Just days after launching her bid for the U.S. Senate, Democratic Rep. Jasmine Crockett is already facing sharp criticism from across the aisle—not just on policy, but on her basic election strategy. Republican Texas Rep. Brandon Gill argued Wednesday that Crockett is actively sabotaging her campaign by alienating the very demographic she needs to turn Texas blue.
The friction centers on Crockett’s past remarks regarding Hispanic voters who support Donald Trump, comments that Gill described as a major political miscalculation.
“Whenever you hear the words that she said very directly, it was pretty pejorative,” Gill said during an appearance on The Evening Edit. “And you know, I think she’s realizing now that demonizing your own potential voters isn’t actually a very compelling election strategy.”
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The “Slave Mentality” Controversy
The remarks in question resurfaced recently when CNN’s Jake Tapper pressed Crockett on a Vanity Fair interview in which she compared the mindset of some Trump-supporting Latinos to a “slave mentality.”
Crockett pushed back on the characterization, telling Tapper her views were overstated in the article. She clarified that she was not referring to the entire Latino community, but rather expressing her confusion regarding specific voters who back Trump’s hardline immigration policies.
“No, and that’s not what that said at all, to be clear. It did not say that every Latino has that type of mentality,” Crockett said, defending her stance. “I don’t believe that the people that voted for Trump believe in what they’re actually getting.”
The Elusive “Blue Texas”
Despite Crockett’s insistence that a sustained grassroots effort can finally flip the state, Gill dismissed the idea as a fantasy that ignores recent history. He pointed to the failed Senate bids of former Reps. Beto O’Rourke in 2018 and Colin Allred in 2024—both of whom lost to Republican Sen. Ted Cruz—as proof that the state’s political identity is settled.
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“Democrats have been talking for a long time about how they’re going to try to flip Texas blue, and they’ve never been successful. It’s all talk,” Gill said. “Colin Allred tried to do it, and he couldn’t. Beto O’Rourke tried to do it, and he couldn’t. And Jasmine Crockett can’t do it either.”
According to Gill, the demographics of Texas make Crockett’s rhetoric particularly damaging. He noted that in a state that is 40% Latino—and one that Trump carried by 14 points—insulting conservative-leaning Hispanic voters creates an impossible math problem for any Democrat.
“This is the home of conservatism in Texas,” Gill added. “And Jasmine Crockett, I think we all know, and she knows, that she’s not a very compelling candidate for this state.”
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