🔥 HOT NEWS: With one bold move, Rep. Jasmine Crockett enters the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate and instantly changes the political calculus ⚡.NH

U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas, on Monday filed to run for U.S. Senate, scrambling the Democratic field after teasing her potential entry for months.

Crockett, a second-term congresswoman, has skyrocketed to fame through viral spats with Republicans and as a frequent presence in the Democratic media ecosystem. The 44-year-old’s fiery clashes with Republicans have earned her legions of social media followers and donors, turning her into one of the party’s most prolific fundraisers even as she has been passed up for multiple House leadership roles.

“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 said at a Monday campaign launch event in Dallas. “And I understand. 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.”

Crockett is joining a field that already includes Austin state Rep. James Talarico, also known as a strong communicator and for his progressive brand of Christianity. But her path was made easier by fellow Dallasite Colin Allred’s decision to exit the Senate race, which he announced early Monday morning. Both Allred, the 2024 Democratic nominee, and Talarico had been running for months, with Allred launching his campaign in July, followed by Talarico in September. The primary is March 3.

But as Crockett began to move closer to a bid, she called both Allred and Talarico to discuss her internal polling of the race, and the prospect of forming a slate. That did not pan out; a similar effort to divide up the marquee statewide offices over the summer also failed, with too many candidates drawn to the Senate race over other contests such as governor and attorney general.

Crockett formally announced her Senate campaign at an event late Monday afternoon, where she was introduced by a succession of local officials and other supporters, including a rapper who performed a verse about her.

More than 200 people, including some Dallas-area elected officials and candidates, sat or stood in a roomy gymnasium situated in Crockett’s southern Dallas district, a predominantly Black and Hispanic part of the state’s third-largest city.

Despite joining the field late, Crockett poses a clear threat to Talarico, having outperformed him in public polling of the Democratic electorate this fall. She had $4.6 million in cash on hand at last count.

In a statement, Talarico welcomed Crockett to the race while insisting that his campaign remained well-positioned to win.

“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. “Our movement is rooted in unity over division – so we welcome Congresswoman Crockett into this race.”

Crockett had discussed the possibility of a Senate bid in recent weeks, especially after Republicans’ mid-decade redistricting changed the contours of her Dallas-based district. In an October interview on SiriusXM, she said she was testing whether her candidacy could expand the Texas electorate by incentivizing infrequent voters to turn out.

In a November interview with Politico, Crockett said she would only run for Senate if the data from her internal campaign polling showed that she could win a general election.

More recently, she has said her internal polling has shown she can win a general election. Crockett also publicly discussed her desire to form a winning slate of Democratic candidates for statewide offices. While the Senate candidates ultimately did not work out a statewide slate, Allred’s exit leaves only two high-profile candidates vying for the nomination, lowering the chances of a May runoff.

So far, no public poll has shown Crockett winning a general election against Sen. John Cornyn, Attorney General Ken Paxton or Rep. Wesley Hunt of Houston, each of whom are running for the GOP nomination.

In her speech Monday, Crockett addressed the Democratic handwringing about her viability in a general election, underlining that nobody from her party has won a statewide election in Texas this century. If anyone had a “blueprint” or “recipe,” she argued, “they would have already won.”

The path to victory, Crockett said, was to improve Texas’ chronically low voter turnout by energizing Texans who feel their vote does not matter.

“There are those that say, ‘Ain’t no way; we done tried it 50 kinds of ways,’” Crockett said. “Let me be clear. Y’all ain’t never tried it the J.C. way.”

For some attendees, Crockett and her confrontational and assertive style presents an opportunity to try out a different approach after decades of defeat for Democrats. 

“People get nervous because we’re not used to seeing Democrats be bolder in that way, but I think this is a time where we need that,” said Sophia Anwar, a former Texas House staffer running for justice of the peace in Denton County. “We have tried being cordial. Sometimes you have to hit bullies by speaking louder.”

For Nicole Booker, a Dallas real estate agent, there’s hope that Democratic anger toward Trump in his second term – paired with outrage over Texas’ redrawn congressional maps – will fuel turnout that finally flips the state blue. As a Black woman, potentially electing the first Black woman to represent Texas in the U.S. Senate is exciting and overdue, Booker said.

“I have three adult children and seven grandchildren,” Booker said while waiting in line to meet Crockett. “My grandchildren need to see this.”

A lawyer and former public defender, Crockett first entered politics in 2020, when she won a seat in the Texas House of Representatives. After serving one term in the Legislature, she made the jump to Congress in 2022, when she ran for Dallas Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson’s seat after the longtime Democratic congresswoman announced her retirement and subsequently endorsed Crockett.

Her quick-witted, alliterative communication style has earned her viral fame, including when she first rose to national prominence after saying Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Georgia, had a “bleach blonde, bad built, butch body,” a phrase that quickly popped up on Crockett’s campaign merchandise. Her comments have also landed her in hot water at times, such as when she referred to Gov. Greg Abbott, who uses a wheelchair, as “Governor Hot Wheels.”

Crockett has also been a regular target of President Donald Trump, who disparages her more often than nearly any other House Democrat, further heightening her profile.

In her speech, Crockett said she would be the candidate best positioned to stand up to Trump on issues including tariffs, rural health care, gun violence and affordability. And she noted she is the only candidate, presumably on the Democratic side, to have served at the federal level and taken on Trump in Washington.

Crockett had harsh words for Cornyn, though she joked about being his “buddy and dancing partner”, a reference the Paxton campaign has capitalized on. She attacked Cornyn for the length of his political career, saying he capitulates to Trump and serves the top 1% of earners.

“Cornyn used to actually try and help Texas,” Crockett said. “He used to speak out against Trump the candidate and denounce the border wall. What happened, Big John? Because now, all you’re doing is bending the knee, kissing the ring, and running ads about how you vote 99% of the time with Trump.”

Republicans in Texas and Washington have made little secret of their preference for Crockett, convinced she would be a weak general election candidate – though each Republican campaign filtered the news through the strength of their own candidate.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee, the Senate GOP’s campaign arm and a Cornyn backer, has been needling Crockett for months, including putting out a poll of the Democratic primary in July that had her leading.

“Jasmine Crockett leading her primary is the latest sign that the Democrat Party is being run by radical leftists,” NRSC spokesperson Joanna Rodriguez said in a statement Monday. “Crockett said herself no Texas Democrat is beating John Cornyn, and the threat of her in the U.S. Senate makes it clearer now than ever that Cornyn is the only conservative who will keep Texas red and safeguard President Trump’s Senate Majority.”

Cornyn said in a statement that Crockett is “radical, theatrical and ineffective” and argued that his campaign is best positioned to help other Republicans capitalize on her presence in the race.

“As the GOP nominee for U.S. Senate, our campaign will make sure every Texas voter knows how absurd her candidacy is, and in the process provide up-ballot support to down-ballot Republicans, including the five new Congressional seats that President Trump has made a priority,” Cornyn said.

Paxton turned her entry into the race into an attack on Cornyn, saying on X that “everyone knows Crockett will be soundly defeated” and that the national GOP’s continued spending to boost Cornyn in the Republican primary would be better used in more competitive states.

In a statement, the Paxton campaign pointed out that Cornyn called Crockett his legislative “dance partner” in early 2024. And the attorney general predicted the Dallas congresswoman would lose by “double digits” next year.

Texas’ 2026 U.S. Senate race has attracted widespread interest from ambitious Democrats, even though the state has not elected a Democrat to the upper chamber since 1988. The party is optimistic about the combination of a midterm election while Trump is president – which produced Democrats’ closest statewide margin in decades in 2018 – and the prospect of facing Paxton, a Republican candidate with legal and ethical baggage.

Crockett has said as much, previously telling Politico she did not think any Democrat would be able to take out Cornyn, the incumbent, if he weathers his competitive primary.

But on Monday, she trained most of her ire on Cornyn and Trump, neglecting to mention Paxton or Hunt.

Crockett’s entry into the Senate race also somewhat resolves a redistricting dilemma among Democrats in North Texas. Republicans redrew the congressional map over the summer to shrink the number of blue-leaning seats in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex from three to two, meaning at least one of the region’s Democrats would be out of Congress come 2027.

But with Crockett running for Senate, the path is now clear for Reps. Julie Johnson, D-Farmers Branch, and Marc Veasey, D-Fort Worth, to run as incumbents without facing one another.

However, Allred has filed to run in the 33rd Congressional District, pitting him against Johnson – his successor in Congress in the Democratic primary for the Dallas-based House district. And Veasey decided to run for Tarrant County judge, leaving Crockett’s old district open. Crockett’s pastor, Frederick Haynes III, who introduced her at Monday’s event, filed to succeed her.