Jasmine Crockett Shakes Up Texas Senate Primary by Jumping Into the Race

And then there were two.

Just hours after former Texas Rep. Colin Allred announced he’d be ending his Senate bid and running for the House instead, Rep. Jasmine Crockett filed paperwork to run in the primary against Texas state Rep. James Talarico.

The entrance changes the dynamics of an already contentious primary in a race Democrats are hoping could flip the Lone Star State from blue to red.

Crockett, who is serving her second term in Congress, toyed with the idea of a bid for weeks, saying she had not made a decision as recently as Sunday. But she filed the paperwork on Monday afternoon, just before the 6 p.m. deadline, and plans to announce her bid for Senate at a public event in Dallas at 4:30 p.m. CT.

Allred said he decided to end his bid, which was his second try for the Senate after losing to GOP incumbent Sen. Ted Cruz last fall, because “I’ve come to believe that a bruising Senate Democratic primary and runoff would prevent the Democratic Party from going into this critical election unified against the danger posed to our communities.”

“But I’m nowhere near done serving my community and our state,” he added, announcing a bid against Rep. Julie Johnson — who won the district after he opted to run for Senate last term — in Texas’ newly drawn 33rd Congressional District. Johnson immediately fired back on social media, saying in a post on X that the district “deserves representation that has been present in the tough moments, including throughout the redistricting fight, instead of parachuting back when another campaign doesn’t work out.”

About dropping out of the race, Allred told CNN he had a “professional, friendly conversation” with Crockett, and added: “I can just say that I’m friends with Jasmine. I’ve known her for some time, and I think it’s important that we go into November with a unified party.”

Crockett will now face Talarico in the primary. The state representative has gained name recognition and popularity following his very public role against the Texas redistricting drama that took place over the summer.

“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 in a statement. “Our movement is rooted in unity over division — so we welcome Congresswoman Crockett into this race.”

When asked to weigh in on the Democratic primary, a Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee spokesperson instead commented on Sen. John Cornyn, the incumbent in the race who’s facing an uphill battle against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Rep. Wesley Hunt, who are all running in the Republican primary.

“Republicans have already lit nearly $50 million on fire trying to bail out John Cornyn — a historically unpopular incumbent locked in a nasty three-way primary with a scandal-plagued politician — and that’s just the beginning of the Texas-sized problems the GOP is facing in the Lone Star State,” spokesperson Maeve Coyle told NOTUS.