Jasmine Crockett calls Texas Senate primary loss a ‘racist race’

Rep. Jasmine Crockett said this week that her failed bid for the Democratic Senate nomination in Texas was marred by racism, and made clear she does not intend to campaign alongside the man who beat her, state Rep. James Talarico.

Ms. Crockett made the remarks during a conversation with hosts of the “Native Land” podcast at the Essence Festival in New Orleans, a comment first reported by Fox News.

“It was racist. It was a racist race,” Ms. Crockett said. “But we live in America as y’all are celebrating 250. We know what this country is.”

Ms. Crockett said she would instead focus her energy on turning out Black voters for down-ballot candidates rather than joining Mr. Talarico’s campaign trail.

“The best thing that I can do is take down-ballot candidates who no one’s ever heard of and do my best to uplift them,” she said.

She pushed back on the idea that she owed Mr. Talarico direct support, arguing she outperformed the party’s most recent presidential-year nominee at the ballot box.

“Did you hear me?” she said. “Literally, our Democratic nominee … got 500,000 votes. I got over double that, and I still lost.”

Ms. Crockett, who launched her Senate campaign in 2025, lost the Democratic nomination to Mr. Talarico, a state legislator from Austin, in March. Mr. Talarico now faces Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in the general election, after Mr. Paxton defeated Sen. John Cornyn in a bitter Republican runoff in May.

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Ms. Crockett argued she has been held to an unfair standard.

“We have never seen anybody, quote unquote, be pressured to jump into a Senate race to help out their opponent that beat them,” she said. “And it just so happens that it ended up being a high-profile Black woman.”

She added that her commitment remains to Black voters specifically, rather than to party unity for its own sake.

“I am nobody’s footstool,” she said, “but I believe in doing everything that I can … specifically for Black people.”

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