Democrats have long fantasized about winning a statewide campaign in deep-red Texas. Just as it did when Beto O’Rourke ran, the party is dreaming big, with a U.S. Senate primary election this week setting the stage for the next attempt in November.

Texas Democrats are “itching for a fight” in the Senate election, said NBC News. Voters this week will decide if State Rep. James Talarico or U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett will be the party’s nominee. Talarico is trying to “energize voters across the political spectrum” against elites, while Crockett is attempting to harness Democrats’ “core supporters in a fight against Trump.” The winner of the primary will “provide some clues” about how rank-and-file Democrats want to win back power in an era of GOP dominance.

Republicans, meanwhile, are “freaking out” about their primary battle, said Politico. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is challenging incumbent Sen. John Cornyn. And a third Republican candidate, U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt, may make it impossible for either to win an outright GOP majority.

What did the commentators say?
Democrats are “going wild” over the possibility of a Texas victory in November, said Bud Kennedy at The Fort Worth Star-Telegram. And there are “bright signs” for the party. Of the million who have already voted in the primary, “one-fourth are completely new to any party primary.” But winning a statewide race will take “heavy turnout of Democrats, plus a sweep of independent voters,” as well as GOP defections. Talarico “could get there,” but Crockett has “yet to strike a chord with independent voters.” 

Texas will be “ground zero” in the 2026 midterm elections, said Ed Kilgore at New York magazine. The differences between Talarico and Crockett are “more a matter of style and strategy than of ideology,” while the divisions between Paxton and Cornyn are “more deep-seated.” A general election between Crockett and Paxton would be “wild, loud and unpredictable.”

What next?
Crockett has a “double-digit lead” over Talarico in pre-primary polling, said The Texas Tribune. But Republicans believe Crockett would be a “weaker opponent” in the general election, said The Downballot. That’s why Gov. Greg Abbott (R) is running ads “pretending to attack the GOP’s preferred candidate while actually hoping to boost her with Democrats.” The primary election is tomorrow.

While it’s no secret that artificial intelligence can be used for nefarious purposes, China is working with AI on an unprecedented scale and using it to target its enemies, according to a report from OpenAI. This is just one way that China is employing AI behind the scenes to disrupt global operations.

‘Sprawling Chinese influence operation’
The report claims that China is using OpenAI’s chatbot, ChatGPT, as a “diary to document the alleged covert campaign of suppression,” said CNN. A “sprawling Chinese influence operation” is being employed largely for “intimidating Chinese dissidents abroad, including by impersonating U.S. immigration officials.” 

OpenAI’s report “offers one of the most vivid examples yet of how authoritarian regimes can use AI tools to document their censorship efforts,” said CNN. In the case of China impersonating U.S. officials, this was done to “warn a U.S.-based Chinese dissident that their public statements had supposedly broken the law.” ChatGPT “served as a journal for the Chinese operative to keep track” of their own covert operations.

ChatGPT fights back
China’s AI use is heavy-handed, but there are signs that some of ChatGPT’s built-in safeguards are working. In October, the chatbot “refused to assist an individual associated with Chinese law enforcement in planning an online campaign to discredit” Japanese politician Sanae Takaichi, said Bloomberg. The user allegedly asked ChatGPT to create a “plan that would amplify negative comments” about Takaichi, who became Japan’s prime minister later that month. But ChatGPT “refused to provide advice on this plan,” said OpenAI’s report, and the user was forced to abandon their efforts to wield the platform. 

OpenAI’s report “clearly demonstrates the way that China is actively employing AI tools to enhance information operations,” Michael Horowitz, a former Pentagon official and professor at the University of Pennsylvania, said to CNN. The AI competition between China and the U.S. is “continuing to intensify,” and this is “not just taking place at the frontier but in how China’s government is planning and implementing the day-to-day of their surveillance and information apparatus.”

Rosalía performs “Berghain” at the BRIT Awards in Manchester, England. The Spanish singer was crowned International Artist of the Year, triumphing over artists like Bad Bunny, Chappell Roan, Lady Gaga and Taylor Swift. 
JMEnternational / Getty Images

It has been an unbearable winter in some pockets of the country, with people ready for spring. Along with somewhat warmer weather this month, some highly anticipated book releases are arriving to brighten or enlighten your day. 

‘Now I Surrender’
Described as “part epic, part alt-Western,” Álvaro Enrigue’s latest novel reimagines a 19th-century war between the Apaches, Mexico and the U.S. Enrigue’s approach to the story “isn’t so much to lament the end of Apachería” so much as to “admire the steeliness of a tribe that survived centuries-long attempts to subdue it,” said Kirkus Reviews. (March 3, $30, Penguin Random House)

‘Chain of Ideas: The Origins of Our Authoritarian Age’
The author of “Stamped from the Beginning” and “How to Be an Antiracist,” Ibram X. Kendi is back with another book about the “state of Western bigotry,” said The New York Times. This time, he focuses on the “great replacement theory,” the concept of an “elite conspiracy to nudge white people in Europe and the United States off the map” by encouraging “low birthrates and promoting an influx of Black and brown immigrants.” (March 17, $35, Penguin Random House)

‘Seasons of Glass & Iron: Stories’
The acclaimed science fiction writer Amal El-Mohtar presents a collection of previously published short stories and poetry. The book features a variety of formats, such as letters, diary entries and folktales and blends “fantasy, magical realism and speculative fiction” rooted in “history, myth or legend,” said Publishers’ Weekly. (March 24, $25, Macmillan)