As Democrats hope to flip the Senate, they are banking on a longshot attempt to flip a Senate seat in Texas.
But some Democrats fear that Senate candidate Rep. Jasmine Crockett’s past remarks about Latinos and immigrants could repel Latino voters they would need to flip the Senate seat.
Last month, Crockett came under criticism when conservatives on social media unearthed a video of her saying that immigrants do the jobs that plenty of Americans including Black Americans will not do.
“The fact is ain’t none of y’all trying to go and farm right now,” she said in April of last year. “You're not, you're not. We’re done picking cotton. We are. You can't pay us enough to find a plantation.”
The statements are just the latest in a list of comments that have made Democrats nervous. But Crockett said she had not received criticism from Hispanics in Texas.
“I actually haven't, I'm gonna be perfectly honest,” she told The Independent. Rather, Crockett pointed to her own legislative record.
“But when you think about some of the language that Republicans have used, when you look at Trump calling whole communities of people, criminals and rapists, and saying that certain people are from shithole countries, yet his numbers did just fine, I get to point to my record,” she said. “I get to point to the fact that I've traveled this country and I am standing side by side with my brown brothers and sisters in this fight.”
Since she came to Congress in 2023, Crockett earned plaudits for her aggressive approach toward Republicans, namely calling and raised massive amounts of money thanks to her combative style, she also received criticism for incendiary comments.
Last year, she came under criticism for calling Gov. Greg Abbott, who uses a wheelchair, “Governor Hot Wheels.” In addition, she also came under criticism when she incorrectly said that the late Jeffrey Epstein had given to Republicans like John McCain, Mitt Romney and Sarah Palin in the past when it had actually been a neurosurgeon from Long Island with the same name who had given the money to Republicans.
One Texas Hispanic Democratic member of Congress expressed concern about her comments in the past.
“I think we should worry about everything,” they told The Independent. “Any comment that could in anyway be perceived impactful to a campaign on either side should be taken seriously.”
Roughly 40 percent of Texas’s population is Hispanic given the fact it shares a border with Mexico.
In 2024, Trump shocked many when he flipped much of the ancestrally Democratic parts of the Rio Grande Valley that are majority Hispanic despite his pledges for mass deportations and calling Mexicans who come into the country criminals, drug dealers and rapists.
But in 2025, Hispanics swung back hard toward Democrats across the board, angered by Trump’s policy of mass deportations and increased cost of living.
Democrats hope to hold two majority-Hispanic seats near the border that Trump won and flip a seat held by Rep. Monica de la Cruz.
“What I'm going to say about Miss Crockett is this is she represents a progressive socialist party, and in Texas, we are anything but socialists,” de la Cruz told The Independent. “We are about freedom, we are about family. We are about capitalism and the opportunity to achieve the American dream.”
Republicans had floated polls showing Crockett leading a Democratic primary hoping she would run for the Senate seat. She is currently challening state representative James Talarico for the Democratic nomination for Senate.
But Republicans face a contentious race on their own hands. Republican incumbent Sen. John Cornyn faces a primary challenge from state attorney general Ken Paxton and Rep. Wesley Hunt. Conservatives have long believed that Cornyn insufficiently supported Trump and criticized his negotiating a gun control bill after the 2022 shooting at Robb Elementary School.
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