Texas state Rep. James Talarico instructed those working on his campaign to “respect” Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) as a “leader in our state” after she entered Texas’s Senate race Monday.
“On behalf of all of us, I want to welcome Congresswoman Crockett into the Democratic primary race,” Talarico said in a video his campaign reported to send to roughly 10,000 volunteers. The video was subsequently shared to X on Monday evening. “We always knew this was going to be hard, and I’m so proud of what we’ve built so far.”
“We have always maintained that we are pro our campaign, not anti anyone else’s,” Talarico added. “But we will always treat Congresswoman Crockett with the utmost respect. She is my colleague and a leader in our state. She deserves nothing less.”
Later that evening, Crockett appeared on CNN’s Laura Coates Live offering commentary on Talarico since she joined the race. When asked about their policy differences, Crockett admitted that she did not know “all of his federal positions,” because, as she said, “he‘s never served on the federal level.”
“But at the end of the day, I‘m just focused on the opposition, and my opposition is not James,” Crockett said. “My opposition is whoever ends up making it out of the primary on the Republican side, the people that are harming the people that live here in the state of Texas.”
Talarico and Crockett previously served together in the Texas legislature. In January, Crockett began her second term in the House of Representatives after her first election in 2022.
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Hours before Crockett announced her candidacy for the upper chamber, Senate candidate Collin Allred dropped out of the Democratic primary and opted to run for a seat in the House of Representatives instead. Allred previously served in the House but left to pursue a Senate bid against Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) last year.
The Washington Examiner has reached out to Crockett’s office for comment.