Some people lose a primary and endorse the winner. Jasmine Crockett lost a primary and is still, three months later, giving quotes to newspapers that describe the winner as uninspiring, declining invitations to speak at her own party’s convention, and skipping the convention entirely, which is the political version of flipping the board game when you lose and calling it focus.
James Talarico beat Crockett in the Texas Democratic Senate primary in March. Every poll had Crockett ahead. She lost anyway. She conceded. She said she supported the party. She then proceeded to do the specific opposite of supporting the party, at scale, over the following three months.
Talarico called Crockett personally and invited her to deliver the keynote at the Texas Democratic Party Convention. She declined. He invited her to attend. She declined that too. According to Breitbart, Crockett told the Dallas Morning News, “I’ve not heard a bunch of kumbaya. People don’t seem to be convinced at this point.” The people not producing kumbaya are, in context, Black Democratic voters in Texas whose mobilization she is uniquely positioned to deliver and has uniquely decided to withhold.
According to Fox News, Crockett also said, “If for some reason there’s a surge, I don’t think it’s going to be because of anyone on this ticket.” She said this about the man who beat her. About his campaign for the seat she wanted. Six months before his general election. On the record. To a newspaper.
Talarico is running against Ken Paxton, the Republican attorney general who survived impeachment and is running in a state Trump won by 14 points. He needs every coalition. The most prominent progressive Black woman in Texas has decided her best contribution is a quote in the morning paper describing the nominee as not generating kumbaya.
Crockett spent her career arguing that Democrats must hold together, that undermining nominees is what the other party does, and that democratic norms matter. She lost a primary in March. The argument stopped applying immediately.
When the loudest voice for party unity goes quiet the moment it is her turn to practice it, what was the voice ever for?
Sources
Fox News: David Marcus: How Crockett’s last stand in Texas could bring down Talarico
Breitbart: Crockett says Black voters not united behind Talarico, won’t attend Texas Democrat Convention
