS into calling off an interview with him, according to a new analysis.
Late-night talk show host Stephen Colbert told viewers that said CBS didn't air his interview Monday with Texas state Rep. James Talarico out of fear of regulatory action by the Federal Communications Commission, which the network denies, but CNN's Harry Enten said new data shows the administration's threat could have backfired.
"There's a real Barbra Streisand effect going on here," Enten said. "What are we talking about here? Well, take a look here on Google. Google searches for James Talarico in the U.S. up 4,900 percent today versus Monday. How about in Texas, where you have that key Senate race going on there – up like a rocket. We're talking about up 1,150 percent. So this has actually been very good news for James Talarico. You want that attention. You have that primary going on in a few weeks, and he's absolutely gotten it both nationwide and of course, very importantly in the state of Texas as well, the highest on record."
Talarico is running a closely contested Democratic primary race against Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) for a chance to face off against incumbent Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) or state Attorney General Ken Paxton, who are locked in a close primary challenge themselves.
"There are a lot of Democrats nationwide who want Talarico to win," Enten said, "and obviously this extra attention will certainly help, and one of the ways we know that James Talarico has generated a lot of interest nationwide is, look at this: The money raised, the Democratic candidates, $13 million for James Talarico. Jasmine Crockett, of course, the other candidate running, just $7 million. He's doubling up on Crockett in terms of the money race. He's been able to get his name recognition to go way up in Texas. Of course, Crockett, before this race, was a nationally known name for taking on President Donald John Trump. So Talarico really raising a lot of money. He has more cash on hand at this point, and all that extra attention going into the final few weeks, he's just going to have even more money. The fundamentals, the money fundamentals really favoring Talarico at this point."
While national Democrats might prefer Talarico, there's some indication that Republicans would prefer to face Crockett in November, so the administration's move may have undercut those efforts.
"On Sunday, Talarico was the favorite, but it was pretty close, 61 percent chance," Enten said. "But look at that: It turns out this attention was very good for Talarico. The prediction market, Kalshi prediction market, having his chance go all the way up to three in four at this point, a 75 percent chance of winning that nomination."
"It was before the Colbert situation," Enten added, "but this is going to be very interesting because the polling, at least one poll actually had Crockett ahead here at 47 percent to Talarico's 39 percent. Now we'll see if that polling changes in the final few weeks of this campaign, but this could be an indication that the prediction markets are a leading indicator in this race, because the polling is a little stale."
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