Democratic Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Texas is blaming out-of-state operatives and media personalities for what she describes as a coordinated effort to defund her bid for the U.S. Senate.
Her allegations come as she trails Texas state legislator James Talarico in the Democratic Senate primary, with a January Emerson College Polling/Nexstar Media survey showing Talarico leading 47% to 38%, and 15% of voters still undecided, according to the Daily Caller. Appearing on CNNs The Lead with Jake Tapper, Crockett claimed that political operatives and media figures based in New York and Washington, D.C., are working behind the scenes to dry up her fundraising by pushing negative narratives and warning donors away from her campaign.
We do know that there was a specific intent to try to defund our campaign. As we saw podcasters specifically saying, Do not send money to Jasmine Crockett. We know the operative that is behind my opponents campaign that has specifically been peddling these stories to New York and D.C. Thats why the stories arent coming out of Texas, Crockett told CNN host Dana Bash. But instead theyre coming from New York and D.C., just like the podcasters are coming out of New York and D.C. But I have faith in the Texans. And the coalition that we specifically attract is the coalition that [it] is going to take to win. The most recent polling that came out from [the] University of Houston said, number one, that independents and Republicans prefer me.
Her complaint underscores a growing divide inside the Democratic Party between national progressive influencers and local candidates who claim they are being undermined by coastal elites. New Yorkbased podcasters Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, hosts of Las Culturistas, recently told their audience that donating to Crocketts Senate campaign is a waste and urged listeners not to contribute, reinforcing the perception that left-leaning media figures are attempting to pick winners and losers in Texas from afar.
Crockett argued that these critics are not relying on hard data but on narrative and ideology, insisting that her path to victory is stronger than they admit. Now they want to say that I cant win, but the reality is that the numbers dont suggest that, and no one is putting numbers behind this. All theyre doing is sinking a lot of money into a candidate who has never been tested and never been hit, she said, casting Talarico as an unvetted favorite of the partys donor class.
She further complained that she is being targeted not only by a super PAC aligned with her opponent but also by the states Republican governor. The final point that Ill say is not only does my opponent have a super PAC that is spending against us with negative ads, but also our governor, Crockett continued. He decided to sink over a million dollars into TV ads against me, our governor. Listen, the Republicans say that they believe that I would be the one that they want. But when you look at their actions, who spends a million dollars and didnt even go after the people that are running against him?
Financially, Crocketts campaign is lagging badly, with Talarico dominating both fundraising and advertising outlays across television and digital platforms. Her allies contend that she is pursuing an unconventional strategy precisely because the traditional campaign model, built on massive TV buys and a top-heavy professional apparatus, was not designed for a candidate like her.
Crockett has invested far less in media than Talarico, who has already saturated multiple outlets with paid messaging, giving him a clear structural advantage in a state as large and expensive as Texas. Yet despite the spending gap and the hostility from liberal media voices, recent polling suggests the primary remains competitive, leaving open the possibility that a coalition of independents and Republicans skeptical of the Democratic establishment could still play a decisive role in the outcome.
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