GOP will regret pushing Jasmine Crockett to run for the Senate

“They only trying to scare her out of running cause they think she’ll win.” So rapped Cameron McCloud, the MC who kicked off the announcement event for Democratic Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett‘s Senate run on Monday. But in the grand tradition of braggadocio rap, McCloud’s boasts on Crockett’s behalf were overstated. Okay, they were the exact opposite of reality.

Republicans do not fear Crockett’s entry into a race to unseat Sen. John Cornyn, the GOP incumbent. On the contrary, the Republican money machine has spent months goading Crockett into entering the Democratic primary against Austin state Rep. James Talarico and former U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, who withdrew from the race as news of Crockett’s entry broke.

As NOTUS reported on Tuesday, there was a massive “AstroTurf recruitment process” to lure Crockett into the race, complete with GOP-funded polls showing her leading — which she cited during her campaign announcement. Republicans pretending to be Democrats blanketed progressive voters with calls and text messages in an effort to “urge voters to contact and advocate for Crockett to join the race.”

It’s not hard to see why Republicans think they’re being clever by baiting Crockett into running. The bombastic congresswoman has leaned full force into the Donald Trump era, returning the playground taunts and cheap shots MAGA leaders so enjoy right back at them, such as calling Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican who is bound to a wheelchair, “Governor Hot Wheels.” (Crockett claimed she was misconstrued, but no one appears to believe her.) This behavior has endeared her to the highly partisan, deeply engaged Democratic voters who tend to determine primaries and would likely see her as the rare Democrat willing to put up a real fight against Trump and Republicans. But the GOP is betting her loud mouth will alienate independent voters, making it easy to persuade them she’s a “radical,” despite having a standard Democratic policy agenda.

“I think it’s one of the greatest things that’s happened to the Republican Party in a long, long time,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., when he was asked about her run on Wednesday. “She is the face of the Democratic Party, she and Mamdani. Good luck with that.”

Crockett, though, responded with an obvious point that Johnson appears to have overlooked when comparing her to the recently-elected New York City mayor: “Last time I checked, he got elected.”

Republicans clearly think they got one over on the Democratic Party by boosting Crockett. Her entry has already forced the moderate Allred out and has pushed Talarico, who was viewed as the progressive challenger to the Democratic establishment, into the “electable normie” lane. But a supposed Bible-lover like Johnson should remember Proverbs 16:18: “Pride goeth before destruction.”

People thought Zohran Mamdani was unelectable too. Granted, he is nothing like Crockett, outside of not meeting Johnson’s Christian, white and male standards. Mamdani is to her left on policy, but he also has an affable, disarming demeanor.

It’s also worth noting that most political experts thought Donald Trump couldn’t win, and that his hack insult comedy routine would fail. Turns out, though, that a lot of voters are fine with a candidate who is a loudmouth or a bully, so long as they feel that person is a fighter who is ready to shake things up. The Bulwark’s Tim Miller argued that Crockett might be more viable than conventional wisdom would suggest because voters seem to be craving heterodox candidates who offer a promise of real change, whether it’s on policy matters like Mamdani, or simply on style points as with Crockett.

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Republicans may regret propping up a candidate whose qualities they believe make her “unelectable,”  which may instead draw attention and passion that pushes her over the top. As Jill Filipovic wrote at Slate, there’s a real appetite for “table-flipping, insult-lobbing, and attention-grabbing” politics that “might actually beat MAGA at its own game.” But even if Republicans are right and Crockett will lose — since she doesn’t get the same hall pass that a white man like Trump does — they may come to rue the day they helped lift Crockett to an even bigger platform.

Ever since Trump entered the political scene, Republicans have benefitted from the wildly-tilted dynamics of this era of lowbrow politics. While it’s true that most voters don’t like the childish taunts coming from Trump and his imitators, the polls show there’s something like they even less: the perceived unwillingness of Democrats to stand up for themselves. People hate bullies like Trump, but they feel pity and contempt for those who simply stand there and take it — even if it’s out of some misguided notion that they’re rising above the fray. This is why the otherwise universally beloved Michelle Obama still gets regular mockery for her “when they go low, we go high” speech at the 2016 Democratic National Convention.

Crockett understands this, which is why her announcement ad features her looking resolute while an audio reel of Trump obsessively insulting her plays. The message is that, while you may not like her style, at least she stands up for herself — and for voters. As a former Texan who still follows the state’s politics closely, I have a lot of doubts about Crockett, especially how she doesn’t seem to care that something like “Governor Hot Wheels” insults all disabled people, not just a deserving target like Abbott. But the ad worked on me, because being a careless jerk is still better than the mealy-mouthed appeasement we so often hear from some Democratic leaders.

(Granted, there’s a third way modeled by Mamdani — and, I’d argue, by Talarico — of making your opponents look small without being rude by displaying courage, smarts and strong convictions. But name-calling does play better on social media, where attention spans are short and people don’t have the cognitive energy to process multiple sentences, much less entire debate exchanges.)

Crockett’s candidacy will likely empower even more Democrats to believe they can do more than lie low and hope to survive long enough to pick up the pieces after Trumpism implodes. Win or lose, she will show that doing things differently is at least possible. Crockett will empower a lot of people, both political leaders and everyday citizens, to take the fight to MAGA. This isn’t just a few Democrats in Congress using curse words. A lot of people are sick of feeling hamstrung. They’re eager to lash out at the right, even if it means dispensing with previous taboos against mocking people’s bodies or identities.

Republicans found the low road to be useful and beneficial, in no small part because it was a clear path for them. But with Crockett leading the way, they may find there’s a surge of progressives ready to create a pile-up on Interstate Insult Comedy. It could be bad for our overall political health. Or it could be good, reinvigorating people who were checking out. But one thing is for certain: Republicans aren’t going to like a world where Democrats start giving as good as they get.