U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, a progressive Democrat who represents a Dallas-area district, filed paperwork to enter the race Monday. (David Crane/MediaNews Group/Los Angeles Daily News via Getty Images)
This story was originally reported by Grace Panetta of The 19th. Meet Grace and read more of their reporting on gender, politics and policy.
A barn-burner of a race for U.S. Senate is underway in Texas.
Rep. Jasmine Crockett, a firebrand progressive Democrat who represents a Dallas-area district, filed paperwork to enter the race Monday, the deadline for candidates to file to run for the seat. On the same day, former Rep. Colin Allred, who unsuccessfully challenged GOP Sen. Ted Cruz in 2024, said he was dropping out to run for a U.S. House seat. Crockett is set to face state Rep. James Talarico in the Democratic primary.
Crockett was elected to the U.S. House in 2022 from a safe blue district. She’s gained a national profile and media visibility with her sharp criticisms of Republicans, including through her role on the House Oversight Committee. She sought an even more visible position as the top Democrat on the panel, but withdrew her candidacy.
“There are a lot of people that said, ‘You got to stay in the House, we need your voice, we need you there’, and I understand, but what we need is for me to have a bigger voice,” Crockett said. “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.”
Talarico, in a statement after Crockett entered the race, pointed to his fundraising and volunteer numbers. “Our movement is rooted in unity over division — so we welcome Congresswoman Crockett into this race,” he said.
Several Republicans are vying to take on whichever Democrat emerges from that field, with a contentious and bruising primary of their own. Incumbent Republican John Cornyn, seeking a fifth term in the Senate, is facing primary challenges from other prominent Republicans who accuse Cornyn of being too centrist and insufficiently aligned with President Donald Trump. Embattled Attorney General Ken Paxton, a close Trump ally, and Rep. Wesley Hunt, a second-term Republican who represents a Houston-area district, are running against Cornyn, creating a competitive and expensive three-way primary. Top Republicans in Texas and the Senate are circling the wagons to support Cornyn; Trump has so far remained neutral.
The primary election is on March 3. If no candidates earn a majority of the vote in the primaries, the top two finishers will advance to a May 26 runoff.
No Democrat has been elected to a statewide office in Texas since 1994, but Trump’s unpopularity and Democrats’ big election wins in 2025 have energized the party to seriously compete for red-state Senate seats. Hunt or Crockett could also each be Texas’ first Black U.S. senator.
Republicans currently control the Senate by a three-seat majority, 53 to 47, and senators serve six-year terms, meaning a third of the Senate is up every election cycle. For Democrats to win back the chamber in 2026, they’d need to hold competitive seats in states like Georgia and Michigan while flipping four GOP-held seats in Maine, North Carolina and even more Republican-leaning states like Ohio, Iowa, Nebraska and Texas.
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