Jasmine Crockett Launches Texas Senate Campaign, Setting Off a Scramble Among Democrats

Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett will run for the United States Senate in Texas next year, kicking off what could become an ugly primary between herself and a state representative from Austin, James Talarico. Mr. Crockett’s decision to run for Senate has also scrambled some of the plans of other Texas Democrats now that she is leaving the House. Ms. Crockett, a 44-year-old civil rights attorney and two-term congresswoman, filed to run for Senate on Monday, which is the final day she was able to do so. She has made a name for herself as a chief instigator of Republicans in Congress, especially during contentious battles with conservative colleagues like Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. She enters the race with a significant war chest, which could help her build out a significant ground game in the state after Mr. Talarico has spent months campaigning. According to the Federal Election Commission, she has at least $3 million in her campaign account. Mr. Talarico has just under $5 million, though that was raised over the course of three months of his Senate campaign. Mr. Talarico said in a statement Monday that he would “welcome” her to join him in the primary. “Our movement is rooted in unity over division,” he wrote. The congresswoman’s decision to run is already having a significant impact on at least one down-ballot race. When Texas Republicans redrew their state’s congressional maps this year, they eliminated one of the three deep-blue districts that covered the city of Dallas. Ms. Crockett, Congressman Marc Veasey, and Congresswoman Julie Johnson are the three Democrats who currently represent Dallas in the House. With Ms. Crockett abandoning her House seat to run for Senate, that leaves two districts for both Mr. Veasey and Ms. Johnson to run in next year. But Ms. Crockett’s Senate launch on Monday prompted one ex-lawmaker, Congressman Colin Allred, to abandon his own Senate campaign to run against Ms. Johnson for a Dallas House seat. Ms. Johnson succeeded Mr. Allred in the House just in January after he retired to run against Senator Ted Cruz in 2024. Mr. Allred now says that he believes a race between himself, Ms. Crockett, and Mr. Talarico would be too divisive for his party. “In the past few days, l’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,” Mr. Allred said in a statement Monday morning. In Texas, if no primary candidate wins a majority of the vote on the first ballot in March, then the top two candidates advance to a runoff in May. Mr. Allred was consistently polling in third place behind Ms. Crockett and Mr. Talarico. Instead, he will run in the 33rd congressional district to reclaim a seat in the House. Ms. Johnson, however, says she is not backing down. She says Mr. Allred is jumping into the House race only because his Senate campaign was a failure. “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 Monday. She says she is “rooted” in serving Dallas, not in “the next opportunity that comes along.”Ms. Johnson — the first openly gay member of Congress from Texas — has already won the backing of the Congressional LGBTQ Equality Caucus. That caucus’s outside spending group, the Equality PAC, said in a statement that it is “unconscionable” for Mr. Allred to run against Ms. Johnson. “The last thing a Democrat should do is try to unseat the first openly LGBTQ Member of Congress from Texas,” the group said in a statement.

Jasmine Crockett Launches Texas Senate Campaign, Setting Off a Scramble Among Democrats

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