Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, has described her recent Democratic Senate primary race as "racist" and stated that she does not intend to campaign with the party's nominee, state legislator James Talarico. Crockett made these remarks during a conversation with the hosts of the "Native Land" podcast, published Wednesday.
Crockett argued that her focus would be on endorsing and uplifting down-ballot Black candidates to increase overall voter participation in Texas. "The best thing that I can do is take down-ballot candidates who no one's ever heard of and do my best to uplift them and increase the voter participation in a way that we did in Texas," she said.
She asserted that despite receiving more votes than the Democratic nominee in the previous presidential election, she still lost. "Literally, our Democratic nominee during a presidential year last term got 500,000 votes. I got over double that, and I still lost," Crockett stated during the podcast interview. She believes she was held to a different standard and that this situation, where a candidate is pressured to aid the opponent who defeated them, is unprecedented, particularly when involving a high-profile Black woman.
Crockett launched her bid for the Senate in 2025. Talarico, who won the Democratic nomination, is set to face Republican Ken Paxton in the general election. Crockett emphasized her commitment to working for the betterment of Black people, stating, "I am nobody's footstool, but I believe in doing everything that I can for the betterment specifically, not to the detriment of anybody else, but specifically for Black people."
Addressing calls for her to support Talarico's campaign, Crockett responded, "People keep trying to say, 'Well, Jasmine has to go and hold his hand.' No, I don't." She added, "If you can give people more than one thing to vote for, then you have a better chance of getting them out to the polls."