Democratic Representative Jasmine Crockett announces her candidacy for US Senate from Texas

Democratic Rep. Jasmine Crockett launched a campaign Monday for U.S. Senate in Texas, adding a national flair to a race that could be crucial to Democrats’ long-term hopes of regaining the Senate majority in next year’s midterm elections.

Crockett, one of the most outspoken Democrats in Congress and a frequent target of GOP attacks, jumped into the race on the final day of qualifying in Texas. She is seeking the Senate seat held by Republican John Cornyn, who is running for re-election in the GOP-dominated state.

Democrats need a net gain of four seats in the Senate to wrest control from Republicans next November, while most of the seats up for re-election are in states such as Texas, which President Donald Trump won last year. Democrats have long hoped to make Texas more competitive after decades of Republican dominance. Cornyn, who was elected to the Senate for the first time since 2002, faces the toughest GOP primary of his career against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt.

Crockett’s announcement came hours after former Rep. Colin Allred ended his own campaign for the Democratic nomination in favor of a bid to return to the House. She faces a March 3 primary against Democratic state Rep. James Talarico, a former teacher with a rising national profile fueled by social media posts challenging Republican policies such as private school vouchers and requiring the Ten Commandments in classrooms.

“It’s going to be a quick election between now and the primary, but in Texas you have to think about the voter base overall in November as well,” said Kamau Marshall, a Democratic consultant who has worked with Allred before and worked on other campaigns in Texas. “Who can do the work on the ground? After the primaries, who can win overall?”

The GOP hopes to make Crockett’s approach a liability

Talarico raised nearly $6.3 million in the three weeks after he formally organized his primary campaign committee in September, according to his first campaign finance report, and had nearly $5 million in cash at the end of the month. Crockett raised about $2.7 million to fund her House campaign from July through September, and ended the month with $4.6 million in cash.

Crockett could also test Democratic voters’ appetite for a straight-talker eager to take on Republicans as their party once again sets out to seek a statewide victory in Texas for the first time since 1994. Crockett did not issue a statement before formally announcing her candidacy Monday afternoon in Dallas.

Republicans were quick to try to turn Crockett’s national image and penchant for public clashes with opponents into a liability. Paxton issued a statement calling her “crazy Crockett,” and Republican National Committee spokeswoman Delaney Bomar said, “Jasmine Crockett’s shenanigans are an embarrassment to Texas.”

Read more: The Texas Supreme Court allows the redrawn congressional map to be used to favor the GOP in 2026

“Everything is bigger in Texas, except for her ability to win this race,” Bomar said.

Talarico welcomed Brockett to the Democratic primary but pointed to fundraising and said he had 10,000 volunteers, adding: “Our movement is rooted in unity rather than division.”

Democrats believe that their best chance of winning the Texas seat is if Paxton wins the Republican nomination because he has suffered from legal and personal problems throughout most of his career. However, Paxton is popular among Trump’s most ardent supporters.

Hunt, who served two terms as a Houston-area representative, defied GOP leaders by entering the GOP race.

Crockett is known for her viral moments

Crockett, a civil rights attorney serving her second term in the House, has built her national profile with an outspoken style and viral moments on Capitol Hill. Among those who took notice was Trump, who described her as a “low IQ person.” In response, Crockett said she would agree to an IQ test against the president.

She exchanged insults with Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene from Georgia, who announced last month that she would resign in January, and also quarreled with Representative Nancy Mace from South Carolina.

She also mocked Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott — who uses a wheelchair — calling him “Governor Hot Wheels.” She later said she was referring to Abbott’s policy of using “planes, trains and cars” to send thousands of immigrants in Texas illegally to Democratic-led cities.

Democrats last 30 came close to winning a statewide contest in 2018, when former U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke came within 3 points of unseating Republican Sen. Ted Cruz. This was during the first midterm elections of the Trump administration, and Democrats believe that next year’s race could similarly favor their party.

Allred lost to Cruz by 8.5 points last year. He is running for House in a newly drawn district in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, which he represented in Congress before his Senate bid in 2024.

Allred says he wants to avoid a painful primary

Allred said an internal partisan battle “will prevent the Democratic Party from fighting this critical election united against the danger that Donald Trump and one of his Republican arrogants pose to our communities and our Constitution.”

Marshall said Allred made the right decision. But he said Tallarico and Crockett face different challenges, and added that Democrats have work to do in the nation’s second-most populous state.

He said Crockett is a “powerful national figure” with a large following on social media and a frequent presence in the news. That might be an advantage with Democratic primary voters, but not necessarily beyond that, Marshall said.

Read more: Former Rep. Allred is moving from the Texas Senate race to trying to return to the House

Talarico, meanwhile, must raise money and build name recognition to make the leap from the Texas House of Representatives to a strong statewide nomination, Marshall said.

The winning Democratic nominee in Texas will have to energize black voters, especially in metro Houston and Dallas, win the kind of diverse suburbs and exurbs like the ones Allred once represented in Congress, and pick up enough rural votes, especially among Latinos in the Rio Grande Valley, Marshall said.

“It’s about building complex coalitions in a large country,” Marshall said.

Allred’s House bid comes under the new GOP map

Allred’s new district is part of a new congressional map that Texas lawmakers approved earlier this year as part of Trump’s campaign to redraw House boundaries to favor Republicans. It includes some of the districts Allred represented in Congress from 2019 to 2025. Rep. Mark Veasey currently represents most of the district, but planned to run in a new, adjacent district.

Allred, a former professional football player and civil rights lawyer, was among the Democrats’ star recruits in the 2018 midterm elections. That year, the party picked up 40 House seats, including several exurban and exurban districts in Texas, and won a House majority that redefined Trump’s first presidency.

Marshall said Allred is also helping the Democratic cause by becoming a candidate for another office, which he said is key for the party to be able to flip the state.

“The infrastructure is not bad but it clearly needs to be improved,” he said. “Having strong, competitive candidates for every office is part of building that energy and process. Texas needs strong candidates in House races, for governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general — every office — so voters can hear from Democrats everywhere.”