GOP strategists quietly pushed Jasmine Crockett into Texas senate contest: Report

WASHINGTON, DC: The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) spent months encouraging Rep Jasmine Crockett to enter Texas’ 2026 Senate race, according to reporting from NOTUS’ Reese Gorman.

Senior GOP strategists concluded that Crockett would be the weakest general-election opponent for Sen John Cornyn, who is seeking reelection.

By contrast, they viewed the Democrats already in the race, Rep Colin Allred and state Rep James Talarico, as “formidable” challengers.

Republicans designed polls to elevate Jasmine Crockett

According to the report, Republicans didn’t simply observe Crockett’s rise; they helped engineer it.

In July, the NRSC commissioned a poll that intentionally included Crockett’s name in a hypothetical Democratic primary. The results showed her leading the field.

“When we saw the results, we were like, ‘OK, we got to disseminate this far and wide,’” a source told NOTUS, emphasizing that including Crockett was no coincidence.

The move came after GOP operatives noticed that she had been excluded from a June strategy meeting of top Texas Democrats, a gathering that included Allred, Talarico, Beto O’Rourke, and Joaquin Castro as well as from most major public polls.

Seeing an opening, Republicans sought to place her squarely into the conversation.

Report says crafted narrative spurred Jasmine Crockett's surge

After the NRSC’s initial poll circulated, other surveys began adding Crockett, and she performed strongly in many of them.

As per the report, Republicans then worked to amplify these findings, pushing the narrative that Crockett was rapidly gaining ground.

The source credited the NRSC with helping “orchestrate the pile-on of these polling numbers to really drive that news cycle and that narrative that Jasmine Crockett was surging in Texas.”

That surge is now reshaping the Democratic field. Colin Allred dropped out earlier this week, while Talarico has signaled he will move forward and compete against Crockett for the nomination.

Several prominent Republicans, including Karl Rove and Cornyn himself, have quietly cheered Crockett’s rise, seeing her candidacy as a political gift heading into 2026. Cornyn could ultimately face her on the ballot next fall if she secures the Democratic nomination.

Jasmine Crockett says she is not aiming to win Trump supporters 

Crockett said on Monday that she was not seeking to win over supporters of President Donald Trump as she launched her campaign for the US Senate.

Crockett unveiled her bid for a Texas Senate seat the same day, releasing a video featuring herself on camera alongside audio clips of Trump criticizing her.

Crockett said she doesn‘t know that she would necessarily convert all of Trump‘s supporters. "That’s not our goal.” She emphasized.

“Our goal is to definitely talk to people. No, we don't, we don't need to. Our goal is to make sure that we can engage people that historically have not been talked to, because there's so many people that get ignored, specifically in the state of Texas,” she said.