Democratic Rep. Jasmine Crockett said she will make a “special announcement” on Monday, likely whether she will run for the U.S. Senate in Texas, 90 minutes before the state’s deadline to submit the paperwork.
Even though Crockett said she can’t confirm the nature of the announcement, she acknowledged to calling confirmed candidates. Former Dallas Rep. Colin Allred and state Rep. James Talarico have already announced their runs and are campaigning for the seat.
Crockett said days ago that she is “closer to a yes than a no.” Speaking on MS Now, Crockett said data gathered by her and her team shows she would be a competitive candidate. “The evaluation made it clear that the coalition that won the elections that took place on November 4 was heavily comprised of “Black and Brown folks.”
“When you look at the numbers in New Jersey, Virginia, Black and Brown people showed up and voted the right way. I am the leading candidate when it comes to those specific constituencies. So it does make it to where I am very formidable regardless of what people may want to put out,” Crockett said. “I am closer to yes than I am a no,” Crockett added.
Crockett came out on top of a recent poll of potential Democratic candidates for the U.S. Senate. Conducted by the University of Houston and Texas Southern University among over 1,600 registered voters between September 19 and October 1, it showed Crockett with 31% of the support, compared to state Talarico (25%), former Senate candidate Beto O’Rourke (25%) and Allred (13%). The margin of error was +/- 2.4%.
Crockett has been publicly discussing whether to run, recently saying that raising her public profile will be a first step in an eventual statewide campaign. “I don’t think that we have the luxury, especially with us having such an early primary, of actually doing what we normally do, which — we spend about $100 million to get someone’s name ID up,” she said.
Speaking to Politico, she conceded that she doesn’t think “that there’s a Democrat that can take out (Texas Sen. John) Cornyn.” “For me, I would be making a very last-minute decision because it’s not just about winning the primary. You got to win the general.”
Originally published on Latin Times
