Jasmine Crockett concedes Texas Senate race to James Talarico: ‘This is bigger than any one person’

Crockett said she woke up “heartbroken” over the messy election process caused by Republicans and urged that more be done to ensure voters aren’t disenfranchised.

Jasmine Crockett has conceded the Democratic primary race for U.S. Senate in Texas, congratulating her opponent James Talarico after a chaotic election night that both candidates say left voters disenfranchised by Republicans.

“This morning I called James and congratulated him on becoming the Senate nominee. Texas is primed to turn blue and we must remain united because this is bigger than any one person,” said the U.S. congresswoman who was aiming to make history as the first Black woman elected to the U.S. Senate from the Lone Star State.

“This is about the future of all 30 million Texans and getting America back on track. With the primary behind us, Democrats must rally around our nominees and win. I’m committed to doing my part and will continue working to elect Democrats up and down the ballot.”

Though Talarico had a commanding lead in the primary contest Tuesday night, Crockett declined to concede the race, citing votes still being counted in Dallas County (which comprises her current congressional district) and chaos after hundreds of voters were turned away under a new voting rule adopted by the county Republican Party. Though a judge initially ruled that voting poll closing times be extended by 2 hours to address the confusion, the Texas Supreme Court ruled that any votes cast after the original 7 p.m. closing time would not be counted.

“Unfortunately, this is what Republicans like to do, and so they specifically targeted Dallas County, and I think we all know why,” Crockett told supporters.

During an Instagram Live on Wednesday morning, Crockett said she woke up “heartbroken” over the messy election process caused by Republicans and urged that more be done to protect Texans’ right to vote.

“It breaks my heart,” said Crockett. “We have to fix this moving forward…no one should be disenfranchised.”

Talarico has not issued an official statement since Crockett conceded the race to him. The 36-year-old theologian in training ran a campaign centered on his faith and trying to win over conservative and rural voters who had grown disenchanted by the Republican Party led by President Trump. He notably appeared on the podcast of conservative firebrand Joe Rogan, who praised Talarico during the interview, telling him, “You should run for president.” Talarico also appealed to young voters disengaged with the political process.

“My campaign has done a lot of work to get those young people to take ownership of the democratic process and hopefully remake this broken political system in their own image, seeing a growing backlash to the extremism and the corruption in our government, and it’s a bipartisan backlash,” said Talarico.

The Texas state representative will now face the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in November. Incumbent Sen. John Cornyn is facing a runoff against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in what has been a bruising and expensive primary. Democrats are hoping that Trump’s low disapproval ratings and frustrations with America’s affordability crisis will give Democrats a chance to finally flip a U.S. Senate seat in Texas. The state has not elected a Democrat since 1988.