Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, filed paperwork on Monday to run for Senate, shaking up the Democratic primary just before the state’s filing deadline.
Crockett name appeared on the Texas Democratic Party’s list of candidates Monday afternoon, and a source familiar with the filing confirmed it was accurate.
Crockett joins the race to take on GOP Sen. John Cornyn, who is facing multiple primary challengers himself. The two-term congresswoman’s decision also comes as her Dallas-based House seat was redrawn in a GOP-led redistricting effort.
Democrats have not won a statewide race in Texas in more than 30 years, but they have been eyeing next year’s Senate race as a potential pickup opportunity, with Cornyn facing primary challenges from state Attorney General Ken Paxton and GOP Rep. Wesley Hunt. Democrats need to net four seats to take back the Senate next year.
If no candidate wins more than 50% of the vote in either of the March 3 primaries, the top two-vote getters advance to a primary runoff on May 26.
Crockett has been openly weighing a Senate run in recent months following the state’s mid-decade redistricting, which significantly altered the congressional lines in her North Texas home base. She likely enters the race with relatively high name recognition, given her national profile as a vocal critic of President Donald Trump’s administration and Republicans.
But some of Crockett’s comments could be fodder for Republicans to use against her in a general election, and Republicans have already been goading her to run, seeing her as a manageable opponent.
“Run Jasmine, run!” Cornyn posted on X back in July. His campaign also posted a video on social media of Crockett over the weekend with a narrator saying, “From open borders to socialist economics to unhinged attacks on anyone who disagrees, Jasmine Crockett isn’t representing TX. She’s representing the far-left fringe.”
The video highlighted some of Crockett’s controversial comments, including saying that “it is not a criminal violation to enter the country illegally;” labeling GOP Gov. Greg Abbott, who uses a wheelchair, as “Gov. Hot Wheels;” and criticizing Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., as a “bleach blonde bad built butch body.”
Crockett has said her campaign has conducted polling showing her in a strong position.
“The data says that I can win,” Crockett said in a MSNOW interview after the Thanksgiving holiday, saying she can build a coalition of “Black and brown” voters.
“I am closer to yes than I am no,” Crockett said of a possible Senate run at the time.
Crockett’s expected entrance has already shaken up the Democratic primary. Crockett spoke with the two other top Democratic candidates, former Rep. Colin Allred and state Rep. James Talarico, the weekend after Thanksgiving, according to two sources with knowledge of the calls.
Allred announced on Monday that he is ending his Senate campaign and instead running for a deep-blue House seat.
“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,” Allred said in a statement. “That’s why I’ve made the difficult decision to end my campaign for the U.S. Senate.”
A runoff was virtually guaranteed in a three-way primary race between Allred, Crockett and Talarico. Allred’s exit now pits Crockett just against Talarico, who built a national profile when he and other state legislators fled the state earlier this year to try and block the GOP redistricting effort.
Talarico has decried a “rigged system” against working people, and said that he can provide a path forward for voters looking for “something new” from the Democratic Party.
“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,” Talarico said in a statement on Monday. “Our movement is rooted in unity over division — so we welcome Congresswoman Crockett into this race.”
The Democratic primary is sure to be an expensive race, especially as Crockett enters the race as a strong fundraiser.
Talarico’s campaign raised $6.3 million in the most recent fundraising quarter, ending September with $5 million in his campaign account. But Crockett’s House campaign had $4.6 million in its account, which can be transferred to a Senate run.
Crockett, an attorney and former state legislator, gained some notoriety in 2021 while serving in the state legislature, fleeing the state to block action on a GOP elections measure. She was first elected to Congress in 2022, succeeding Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson. The longtime congresswoman recruited Crockett to run for her seat, saying that the district needed a representative with “high energy, a passion to fight for us, shrewd intelligence, leadership, and an incessant drive.”
Crockett won a contested primary to represent the deeply Democratic House seat with a boost from super PACs tied to the cryptocurrency industry.
