Left-wing congresswoman Jasmine Crockett (D., Texas) holds an 8-point advantage over state representative James Talarico in Texas's Democratic Senate primary, according to the first poll released since Crockett entered the race.
The survey of likely Democratic voters, released on Friday by Texas Southern University, found Crockett with a comfortable margin at 51 percent and Talarico trailing at 43 percent. Six percent of voters were unsure. The poll is the first to come out since Crockett entered the race, a move that caused one primary rival, Colin Allred, to drop out.
Some Democrats are upset that Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee failed to keep Crockett out of the race. "They have a ton of tools they could've used and they didn't use them," one operative involved in the race told Politico. "They don't have the political power they once had … but it's evident how weak they are institutionally."
Crockett in her announcement speech said that "a lot of people" want her to stay in the House, but "what we need is for me to have a bigger voice."
The Dallas congresswoman, a rising force in Democratic politics, made headlines when she called murdered conservative activist Charlie Kirk a racist and lamented that only "two Caucasians" in Congress voted against a resolution honoring him. She has also called Texas governor Greg Abbott (R.), who is handicapped and uses a wheelchair, "Governor Hot Wheels" and attacked Florida Republican Byron Donalds's interracial marriage.
Crockett is rarely far from controversy. Last month she was hit with an ethics complaint after the Washington Free Beacon reported that she had concealed owning stock in at least 25 different companies from her financial disclosures. Those stocks include her holdings in marijuana firms, which stand to benefit from legislation she cosponsored to decriminalize the drug.
She is also facing widespread criticism for her attempt to smear Republicans by accusing them of taking donations from Jeffrey Epstein. In reality, the Republicans received money from people who happen to have the same name as the convicted sex trafficker, but Crockett has refused to back down, telling CNN's Kaitlan Collins that she "never said that it was that Jeffrey Epstein."
The Friday poll is consistent with an October University of Houston poll, taken before Crockett entered and Allred dropped out, that found the congresswoman at 31 percent support, with a 6-point advantage over Talarico and an 18-point advantage over Allred.
Crockett cited polling data while she was considering a Senate run, telling radio host Lurie Daniel Favors in October, "Every other day there's a poll that comes out that makes it clear that I can win the primary for the U.S. Senate race in Texas." When Crockett talked about the general election, though, she said she does not "really believe in traditional polling."
Many of the positive polling data Crockett saw came, however, from a National Republican Senatorial Committee shadow campaign that commissioned polls with Crockett's name long before she entered the race. Senate Republicans were encouraging the liberal firebrand to enter, "believing she will be the easiest opponent to beat," NOTUS reported.
While incumbent Republican senator John Cornyn faces his own primary challenge against state attorney general Ken Paxton, Crockett's odds of beating either Republican are low. Texas is a solidly red state that voted three times for President Donald Trump. The director of a Democratic PAC told CBS News that Crockett could energize Republican turnout against her, while a Republican strategist called her "too extreme and too far-left for even Texas Democrats."
