Jasmine Crockett Should Absolutely Run For The US Senate

Although some political commentators find Jasmine Crockett’s political rhetoric to be “for the streets,” as she teases a potential bid for the Senate in Texas, I see the potential for her style of politicking in terms of making the Lone Star State more competitive for Democrats in the years ahead.

Last week, the congresswoman, who represents an urban district in Dallas, revealed that in light of the Republicans’ redistricting efforts in her state this year, she and her team are weighing options as they await a final ruling on whether new district lines will go into effect. 

If they do, Crockett will be moved to another district.

“The other option is every other day there’s a poll that comes out that makes it clear that I can win the primary for the U.S. Senate race in Texas, and I am looking, because if you want to take my seat of 766,000 away, I feel like there has to be some karma in that to where I take your seat that is for 30 million away,” Crockett explained during an appearance on SiriusXM’s The Lurie Daniel Favors Show.

Crockett is referring to polls like those released by the University of Houston/Texas Southern University poll, which earlier this month, released a survey showing Crockett leading a hypothetically crowded field with 31% followed by Texas state Rep. James Talarico and former Congressman Beto O’Rourke, who each boast 25%, Congressman Colin Allred with 13% and 6% of primary voters unsure.

For Crockett to enter the race, however, she noted, “​The question will be whether or not we believe that we’ve got enough juice to expand the electorate and looking at those cross tabs and looking at which demographics are more inclined to come out, who normally do not vote.” 

“If we can expand the electorate, then I will strongly be considering hopping in the Senate race,” she added. 

If Crockett’s goal is to expand the electorate in the state of Texas, no matter what happens in looming court cases, she should lean toward entering the race.

Much attention has been paid to her hypothetically closest competitor in the field, Talarico, following his viral interview with Joe Rogan, praise from former President Barack Obama, and adoring headlines like “He’s Young, Talented and Openly Religious. Is He the Savior Democrats Have Been Waiting For?”

Talarico recently announced a record-breaking fundraising effort in his first quarter of campaigning, $6.2 million, which gives him an early edge over his rival in the Democratic primary, Allred, who announced a $4.1 million haul over the three months since his July 1 campaign launch.

Much of Talarico’s fanfare is rooted in his genteel rhetoric. 

“I disagree with Charlie Kirk on almost every political issue, but Charlie Kirk was a child of God,” he recently told New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg. “There is something broken in this country. Our politics are broken. Our media are broken. Even our relationships with each other feel broken.”

Talarico believes that people are hungry “for a different kind of politics. Not a politics of fear, not a politics of hate, not a politics of violence, but a politics of love.”

What I appreciate already about Talarico’s candidacy is that he has shown himself to be a much-needed progressive Christian voice against a white Christian nationalist movement being pushed by conservatives and their co-conspirators, white evangelicals. 

As he told Rogan, “This is religion at its worst: trying to control people and what they do.”

Still, I’m not convinced how much of the electorate in the state of Texas is ready for a “politics of love” when so much of the power held by the Republicans there is rooted in racism and wielded against so many of its nonwhite residents. 

I’m all for Talarico proving me wrong, but even if he were to succeed, it would be through the sort of white voters Democrats have continued to chase in vain.

Meanwhile, a Crockett candidacy could potentially lead to a third Black woman in the Senate, and while representation politics alone wouldn’t win her race in general, there is a reason why she has managed to become a national figure, and she just might have what it takes to mobilize previously disengaged voters rather than simply convincing existing ones to switch parties.

Based on all that terrible traffic in Houston, urban populations in cities like Houston and Dallas are only growing, and those willing to invest in voter outreach programs can do a lot of good in combating the years-long efforts by Texas Republicans to squash the Black vote. 

I have no faith in Colin Allred’s ability to inspire Black voters based on his last Senate campaign, and can’t imagine him coming across any less unfamiliar next year than he did last year. 

Of course, some will argue that Jasmine’s “tone” is a problem 

People like Stephen A. Smith, who just last week condemned Crockett for a number of her previous comments: calling Trump a “piece of sh*t,” referring to wheelchair-bound Texas Governor Greg Abbott as “Governor Hot Wheels,” calling for Elon Musk to be “taken down” and for Senator Ted Cruz to be “knocked over the head, like hard.”

“What I was saying was this educated, brilliant Black woman, representing over 750,000 people, is engaging in verbiage and rhetoric for the streets,” Smith argued. “And that’s fine when you in the streets! How many of y’all bring the streets to the table when you’re at the negotiating table trying to get a deal done? How many of you are able to think that for a second that you are able to bring street verbiage to Capitol Hill and that’s going to work for you?”

Days later, Smith sort of apologized, claiming that while he defends the conversation he intended to have, he now understands that his words potentially gave the Trump administration fodder against Black women politicians – not something he wants to do.

“I got it. I don’t like that at all,” Smith said. “I don’t want to be associated with nothing like that, and I apologize because I respect the hell out of Jasmine Crockett and what she has accomplished. I absolutely do. And I appreciate the fact that she feels compelled to fight the way she’s fought.”

In other words, the outcry from his comments was louder than usual, noting his words were “misconstrued and misinterpreted,” and it hit him just how popular she was.  

Smith’s carefully crafted mea culpa notwithstanding, his thinking is rooted in the idea of how Black women politicians in particular must behave to get ahead. It’s the same kind of thinking that will be cited to discourage Crockett from seeking statewide office. No one wants to ever get in the way of a great white hope poll. 

Nevertheless, though I’ve had my own critiques of Crockett at times, when I think of politicians who can lead Democrats out of defeat, Jasmine Crockett is no less deserving a consideration as James Talarico.

Talarico is absolutely correct in this assertion: “National Democrats have talked about defending democracy or protecting institutions, but this democracy of ours doesn’t work for a lot of people in this country. It doesn’t work for a lot of people in Texas…. This is a deeply broken political system. And I’m not interested in defending it.”

Despite massive voter registration efforts, Texas voter turnout plummeted in 2024.

Our broken system doesn’t need defending, but it can’t be rebuilt on a lie either. If the American electorate wants a politics of love, it should start showing it. Until it does, consider someone like Crockett, a politician willing to call a thing a thing because, win or lose, a blunt politician will wake up people a lot better than one telling stories. 

Michael Arceneaux is a New York Times bestselling author whose most recent book, I Finally Bought Some Jordans, was published last March.

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