This time one year ago, David Hogg served as vice chairman of the Democratic National Committee, and he was openly touting Jasmine Crockett as the Democrats’ 2028 presidential nominee.

For real.

The other side is energized — and it is learning how to package its agenda in forms that look familiar enough to pass at a glance.

What a difference a year makes! Hogg was ousted from the DNC in June, and this week, Crockett’s U.S. Senate hopes sank like an Iranian frigate in the Indian Ocean.

Crockett built a national brand on performance: the nails, the lashes, the dialect, the whole routine. Private-school résumé, public “hood rat” persona. The problem wasn’t that Democrats objected to the routine. The problem was that it didn’t translate statewide.

Even though one in four Democratic primary voters are black, Crockett’s two-term House persona couldn’t carry her in a Senate primary among white voters living paycheck to paycheck. The scam had run its course.

Of course, modern Democratic politics rarely punishes grifters or scammers. It simply swaps in a new scam with better packaging.

Enter James Talarico, a name most Americans didn’t know a few weeks ago. He went on Stephen Colbert last month and played martyr about the Trump administration supposedly trying to censor an interview. Then — boom! — more than two million Democratic primary voters showed up and handed Texas’ Democratic U.S. Senate nomination to a straight white male.

That result doesn’t happen unless Talarico brings dark magic to the table.

He runs as part of “Team Jesus” — while speaking with forked tongue, of course.

That label provides a “permission structure” (read: scam) for Democratic primary voters who want a candidate who looks less like a cultural provocation and more like a “values” figure without changing the party’s underlying agenda. Democrats used a similar move nationally: Wrap the ticket in “normal” imagery — the old ball coach who wears flannel — and dare critics to object.

In Talarico’s case, the permission structure goes deeper because it touches theology. He offers a version of Christianity tailored for the normie voter — Christian language used to sell progressive policy as moral inevitability.

That’s why the stakes aren’t limited to one Senate race. If the left can redefine Christianity in public, it can neutralize one of the last institutions that resists its broader project. Talarico’s pitch attempts to do exactly that by presenting positions on abortion and gender ideology as not merely acceptable to Christians but practically demanded by God — who, in case you haven’t heard, is nonbinary.

RELATED: ‘Wake the hell up’: Glenn Beck warns Texans after primary election results

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Talarico may still lose in November. But remember: Beto O’Rourke lost to Ted Cruz by less than three points in 2018. National Democrats will treat this race as winnable and amplify it accordingly. The messaging will be exported far beyond Texas.

So here’s the question for the American church: Are you prepared to confront this?

A statewide campaign can become a delivery system for doctrinal confusion. Many churches, even in red states, insist they don’t want to “get political.” That instinct can become an excuse for silence when clarity is required.

More than 1.2 million Texans voted for a candidate whose brand centers on a theological message that would have sounded unthinkable less than a generation ago. So maybe the more urgent question isn’t whether the church is prepared. It’s whether the church even cares.

One more question, because the turnout itself should concern conservatives.

In a red state, with a major GOP Senate primary featuring an entrenched incumbent, a well-known attorney general, and a sitting congressman, how did that race draw fewer voters than the Democrats’ contest between the phony preacher and the fake hood rat?

Yes, that happened.

If nothing else, it should serve as a warning: The other side is energized — and it is learning how to package its agenda in forms that look familiar enough to pass at a glance.

​James talarico, Ken paxton, John cornyn, Democrats, Texas, Texas primary, Senate race, Gop, Opinion & analysis, 2026 midterms 

Rick Burgess, BlazeTV host of the spiritual warfare podcast “Strange Encounters,” often encourages his audience to engage in what he calls “spiritual housecleaning” — that is, ridding your life of both objects and activities that would give demons a foothold to torment you. Whether it’s watching horror movies, participating in Halloween festivities, or adorning your home with items associated with occult practices, Rick pulls no punches about the importance of “cleaning out” your life so that it not only glorifies God but also doesn’t give Satan’s forces a reason to linger.

But what happens when the darkness you’re trying to rid yourself of doesn’t look like a book of crystal magic, a subscription to a pornography site, or a gruesome Halloween display? What happens when that evil exists inside another person?

On this episode of “Strange Encounters,” Rick addresses a question many people are asking right now: Is narcissism a personality disorder or a symptom of a demon stronghold?

Rick first acknowledges that in our current day, people are far too quick to label someone a narcissist out of dislike.

“I think that’s reckless,” he says, “but [narcissism] does exist, and these people are real.”

But are demons really the reason these people are so difficult to deal with? Or are they just suffering from extreme psychological challenges?

Rick’s answer is layered.

“I don’t think everybody who is a narcissist is truly under demonic possession or oppression,” he says, acknowledging that some really “do need psychological help.”

That said, he does believe that genuine narcissists are “opening themselves up to demonic oppression or possession.”

A true narcissist, he explains, “does not have the ability to be part of a really close relationship with anyone,” because they are only seeking relationships “that fit their own interest.” They are people who “cannot handle criticism” and are “arrogant” and full of “pride,” he says.

All of these traits stand in stark contrast to how Scripture calls believers to be — lowly in spirit and humble, walking in honesty and righteousness toward others.

“This is where we’re starting to get into the spiritual,” says Rick.

“[Narcissists] love manipulation. They love deception. That’s demonic. They have a carefully crafted smoke screen to keep you confused, and their main goal in all of this is control,” he explains.

They also “love a world of conflict and chaos” and “feed on conflict.”

Scripture, Rick says, tells us very clearly that Satan and his demonic legions operate in similar ways — deceiving and manipulating us, sowing chaos in our lives, and destroying our relationships.

What is the believer to do, then, when faced with a narcissist? Should he uproot the person from his life, like one would trash an ouija board, for example?

With human beings, it’s not so simple, says Rick.

For the Christian in this situation, he says it’s important to “pray for discernment,” “pray for protection against [the narcissist],” “pray that God would break that spiritual stronghold,” and “use the authority that you’ve been given.”

To hear Rick’s full biblical breakdown, watch the episode above.

Want more from Rick Burgess?

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​Strange encounters, Strange encounters with rick burgess, Rick burgess, Spiritual warfare, Narcissism, Demon possessed, Blazetv, Blaze media