Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, fired back at critics during an interview on Monday — including former “Saturday Night Live” star Bowen Yang and podcaster Matt Rogers, who both urged people not to “waste” money on her Senate campaign, and others who expressed doubts over her ability to win.
“There’s a viral podcast clip from Bowen Yang, a comedian, and Matt Rogers, a podcaster, and they question your prospects and even discourage people from contributing to you,” Jaime Harrison, former Democratic National Committee chair and host of the “At Our Table” podcast, told Crockett.
“And you’ve heard the phrase, ‘She can’t win in Texas,’ that you’re already defined, and now we’re hearing it from folks who have these major platforms. Even, we heard from Stephen A. Smith, who had critiques about you. Tell me what do you think when you hear those things?”
“Yeah, people are afraid. And it’s not afraid of me losing. They are afraid of me winning, actually. That’s what I hear. What disappoints me is when I hear things from the left, I expect to hear certain things from the right, right? So that’s fine,” Crockett responded.
Yang and Rogers discouraged people from donating to Crockett’s campaign earlier this month after criticizing certain politicians for making their campaigns “too obviously about themselves.” Rogers said there was no chance Crockett would win a race in Texas. However, the pair both apologized for their comments after facing backlash.
Texas has not elected a Democratic senator since 1988, when Lloyd Bentsen won re-election.
Crockett dismissed internet chatter about her chances, and suggested that the people doubting her might be getting paid to do so.
“I will also tell you that, you know, the internet is not a real place. And you should oftentimes ask yourself, is somebody paying for this? If so, who do we think may be paying for it? That kind of stuff,” she said.
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Crockett said she won every election she’s ever run in because of the people, and added that she has a lot of small donors to rely on. The lawmaker said she was already preparing for rhetoric that will come if she does win.
“We’re already preparing for the rhetoric once we’re done, right? I win, they’ll say, ‘Oh, well, yeah. She won on a fluke. She won because of a wave.’ It won’t be because I actually got out and worked and am now running on maybe a total of eight to 10 hours of sleep over the last weekend. It won’t be because I worked, it won’t because me and my team were focused on Texans,” she said.
Other Democrats have voiced concerns about Crockett’s ability to win statewide in Texas.
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“She might win a primary, but she ain’t winning a general in Texas,” one senior House Democrat told Axios in December.
“It’s concerning for [swing] districts… I think it’s a bad decision,” another Democrat told the outlet.
Crockett is running against state Rep. James Talarico, D-Texas, in the primary.
