The Complicated Politics of Jasmine Crockett’s Campaign Donations

Tech titan and conservative provocateur Marc Andreessen contributed to her. So did Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss of Facebook fame. As did Blackrock’s PAC, Lockheed Martin’s PAC, two cryptocurrency-funded super PACs and a fleet of other business groups.

The beneficiary of all this campaign spending? Rep. Jasmine Crockett, who is now running as the progressive favorite in the Democratic Senate primary in Texas.

Since winning her first federal election in 2022, the congresswoman has won national acclaim among liberals — and courted controversy — for her critical commentary of Republicans. But her record, affiliations and campaign contributors tell a different story about her ideological point of view, one now under scrutiny in her closely watched primary with Texas state Rep. James Talarico.

Crockett describes herself as a liberal, and she is a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. But she has also received money from controversial figures in the worlds of crypto and conservative politics, raising questions about her loyalties and what those donors see in her that her more typical liberal allies might not.

“I find it very troubling that she would be reliant on those kind of contributions,” Rep. Lloyd Doggett, a Democrat from Texas who has not endorsed in the Senate primary, told NOTUS in an interview.

Major Republican and Democratic donors have muddled in opposing primaries in recent elections to try to game them in their favor, boosting candidates they perceive as being more vulnerable. But the conservative donors who have supported Crockett, whether by giving directly to her campaigns or by giving to organizations supporting her candidacies, predate her high-stakes Senate run, suggesting a more genuine alignment.

Some national liberal organizations have taken notice of Crockett’s donors — and say they are ready to take action. Adam Green, a co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, said he met with Talarico last week and was impressed with the state lawmaker’s stated commitment to economic populism.

But Green said Crockett’s record, including donations she’s received to her campaign, make her exactly the kind of Democratic candidate he hopes the party doesn’t nominate — in Texas or anywhere else on the 2026 battleground map.

“To call her in any way the progressive or leftist candidate is a misnomer,” Green said. “She’s a somewhat effective anti-Trump troll and resistance liberal, but is not one of us when it comes to a progressive populist or anti-corporate warrior.”

Green said his group had yet to endorse Talarico but suggested it would do so soon.

For Crockett, the increasing attacks on her record from liberal critics could present a political problem ahead of Texas’ March primary, giving Talarico a chance to grow his support among the state’s progressive base. It could also help him regain momentum in a contest that changed dramatically last month, after Crockett launched a late campaign that forced the primary’s perceived front-runner, former Rep. Colin Allred, to quit the race.

Crockett and Talarico are battling to see who will advance to face the Republican nominee in the fall, which will be either incumbent Sen. John Cornyn or one of the two men challenging him for the nomination, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton or Rep. Wesley Hunt.

National Democrats hope there will be a realistic opening in Texas if Cornyn loses the primary, but many of them are also skeptical of Crockett’s chances in a general election, regardless of her opponent.

The criticism coming from the left also marks a new twist in the public debate over Crockett, who, as Democrats debate her effectiveness as a candidate, has turned into one of her party’s most polarizing lawmakers. Crockett has quickly become the type of media star who Democrats give significant time to at a national convention. But she’s also repeatedly drawn attention in a way that has undercut her party’s messaging — including in late 2024 when she suggested Hispanic Trump supporters had a “slave mentality,” comments she’s now trying to walk back.

This month, hosts of the popular podcast “Las Culturistas” backtracked on a declaration that Democratic donors should not contribute to Crockett’s campaign, after the congresswoman’s legion of fans called the criticism hypocritical and racist.

An aide to the congresswoman declined to comment when contacted by NOTUS.

Some Democrats also suggested that the donations prove that Crockett is more moderate than her reputation suggests, a flexibility that, especially when it comes to the crypto industry, could help her win over middle-of-the-road voters. Democratic politics in a red state like Texas is complicated, they say.

“Jasmine’s support for crypto speaks to her ideological heterodoxy,” said Luke Warford, a founding partner of the Agave Democratic Infrastructure Fund, a group in Texas trying to build more Democratic infrastructure.

Warford, who has not endorsed either candidate in the Democratic primary, said Crockett was “not a standard progressive.”

“The politics around crypto in Texas are pretty fluid. There’s an independent and libertarian undercurrent here in the state. It’s not as black and white that being pro-crypto is necessarily a bad thing for the Democrats,” he added.

Talarico himself faced questions early on before jumping into the Senate race over donations he’d received from a group funded by Miriam Adelson, who is one of President Donald Trump’s biggest donors.

And major donors like Andreessen often give to Democratic candidates despite their ideological leanings: the money-in-politics watchdog OpenSecrets found that Andreessen and his business partner, Ben Horowitz, gave nearly equally to both parties in 2024.

But liberal critics say what bothers them about the donations to Crockett’s campaign is the scale of tech and crypto contributions. In addition to Andreessen, Horowitz and the Winklevoss twins, she also received contributions in 2024 from Anatoly Yakovenko, the CEO of the blockchain platform Solana; Brian Armstrong, the CEO of Coinbase; and Hayden Adams, the CEO of the cryptocurrency exchange Uniswap.

Each of these donors or their companies would later contribute to Trump’s inaugural fund, according to records collected by OpenSecrets.

Other PACs representing defense industry groups, including Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics, also donated to Crockett’s House campaigns.

Crockett’s run for Congress in 2022 was also backed by two super PACs connected to the crypto industry, The Texas Tribune reported, with each spending $1 million to help her win a competitive Democratic primary.

That kind of financial backing undercuts her ability to sell a message of economic populism to voters, critics say, which many of them think is key to her party’s political future.

“It’s nothing personal,” Green said. “She is a reliable person to anti-Trump resistance fighters. But we want a forward vision for the party.”