‘I’m calling to encourage you to please go vote for my friend Jasmine Crockett,’ Harris tells Texas voters in robocall
Failed Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris has joined the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) in backing Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D., Texas) for U.S. Senate.
In a robocall released Friday, Harris implored Texas voters to send “a fighter like Jasmine Crockett” to the Senate.
“I’m calling to encourage you to please go vote for my friend Jasmine Crockett,” Harris says in the call, first reported by the Texas Tribune. “It’s time to turn Texas blue.”
The endorsement comes just days before Crockett faces off against state representative James Talarico in one of the most hard-fought Democratic contests in the country. The race has gained national attention as Democrats hope to fulfill a longshot wish of flipping a Senate seat in the GOP stronghold.
Support for Crockett transcends political boundaries.
The NRSC, the campaign arm for Senate Republicans, has deployed a number of creative political tactics to boost Crockett’s viability in the primary—their logic being that the controversial lawmaker will be easier for a Republican to defeat in November.
Crockett has faced criticism for referring to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R.), who uses a wheelchair, as “Governor Hot Wheels.” She attacked Rep. Byron Donalds (R., Fla.), who is black, over his marriage to a white woman. Those bombastic remarks, while winning over far-left voters, are seen as a liability in a general election, in which Crockett would likely face off against Sen. John Cornyn or Texas attorney general Ken Paxton.
To boost Crockett, Republicans commissioned a poll in July that showed Crockett leading Talarico and other Texas Democrats, hoping the favorable showing would lure Crockett into the race. The ploy worked, and Crockett jumped into the race in December.
A consulting firm linked to the NRSC has also recently pushed text messages to voters touting Crockett’s support for defunding ICE, and her opposition to other Trump administration policies.
Harris’s endorsement for Crockett poses yet another test of the former vice president’s political instincts, which are already on the ropes after she lost handily to President Donald Trump after spending $1.5 billion on her 2024 campaign.
Harris, during her White House tenure, groomed Crockett during a series of “secret” meetings she held with the lawmaker and several other Democrats she viewed as “rising stars” of the party, the Washington Free Beacon reported.
The meetings were part of what Harris called her “Stars Project,” Harris wrote in her memoir, 107 Days. “I think you’re very talented,” Harris said she told Crockett.
In September, Harris touted Barbara Drummond, a candidate for mayor of Mobile, Ala., as a “star.” Drummond lost the race in the heavily-Democratic enclave to Republican Spiro Cheriogotis.
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