U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett announced her highly-anticipated run for U.S. Senate on Monday after weeks of rumors, guessing, and national headlines.
“Turning Texas blue is what I want to talk to y’all about today. Now, there are those that say ain’t no way,” Crockett said to a crowd of supporters as she officially announced her run at an event in Dallas. “But they have no idea what Crockett’s crew will do. So I just want to be clear for all the haters in the back, listen up real loud. We gonna get this thing done.”
Crockett told supporters there is no roadmap, blueprint or cheat code, but she’s ready to win the Senate seat for Texas Democrats.
“The data says that I can win,” the Dallas Democrat told MS Now last week. “I am very formidable, regardless of what people want to put out into the atmosphere. The numbers are the numbers.”
She’s not wrong; Crockett, 44, has been out-polling her Democratic primary competitors, state Rep. James Talarico of Austin and former U.S. Rep. Colin Allred — who dropped out of the race Monday morning before Crockett’s announcement.
Allred, who has served as congressman for Texas’ 32nd district for nearly six years, will instead run for Texas’ newly drawn 33rd Congressional District in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area. As many will remember, 42-year-old Allred unsuccessfully challenged U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz in the 2024 election and has been heavily criticized for his lack of visibility in recent months.
“I’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 and one of his Republican bootlickers Paxton, Cornyn, or Hunt,” Allred said about his decision to withdraw.
The winner of the Democratic primary will face either incumbent Sen. John Cornyn, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, or U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt of Texas’ 38th Congressional District, who are also locked in a tight primary race.
“Execution matters,” Crockett said in her MS Now interview — and strategy depends on a full slate of other candidates “up and down the ballot.”
Crockett, who has served Texas’ 30th Congressional District since 2023, has said that she would let the polls guide her decision to run, and they suggest that Texans are looking for a fighter in the second Trump era. One October poll showed Crockett with a six-point lead over Talarico and a two-to-one advantage over Allred, the Austin American-Statesman previously reported.
Crockett’s reputation for speaking plainly and passionately is a contrast to Allred and Talarico. Allred was criticized for running a moderate and bland campaign in 2024. Talarico is a former seminary student who preaches a “politics of love” message.
The New York Times ran a glowing op-ed in October asking if 36-year-old Talarico is “the savior Democrats have been waiting for,” and he’s earned praise from both former President Barack Obama and talk-show host Joe Rogan. In just three weeks of campaigning, Talarico pulled $6.2 million, Axios reported.
Talarico may be electrifying rallies, but Crockett — a former public defender, civil rights attorney, and Texas House representative — has also made headlines since she was elected to Congress in 2022. The Representative herself has dubbed her barbs “Crockett Clapbacks.”
And while she’s made news, she’s also drawn criticism for what some have called unprofessional or inappropriate language, while others have found her authenticity refreshing. In November, as CNN put it, “Rep. Jasmine Crockett’s saying what others won’t.”
Appearing with Wolf Blitzer to discuss the latest batch of files related to late financier and convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, Crockett said anyone voting against the release of those documents was “complicit in protecting pedophiles.”
“If you can have this honest conversation about Epstein now, let’s just go ahead with this lame duck president and be honest about everything that the American people care about,” she said on Capitol Hill after the two-month shutdown, making a joke about Vice President JD Vance and a couch cushion. “They care about affordability. They care about the fact that literally people are starving in this country.”
When asked about her approach, Crockett told Roll Call ahead of President Donald Trump’s second term, “We have transitioned into a space where authenticity is valued so much more than being proper or polite.”
In case you missed them, here are Crockett’s most newsworthy moments since she stepped onto the national stage.
‘Fuck Off’
In February 2025, at the height of Elon Musk’s efforts to dismantle the federal government, a reporter asked Crockett, “If you could speak directly to Elon Musk, what would you say?”
Crockett’s message was succinct: “Fuck off.”
‘Bleach Blonde, Bad-Built Butch Body’
Crockett never takes an insult lying down, especially not from the likes of soon-to-be-former U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the infamous congressional pot-stirrer and conspiracist. In May 2024, when a House Oversight Committee hearing grew testy, Greene threw a barb at Crockett, telling her, “I think your fake eyelashes are messing up what you’re reading.”
U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez jumped in to defend Crockett, labeling Greene’s comment a “personal attack.” Crockett responded by asking Chairman James Comer, “If someone on this committee then starts talking about somebody’s bleach blonde, bad-built butch body, that would not be engaging in personalities, correct?”
“Bleach blonde bad-built butch body” immediately took on a life of its own, spawning songs, remixes, and t-shirts, including one worn by singer Reneé Rapp a few months later during her set at Austin City Limits.
“I know that I had to work 10 times as hard as they did just to get into this seat,” Crockett said on CNN. “When you look and you compare me to Marjorie Taylor Greene or me to Lauren Boebert, there is no comparison … The only people that are crying are the mediocre white boys that have been beaten out by people that historically have had to work so much harder.”
After Trump announced that he’d no longer support Greene after her recent criticism of the Republican Party’s handling of the Epstein files, Crockett had some additional words of advice.
“I’m here for you girl… I told you not to trust him,” Crockett posted on X. “All he cares about is HIMself (and protecting pedos) he never loved you. My granny always said ‘be with the man that loves you more than you love him.’ Trust me, sis, you are better off without him.”
‘Draft Dodging Dumb Dupe’
Trump himself has targeted Crockett before, calling her “low-IQ” on multiple occasions.
Ever a fan of alliteration, Crockett made a short-form video in April listing the five most “diabolical, disastrous, deplorable, detrimental dumb decisions” Trump had made in his second term.
In early October, Crockett appeared on MSNBC and called out the Trump administration’s targeting of oppressed groups, including immigrants and trans people.
She said that “while you thought the enemy was the immigrant, or you thought the enemy was the trans person, or you thought the enemy was the Black folk, or you thought the enemy were the women, the reality is that the only person that is harming you … is the old, white nepo baby that is sitting in the White House.”
In other moments, Crockett has also referred to Trump as a predator and a bully. She’s also called him a “mean manic mad mango man,” “a draft dodging dumb dupe,” and “Putin’s hoe.”
Following his March primetime address to Congress, Crockett claimed Trump was “really psychotic” after he declared his intention to take over Greenland.
“I don’t even know why we’re fighting with Greenland,” Crockett said on MeidasTouch Network. “Why are we fighting with Greenland? We’re fighting with Canada, we’re fighting with Mexico, yet we’re in love with Putin? What is happening? Like, this is not America. This is a terrible nightmare. Somebody slap me and wake me the fuck up because I’m ready to get on with it.”
In early October, Crockett posted a GIF on X of Trump tripping on the walk up to Air Force One, saying she had “finally” figured out why Trump kept going after her: “He can’t stop saying my name because it’s possibly the only one that he can pronounce… other members’ names trip him up like those stairs on Air Force 1 or like Acetaminophen.” (Weeks earlier, he had struggled to say the generic name for Tylenol during a press conference.)
Crockett used the opportunity to condemn the “childish contemptible cowardice corruption in the White House.”
“I’m so infuriated by how Trump is trashing our country, tearing our democracy apart, & trying tyranny,” Crockett wrote on X on Oct. 22, “The demolition of the east wing is an outward manifestation of what he’s doing to us, in general.”
In recent weeks, Crockett has also called the president “truly unintelligent or experiencing a mental health crisis… or both.”
‘Governor Hot Wheels’
Crockett is no friend to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and has frequently criticized him as a “flunky” for President Trump.
In March, at a Human Rights Campaign dinner in Los Angeles, Crockett went one step further. She quipped, “Y’all know we got Governor Hot Wheels down there. Come on now. And the only thing hot about him is that he is a hot ass mess, honey.”
Crockett’s remarks drew immediate criticism from Republicans, with some calling for her censure. Crockett’s supporters who stepped in to defend her amid the backlash noted that the term dates back decades and has been used by Texans who’ve voted both for and against Abbott — despite criticisms that the language is ableist.
Initially, Crockett told Politico reporters that her statement “speaks for itself,” but later clarified in a post on X that she wasn’t thinking about Abbott’s use of a wheelchair when she spoke.
“I was thinking about the planes, trains, and automobiles he used to transfer migrants into communities led by Black mayors, deliberately stoking tension and fear among the most vulnerable,” Crocket wrote. “At no point did I mention or allude to his condition. So, I’m even more appalled that the very people who unequivocally support Trump — a man known for racially insensitive nicknames and mocking those with disabilities — are now outraged.”
Some disability rights activists still saw Crockett’s words as a slight on Abbott’s disability and expressed disappointment in her choice of language, Politico reported at the time.
“Governor Abbott sometimes has policies that are harmful to people with disabilities, and that’s terrible,” Josie Byzek, senior communications and digital experience director at the United Spinal Association, said to Politico. “Representative Crockett has a history of protecting the programs and rights of people with disabilities, and that’s wonderful. At the same time, the stigma is real.”
‘I Can’t Hang Out With the KKK’
In January 2024, Rep. Nancy Mace criticized Hunter Biden after he made a surprise appearance at a House Oversight and Accountability Committee hearing as they worked on a resolution to hold him in contempt of Congress.
“My first question is who bribed Hunter Biden to be here today? That’s my first question. Second question, you are the epitome of white privilege. Coming into the Oversight Committee, spitting in our face, ignoring a Congressional subpoena to be deposed. What are you afraid of? You have no balls to come up here,” Mace said.
Later in the hearing, Crockett called out the Republican representative for weaponizing white supremacy.
“I just want to run it back through to the very beginning, because this is something that I just can’t get over. I just can get over the gentlelady from South Carolina talking about white privilege,” Crockett said. “It was a spit in the face, at least of mine as a Black woman, for you to talk about what white privilege looks like, especially from that side of the aisle.”
In August, Crockett took extra heat from Trump supporters after a panel discussion at the Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival went viral, during which she argued the president is a “fool” and “king of distractions,” then pointed to a history of racism in the GOP.
“Listen, most Black people are not Republicans simply because we just is like, ‘Y’all racist. I can’t hang out with the KKK and them.’ That’s really what it is,” she said on stage. “When we think about who we are as Black people, and we think about where we come from, most Black people have very conservative values, right? But the reality is that we just can’t side with the neo-Nazis and them. We like, ‘We not-, we not dealing with y’all like that,’ right?”
This was not the first time that Crockett had drawn ire for tying Republicans — and MAGA more specifically — to extremism. Six months earlier, on the Betches News podcast “American Fever Dream,” she said: “Baby, y’all got the white supremacists galore, okay? Like all of ’em.”
“You got the Proud Boys, you got the neo-Nazis, you have people that literally should be classified as domestic terrorists, because a lot of times that is what they are doing — they’re engaging in domestic terrorism,” she continued. “And guess what? They all align with your side, including the KKK.”
‘I Worked My Ass Off’
Notably, Crockett’s direct language isn’t always pointed outward.
In advance of the nationwide “No Kings” protests on Oct. 18, Crockett posted a photo of herself and Vice President Kamala Harris on X — along with a plain-spoken admission.
“I worked my ass off on behalf of the American people to make sure that we didn’t fumble the bag… but we did,” she wrote. “So here we are preparing to take to the streets.”
“We could’ve had class, compassion, rule of law, intellect, respect, fairness, and well DEMOCRACY, BUT so many chose to critique her & ignore him,” she continued. “All to our collective detriment. Let today be a reminder that we are all in the same sinking ship & it’s important to stand united for Progress instead of being divided with or by PETTY.”
Only time will tell if that unity will hold now that she’s officially in the race for U.S. Senate.
As she said in August about the battle shaping up between Cornyn and Paxton, “This Senate primary is going to be (a) reality show that unfortunately is actual reality instead of just entertainment. Get your 🍿ready.”
