Monday on CNN’s “The Lead,” Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) said that “independents and Republicans” preferred her over State Rep. James Talarico (D) in the Democratic Senate primary.
Host Dana Bash said, “Why are you so confident in your nontraditional approach and whether it will work statewide against your Democratic opponent, James Talarico, who, for example, just announced a 12-day bus tour ahead of the March 3rd primary?”
Crockett said, “My very first race for the state House, I was outspent 5 to 1. We do know there was a specific intent to defund our campaign, as we saw podcasters say, ‘Do not send money to Jasmine Crockett.’ We know the operative that is behind my opponent’s campaign that is specifically been peddling these stories to New York and D.C. That’s why the stories aren’t coming out of Texas, but instead they’re coming from New York and DC, just like the podcasters are coming out of New York and D.C., but I have faith in the Texans, right.”
She added, “And the coalition that we specifically attack is the coalition that it’s going to take to win. The most recent polling that came out from University of Houston and number one, say that Independents and Republicans prefer me. Now they want to say that I can’t win. But the reality is that the numbers don’t suggest that. And no one is putting numbers behind this. All they’re doing is sinking a lot of money into a candidate who has never been tested and never been hit. In the final point that I’ll say is, not only does my opponent have a super PAC that is spinning against us with negative ads, but also our governor, he decided to sink over $1 million 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 $1 million and don’t even go after the people that are running against him?”
Follow Pam Key on X @pamkeyNEN