Democratic U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett files for U.S. Senate in Texas
U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, a Dallas Democrat who represents part of Tarrant County, has filed to run for U.S. Senate, according to a list of filings from the Texas Democratic Party.
Crockett, a rising star in the party, held an event Monday afternoon in Dallas where she officially announced that she will run for GOP Sen. John Cornyn’s seat.
Crockett previously said she was mulling a run for the statewide seat. Candidate filing for the 2026 Democratic and Republican primaries closes Monday.
She joins a pool of Democratic primary candidates that includes state Rep. James Talarico. The winner of a March primary will face the Republican primary’s top vote-getter in November.
Republican candidates include incumbent Sen. John Cornyn, U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt of Houston and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
At the Frederick Douglass Human Services and Justice Center in Dallas on Monday, over a hundred local officials and supporters gathered to celebrate the announcement before Crockett’s campaign showed a video of remarks made in the past by president Trump.
Crockett walked onstage to raucous applause and spoke about her campaign priorities, emphasizing affordability and civil rights.
“I’m not running just to run,” Crockett said. “This is about winning. As a candidate who is constantly attacked and seen as a threat — it’s because I am.”
Crockett called herself a threat to a system that works to protect politics as usual.
“Let me be clear, the reason that the governor’s always got time to call out my name is because he understands that I know how to speak to everybody, not just some folk,” she said. “I’m here to address those Texans specifically who feel as their votes doesn’t matter. Let me tell you, it does.”
Winsor Barbee, a precinct chair for the Dallas Democratic Party, said Crockett brings energy to the party.
”There are a lot of young voters who don’t like the ‘old folks,’ as they say. “They want to see some fresh faces, and some fresh voices.”
Sharon Middlebrooks, the president of the Dallas NAACP, said that Crockett will bring some spark to the race.
“She’s a fighter — she’s a fighter for the people,” Middlebrooks said. “I think the proof is in the pudding.”
Congressional District 30 includes a small portion of east Tarrant County. Crockett has represented the district since 2023, taking over the seat held by late U.S. Rep. Eddie Bernie Johnson for decades.
Crockett was drawn out of the district — which she’s represented since January 2023 — under the Texas’ 2025 congressional map.
The map was blocked for the 2026 midterms in a Nov. 18 order, but the state appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which cleared the way for the 2025 map to be used in the 2026 elections. .
Crockett worked as an attorney and served in the Texas House before heading to Washington. She is a member of the House Committee on the Judiciary and the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
Crockett led a field of Democratic candidates in an October survey by the public affairs schools at Texas Southern University and the University of Houston. Crockett was supported by 31% of Democratic voters while Talarico and Beto O’Rourke had support from 25% and Collin Allred had 13%
Allred, a former U.S. Representative from Dallas, announced Monday that he was instead running for Congress. O’Rourke, a former U.S. Representative from El Paso, has not announced a Senate run.
Cornyn’s campaign has labeled the four Democrats as “Lone Star Loons.” A Nov. 24 video and digital ad campaign calls Crockett the newest member and “one of the most extreme members of Congress Texas has ever sent to Washington” in the video.
“Jasmine Crockett does not represent the views of a majority of Texans,” Cornyn said in a Monday statement, later adding that “she is radical, theatrical and ineffective.”
The video also criticizes Crockett’s rhetoric, including comments in which she referred to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who uses a wheelchair, as “Governor Hot Wheels.” Crockett has said her remarks were in reference to Abbott’s “terrible policies” related to transporting migrants to other communities across the country, not his wheelchair use, according to ABC News.
Paxton predicted that Crockett would “lose by double digits in the general” in a Monday statement. He referenced a Texas Tribune article that that touches on Cornyn and Crockett collaborating in Congress.
Talarico also addressed Crockett’s bid in a Monday statement.
“We’re building a movement in Texas — fueled by record-breaking grassroots fundraising and 10,000 volunteers who are putting in the work to defeat the billionaire mega-donors and puppet politicians who have taken over our state,” Talarico said. “Our movement is rooted in unity over division — so we welcome Congresswoman Crockett into this race.”
This story was originally published December 8, 2025 at 2:07 PM.
