US Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Dallas) joined the Democratic primary for a US Senate seat in Texas on Monday during an event in Dallas. (Photo by Joi Louviere)
Jasmine Crockett, first elected to Congress in 2022, faces state Rep. James Talarico in the Democratic primary in March.
She’s in.
US Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Dallas), one of the most vocal critics in Congress of the Trump administration, stepped into Texas’ US Senate race on Monday, ending weeks of speculation and changing the landscape of a race that has elicited excitement from Democrats.
Crockett, 44, is an attorney and former state lawmaker who won a Dallas-based US House seat in 2022. In November, Crockett won nearly 85% of the vote to easily beat a Libertarian candidate to win a second term.
“Sadly enough, we all know that Sen. John Cornyn does not have the guts to stand up to Trump,” Crockett said in a fiery speech at the Frederick Douglass Human Services and Justice Center in Dallas. “But I can tell y’all who does. I do.”
Crockett focused on lowering costs, health care, public education, and holding the Trump administration accountable during her speech.
“I’m done with politics as usual. I’m done with going along to get along and it gets us nowhere,” she added. “I’m done with the senators sitting around doing nothing while Trump takes your hard-earned money, skims your Social Security, slashes Medicare, and gives tax breaks to billionaires.”
Since joining Congress in 2023, the progressive lawmaker has built a massive social media presence with her quick takedown of Republicans and the Trump administration. She has spoken out forcefully against Trump’s mass deportation efforts, criticized Republicans for divisive politics and attacks on free speech, and was a leading voice this summer in criticizing a GOP push to redraw the state’s congressional map.
Crockett’s entrance into the US Senate race, combined with a recent ruling from the US Supreme Court, upended Democratic politics across the state on the last day candidates could file to run in the 2026 elections.
The Democratic field already included two political heavyweights—former US Rep. Colin Allred and state Rep. James Talarico—but Crockett’s entrance into the primary prompted Allred to step aside.
Talarico welcomed Crockett to the primary.
”Our movement is built on unity, not division,” Talarico said Monday during an event with BigTent USA, a pro-Democracy nonprofit that focuses on civic engagement. “So we welcome Congresswoman Crockett or any other candidates to jump in the race. Competition makes us all stronger for the general election next November.”
Allred, who represented a Dallas district for three terms in the US House, said Monday that he’s going to run for Congress again. This time, though, it will be in the 33rd Congressional District against the person who replaced him—US Rep. Julie Johnson. Allies of Johnson, the first LGBTQ+ person elected to a federal office in the South, tried to wave off a challenge to Johnson by calling it “unconscionable.”
“At a time when Trump and the GOP target the #LGBTQ community, the last thing a Democrat should do is try to unseat the first openly LGBTQ Member of Congress from Texas,” Equality PAC, which works to elect LGBTQ+ people to Congress, said in a social media post on Sunday.
Allred defended his decision during a press conference in Dallas on Monday.
“This is a totally new district,” he said. “This is not a district that has any incumbent in it. I’m not running against anybody. I’m running for this district.”
Johnson, who represents the 32nd Congressional District, was expected to file to run for the 33rd Congressional District, which is represented by US Rep. Marc Veasey (D-Fort Worth). But Veasey is expected to run to replace Crockett in the 30th Congressional District.
The scramble among Democrats is thanks to a new congressional map pushed by Gov. Greg Abbott and Republican lawmakers this summer at the behest of President Donald Trump. Republicans drew the map to make five US House districts more GOP-friendly.
Critics of the map called it racial gerrymandering, as it targeted Black and brown voters in Democratic districts in the state’s major cities and in South Texas.
Abbott signed the measure into law on Aug. 29, sparking several legal challenges. On Nov. 18, a three-judge panel in El Paso ruled that the new map was based on race and violated federal law. Nine days later, on Nov. 27, the US Supreme Court ruled that Texas can use the new map.
The new congressional map put the homes of Allred, Crockett, and Veasey into new districts.
The US Senate primary is March 3. The winner of the Democratic primary will face one of three Republicans—US Sen. John Cornyn, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, or US Rep. Wesley Hunt—in the November general election.
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