The world of politics just got even louder, messier, and far more entertaining as a member of the “Squad” has announced a run for a higher office. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, the Dallas-area progressive who never met a camera she didn’t like, has officially jumped into the 2026 U.S. Senate race. She filed her paperwork just hours before the deadline, sending Democrats into a full-blown shuffle as they scramble to figure out what their primary even looks like anymore.
FOX 4’s Steven Dial confirmed the filing, which instantly turned a chaotic field into an outright brawl. Crockett joins state Rep. James Talarico and, of course, perennial candidate Beto O’Rourke, who apparently believes Texas voters will eventually tire of saying no. Polling shows Crockett leading the Democratic pack for now, which tells you everything you need to know about where the base has drifted. On the Republican side, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is holding a slight edge over John Cornyn, giving the race an entirely different dimension.
Crockett had been flirting with a Senate bid for weeks. Back in October she told Fox News she was waiting for the Supreme Court to weigh in on Texas’ new congressional maps. When the Court effectively cleared the way for a redraw that makes her House district lean Republican, the writing was on the wall. Rather than risk losing her seat, she bolted for the Senate race.
Her entrance blew up the Democratic field so thoroughly that Colin Allred bailed out the same day. Allred, who already lost a Senate race to Ted Cruz in 2024, claimed he was stepping aside to avoid a “bruising” primary and to keep the party unified against “Donald Trump and one of his Republican bootlickers.” Translation, he saw Crockett coming and decided he wasn’t in the mood to get politically steamrolled.
Allred will instead try to salvage his career by running for the newly drawn 33rd Congressional District, which is now centered more heavily in Dallas County. That sets up an intraparty battle with Rep. Julie Johnson, because apparently Democrats in Texas needed one more fight on their hands.
So here we are. The Texas Senate race is now a full contact sport, with Crockett diving in headfirst, Democrats fighting each other for survival, and Republicans gearing up for a showdown of their own. The only guarantee is that it’s about to get wild.