Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, once again sidestepped an opportunity to praise her party’s Texas Senate nominee, James Talarico, on Election Day, declining to mention him by name when asked to make the case for his candidacy.
Crockett appeared Tuesday on Charlamagne tha God’s “The Breakfast Club,” where she was asked specifically about voters who may not yet feel comfortable backing Talarico in his high-stakes Senate race against Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
Rather than offer a full-throated endorsement, Crockett pivoted to a broader message about Democratic voters holding out for an ideal candidate.
“I think, here’s my issue. You know we have had a problem on the Democratic side whether it’s Texas or otherwise, where we are looking for perfection,” Crockett said.
She urged voters to back candidates they mostly agree with rather than dwell on disagreements.
“Like forget focusing on say, the 20% they don’t have. Focus on the 80% that they can provide,” she said.
“So, we just asking for two years, four years, or six years, and if you don’t agree with us, you can dump us,” Crockett added.
At no point in her answer did she say Talarico’s name.
Talarico, 37, defeated Crockett, 45, by roughly 6 percentage points in the Democratic Senate primary in March. Crockett endorsed him the morning after the primary, but she has kept a conspicuously low profile in support of his campaign ever since.
The tension has been building for months. In August, Crockett told CNN she had no plans to hit the campaign trail with Talarico.
“I will be campaigning downballot,” she said at the time, adding that she was “running all over the country” and that Texas is a big state.
In that same interview, Crockett cast doubt on Talarico’s appeal among Black voters, saying, “I don’t think that there is excitement.”
Crockett has also expressed frustration over the primary itself, calling it a “racist race” and slamming pro-Talarico attack ads that questioned her electability as “straight-up racist.”
Last month, facing criticism that she wasn’t doing enough to help the Democratic ticket, Crockett pushed back during a campaign stop in Houston on the first day of early voting.
“I’ve endorsed him 100 times,” she said.
Crockett argued that her work boosting down-ballot Democrats, including county judge candidates in Harris and Tarrant counties, would ultimately help Talarico by driving turnout.
“Guess what, the top of the ticket is going to benefit,” she said.
In a separate interview with the Dallas Morning News, Crockett suggested that campaigning alongside Talarico might not fit his strategy of courting Republicans dissatisfied with Paxton. Without naming him, she said he could see her as a “repellant” to GOP crossover voters.
Talarico, meanwhile, has said he set aside $25 million for outreach to Black voters, including radio, television and digital ads produced by Black-owned media firms, and has visited Black churches and held town halls across the state. In July, he said he was honored to have Crockett’s “support and her endorsement.”
Black voters have accounted for about 12% of ballots cast in recent Texas statewide elections, a bloc Democrats will need in force if they hope to break a statewide losing streak that stretches back more than three decades.
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