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Democratic Rep. Jasmine Crockett jumped into the Senate race in Texas on Monday, bringing her progressive politics, social media savvy and fundraising firepower to a race that could be key to her party’s long-shot hopes of flipping the chamber in 2024.
“There are a lot of people that said, ‘You’ve got to stay in the House. We need our voice. We need you there,’’’ Crockett told a roomful of supporters in Dallas. “But what we need is for me to have a bigger voice. What we need is not only a voice, but we need to make sure that we are going to stop all the hell that is raining down on all of our people.”
Hours before Crockett officially entered the race, another Democratic contender, former Rep. Colin Allred, dropped his bid and switched to a House race, citing a need to avoid a divisive Senate primary. But the Democratic field still includes another rising star: state Rep. James Talarico.
Talarico and Crockett have both built national profiles: Crockett for her viral attacks on President Donald Trump and his MAGA supporters and Talarico for blending progressive politics with his Christian faith. Talarico reported raising $6.3 million in the first three weeks after announcing his campaign in September. Crockett entered October with $4.6 million in her House campaign accounts, funds she’d be able to transfer to her Senate effort.
As part of her rollout Monday, which marks the candidate filing deadline in the Lone Star State, Crockett posted a video featuring audio of Trump lambasting her as “a very low IQ person” and calling her “the new star of the Democrat Party.”
Talarico struck a note of unity, welcoming Crockett to the race while highlighting his own attributes.
“We’re building a movement in Texas — fueled by record-breaking grassroots fundraising and 10,000 volunteers who are putting in the work to defeat the billionaire mega-donors and puppet politicians who have taken over our state,” he said in a statement.
Republicans are also embroiled in an acrimonious and expensive battle for the Senate seat, with incumbent John Cornyn being challenged by state Attorney General Ken Paxton and Rep. Wesley Hunt.
Asked to comment on Crockett’s entry, Cornyn told reporters on Capitol Hill that she was “the worst possible candidate.”
The National Republican Senatorial Committee echoed those remarks, calling the second-term congresswoman “wrong for Texas,” a state where Democrats have not won a statewide election since 1994.
“Jasmine Crockett leading her primary is the latest sign that the Democrat Party is being run by radical leftists,” NRSC spokeswoman Joanna Rodriguez said in a statement Monday.
Speaking at her campaign launch, Crockett, a former state legislator who succeeded longtime Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson in 2023, sought to address those attacks head-on.
“They’ll tell you that my agenda is out of left field when, in reality, it’s just right for Texas,” she said. “My agenda is affordability, it’s health care, it’s energy independence, it’s American manufacturing, it’s protecting our natural resources, [it’s] providing the best education to every child and not saddling them with life-long debt in the process.”
Redistricting scramble
Allred’s decision to exit the Senate race represents the latest fallout from mid-decade redistricting in Texas. Trump urged state Republicans to redraw the state’s congressional map to help the party defend its House majority and pick up seats in next year’s midterm elections. Under the new map, which received a green light from the Supreme Court last week, five Democrat-held seats were redrawn to favor the GOP.
Allred blasted Trump and the Republican Senate candidates as he announced his “difficult” decision to exit the Senate race.
“In the past few days, I’ve come to believe that a bruising Senate Democratic primary and runoff would prevent the Democratic Party from going into this critical election unified against the danger posed to our communities and our Constitution by Donald Trump and one of his Republican bootlickers Paxton, Cornyn, or Hunt,” he said in a statement.
Instead, Allred is seeking to return to the House from the redrawn 33rd District, which includes territory he previously represented in Congress. That sets up a likely primary clash with his successor in the chamber, Democrat Julie Elizabeth Johnson.
Johnson, who on Monday picked up the backing of EMILY’s List, signaled that she’s prepared to fight for the seat.
“This new district deserves representation that has been present in the tough moments, including throughout the redistricting fight, instead of parachuting back when another campaign doesn’t work out,’’ she said in a statement. “Steady, present, accountable, and rooted in the community I serve — not in the next opportunity that comes along.”
Democrat Marc Veasey represents the current version of the 33rd District, but his Fort Worth base was drawn out of the seat under the new map. Punchbowl News reported Monday evening that he would not run for reelection and was instead eyeing a bid for Tarrant County judge.
Allred was first elected to Congress in the 2018 blue wave, unseating longtime Republican incumbent Pete Sessions in what was then a battleground district in the Dallas suburbs. Redistricting after the 2020 census made the seat considerably more Democratic. Allred vacated the seat in 2024 for an ultimately unsuccessful Senate run against Republican Ted Cruz and was replaced in the House by Johnson.
Other races affected by the new Texas map include contests for Democrat-held seats in Austin and Houston. On Friday, Rep. Lloyd Doggett, the longest-serving member of the Texas delegation, announced his retirement, avoiding a potentially divisive primary against progressive Rep. Greg Casar in a redrawn Austin-area district.
In Houston, Democratic Rep. Al Green is running for the redrawn 18th District, setting up another primary clash with a future House colleague. Democrats Christian Menefee and Amanda Edwards, who are vying to succeed the late Rep. Sylvester Turner in a Jan. 31 special election runoff for the currently vacant seat, have both said they will file to run for the regular 18th District primary, scheduled for March 3.
Niels Lesniewski and Jacob Fulton contributed to this report.
