US Representative Jasmine Crockett, a Texas Democrat, has described her failed 2026 Democratic Senate primary campaign as "a racist race" during an interview published on Wednesday. Speaking at the Essence Festival alongside the hosts of the "Native Land" podcast, she defended the way she ran her campaign and argued that she did not need to campaign directly with James Talarico, her former primary opponent who won the party's nomination.

Crockett said the most useful thing she could do for Talarico was to endorse lesser-known Black down-ballot candidates in order to boost Black voter turnout in November. She claimed that no race had turned out more voters in Texas history except those of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, and stated that the Democratic nominee in a recent presidential year received 500,000 votes while she received more than double that. Crockett launched her Senate bid in 2025 and lost the nomination to Talarico, a state legislator, who now faces Republican Ken Paxton in the general election.