Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) has officially launched her bid for the U.S. Senate in Texas in 2026. She has been teasing this for weeks, and she waited until the final day to file to make her announcement. But, if you’re familiar with Crockett, you know that she hasn’t a prayer of winning a statewide election in Texas. So, why is she running?
Crockett wants you to believe she is on a genuine mission to flip Texas blue and “save democracy” by taking on the GOP in a statewide race, yada, yada, yada. The story she sells sounds heroic. The reality looks a lot more like a career move, a brand play, and a grift wrapped in progressive rhetoric. She’s basically built her brand around viral clashes with Republicans, TV hits, and social media fame. She’s like a social media influencer who managed to win a seat in Congress and doesn’t realize we’re laughing at her, not with her. She built a national profile by turning committee hearings into performance art. That talent for theatrics helped her raise piles of cash and become a star on the radical left, even as House Democrats keep passing her over for actual leadership roles… for obvious reasons.
Crockett enters an already somewhat crowded Democrat field. Rep. James Talarico had been in the race since September, positioning himself as the earnest “progressive Christian” with polished messaging. Colin Allred, the party’s 2024 Senate nominee, who lost to Sen. Ted Cruz, launched his 2026 campaign back in July. Then, early Monday, Allred suddenly exited the race, in an apparent concession that Crockett is the de facto frontrunner, which, of course, is true because polls show her ahead of Talarico. On top of that, she already sits on a big war chest, with her campaign reporting $4.6 million in cash on hand.
In short, she has the profile, the personality, and the money. That matters inside the party. None of it means she stands any real chance of winning statewide in Texas.
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Texas is not trending the way Democrats promised for years. Trump won the state by 14 points in 2024. His margin more than doubled from 2020. Republicans dominate statewide races, and voters just reaffirmed that trend decisively. Yet Crockett insists she can somehow buck that reality. She told Politico in October she would only run if internal data showed she could win a general election. Weeks later, she told Jake Tapper that her own polling gave her a “chance to win” and said her team was “moving on to the next phase” of evaluating whether the necessary infrastructure could be built.
That said, even Crockett admits the math does not favor her. She has acknowledged that if Cornyn emerges from what many expect to be a contentious Republican primary, she does not believe any Democrat, including herself, can beat him. Of course, according to The Texas Tribune, “no public poll has shown Crockett winning a general election against Sen. John Cornyn, Attorney General Ken Paxton or Rep. Wesley Hunt of Houston.”
GOP strategists know this. They are practically rooting for her. Republicans in Texas and Washington openly say they would rather face Crockett in November because they see her as a weak general election candidate and an easy foil for Trump’s America First message.
So if she knows her campaign is a long shot, and Republicans want to run against her, she must know winning is a pipe dream, regardless of whom she would face in a general election. So, why is she doing this?
Let’s start with the obvious. She’s losing her safe district due to redistricting and is choosing not to run for the seat again. A Senate run gives her a high-profile race for deep-pocketed Democrat donors to throw money at. And, let’s face it, she has shown an ability to raise money thanks to her left-wing appeal—but how she spends it raises eyebrows.
As we recently reported, Crockett’s latest FEC filings show she burned through nearly $75,000 in donor cash on luxury travel and security this year, hitting pricey hotels and chauffeured rides in cities far from her Dallas district. Her campaign shelled out more than $25,000 on upscale lodging and limousines alone, with charges at the Ritz-Carlton, the Luxury Collection, the West Hollywood Edition, the Times Square Edition, Las Vegas resorts, and multiple Martha’s Vineyard inns.
She likes living large on the donors’ dime.
Put it together: millions in campaign dollars, a national fan base, tougher prospects at home, and a party that treats her as a rising star. A statewide campaign brings attention and a pretext for lavish spending. Even a loss could set her up to launch a PAC and draw a hefty salary from it.
Crockett wants Texans to see her as storming the gates of power. In reality, she’s chasing the spotlight, the money, and the platform—while winning remains a long shot.
