Among Republicans — including the incumbent, Sen. John Cornyn — the move is being publicly welcomed. Many are overtly gleeful that the brash, combative congresswoman who has clashed with their party in Congress as well as on a personal level with Donald Trump appears set to add a clear Washington-based focus to the race.
She seemingly confirmed that latter dynamic would be a focus of her campaign on Tuesday in an announcement video in which Crockett slowly turns to the camera while Trump’s criticism of her plays on audio in the background — as well as at an announcement rally on Monday.
“Trump, I know you’re watching, so let me tell you directly,” Crockett said. “You’re not entitled to a damn thing in Texas. You better get to work because I’m coming for you.”
Among Democrats, the sentiments are far more nuanced.
Following the success of candidates who embraced messages centered around cost of living and combatting corporate power, Crockett’s indication that she will make political battles with Trump and the MAGA GOP a focus of her campaign dismayed many. Still others grumbled about widening the primary field in a race where it’s clearly in the party’s best interest to avoid a divisive primary battle that drives away some supporters of the defeated candidates.
One candidate, Colin Allred, dropped out of the race citing a fear of that eventuality occurring on the day of Crockett’s announcement.
Some who chronicle the progressive left and the broader emergence of a new generation of Democrats in Washington are less quick to write off Crockett’s comparative strength, however. At the same time, more and more polticos across the aisle are beginning to acknowledge that Republicans are in danger of a blowout loss in November if economic factors do not improve over 2026.
Crockett, a handful of supporters argued this week, could be a dangerous foe in a general election should the wobbly incumbent, Cornyn, lose his own primary to his controversy-ridden rival, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
Journalist Wesley Lowery, writing on Twitter, explained: “[I] might write this might not: the political class conventional wisdom is far too dismissive of Jasmine Crockett’s chances in Texas[…][it] really depends on who the GOP candidate is. [T]here is a very specific way Republicans lose senate seats they’re not supposed to lose…and it’s possible here.”
Ben Rowen of Texas Monthly added that the political news media “are too bearish on Crockett’s chances in a general vis-a-vis [primary opponent James] Talarico’s chances in a general, and somehow simultaneously are too bullish on her chances in a general.”
Two senators came to Crockett’s defense in comments to HuffPost: Raphael Warnock and Ruben Gallego, both members with track records of winning tough general election battles. Warnock called her an “important voice” in Texas while his colleage from Arizona said that it was “entirely possible” Crockett could run a “good campaign” against Cornyn or one of his challengers, a possibly backhanded compliment.
As Josh Cohen of the Ettingermentum newsletter wrote last week for his 2028 Democratic power rankings listing (where Crockett has sat for months): “If she wants [the Senate nomination], she is almost certainly going to get it, regardless of what you or I or the Democratic elites who have nurtured her may want.”
From there, Cohen laid out Crockett’s golden path: “She becomes one of the single most famous people in the country, and a deeply blue national environment allows her to outperform Harris’s 2024 numbers by enough to brag about. Then she runs for president and takes the primary field by storm as an exciting progressive woman of color that, by that point, is already someone liberals are used to rooting for. Or she could just win.”
The synopsis of the defenses of Crockett’s candidacy: She clearly has national appeal and support from many in the Democratic base. And Democrats have a unique opportunity, given the serious chance that Paxton or Rep. Wesley Hunt, another Republican in the race, could dethrone Cornyn before next November. But even her defenders acknowledge that there are massive headwinds against her in Texas.
Her detractors in the party made predictable but possibly prescient arguments for rallying behind Talarico, a 36-year-old former teacher, Presbyterian seminarian and member of the Texas state Senate instead of Crockett. Pointing to her announcement video and media appearances, they argued that Crockett’s victory in the party would result in the kind of general election campaign that forces voters especially in the middle to pick a team, something that would run counter to efforts to win Trump supporters away from a Republican candidate at the center of corruption scandals and a messy divorce where multiple affairs are alleged.
Some argued that while polls show Crockett is likely leading in support among primary voters as things stand now, the strength of Talarico’s argument for being the nominee could be stronger and convince more voters than she could over the next few months.
“I still think James Talarico has a great chance at winning the primary. Democratic primary voters have been obsessed with electability since Trump won in 2016, and I think Talarico has a much stronger electability argument than Jasmine Crockett,” wrote RacetotheWH’s Logan Phillips.
There were many across the Democratic political spectrum, centrists and progresives alike, who were openly derisive of Crockett’s announcement.
Twitch streamer Hasan Piker, a strong supporter of DSA-aligned candidates like Zohran Mamdani and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, wrote on Tuesday: “[S]he says she wants to activate low propensity voters which isn’t wrong, but she’s utterly devoid of left populist policy that could activate these people!! [H]er pro israel stance is a nonstarter. where’s the support for medicare for all?” He and others reacted with skepticism to the assertion from Crockett, who does not have strong ties to that wing, that she could win statewide in Texas without winning Trump voters during a CNN interview this week.
Many commenters said the interview, in which Crockett rejected an assertion from a CNN anchor that she would need those voters, gave off “Katie Porter vibes” — referring to a disastrous interview the latter Democrat gave to a news outlet in California where Porter, running for governor, was asked the same question.
But Republicans seem certain that Crockett’s candidacy is a boon for them. Sources familiar with the GOP Senate campaign arm leaked to NOTUS on Tuesday that the GOP had worked to amplify the very polling the congresswoman said drew her into the race, with one saying the NRSC was “taking credit for helping orchestrate the pile on of these polling numbers to really drive that news cycle and that narrative that Jasmine Crockett was surging in Texas.”
Sen John Cornyn told The Independent on Wednesday that he hoped the story was true.
“I’m delighted she jumped she jumped in. Unfortunately, that’s a she’s symptomatic to what’s happened to the Democratic Party. They’ve been taken over by the lunatics and crazies,” said the incumbent, who added that he thought it solidified his own argument in the Republican primary.
“I mean, she said that if I’m the nominee, that no Democrat can win, yeah, which is pretty, pretty telling. And so I look forward to running against her.”
Eric Garcia contributed reporting
