Did Republicans work behind the scenes to convince U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas, to launch her bid to represent Texas in the U.S. Senate?
That’s what online newsroom NOTUS reports, citing an unnamed source familiar with the party’s dealings. The reason? GOP leaders think the sharp-tongued Crockett, while popular with the Democratic base, might be vulnerable in a general election.
According to NOTUS’s report, Republicans had become increasingly concerned about the contest since both former U.S. Rep. Colin Allred and State Rep. James Talarico were seen as strong contenders who could flip the seat now held by U.S. Sen. John Cornyn blue for the first time since 1993.
In July, the National Republican Senatorial Committee released a poll showing Crockett as the leading candidate among Democratic voters in the Senate race.
“When we saw the results, we were like, ‘OK, we got to disseminate this far and wide,” a source familiar with the matter told NOTUS.
Crockett wasn’t seriously considered as a Senate contender at the time, and as a result, wasn’t invited to a June meeting with prominent Texas Democrats to discuss the 2026 election.
However, after that July NRSC poll, other surveys began including Crockett’s name as a possible candidate. The unnamed source told NOTUS that GOP operatives then began aggressively seeding polls into progressive digital platforms to give the illusion that Crockett was “surging.”
The source dubbed the pro-Crockett operation as an “AstroTurf recruitment process.”
The GOP reportedly sees Crockett as a weaker general election candidate than Talarico, a Presbyterian divinity scholar whom analysts argue appeals to a broader audience, including swing voters.
Crockett has made a name for herself for attacking MAGA Republicans and President Trump on social media. However, she’s also advocated for progressive policies, including reparations for African Americans and criminal justice reform, which may not fly with many voters in deep red Texas.
If NOTUS is correct about the GOP’s strategy, then the party got what it was after on Monday. That’s when Crockett entered the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate. That same day, Allred dropped from the race saying he wanted to avoid a nasty and prolonged primary.
“That was really a sustained effort that we orchestrated across the ecosystem for several months,” the source told NOTUS. “Not only was it getting positive news coverage, but her office was directly having traffic driven to it in terms of phone calls urging her to run.”
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