Stephen A. Breaks Down the REAL Reason Jasmine Crockett Lost Texas

There's no way that I could go through an entire opening monologue without transitioning to Representative Jasmine Crockett. Um, she lost she lost her her pursuit for the United States Senate seat to James Telerico 52.4% to 46.2%. She lost this election this election bid trying to win and unite one of those two US Senate seats in Texas where she would have gone from a representative representing about 766,000 constituents to over 31 million people. Ladies and gentlemen, we have to discuss why it would have been nice to see Jasmine Crocki win. Personally, I would have liked to see her going up against the Republican candidate, whether it was John Cornin, whether it was Ken Paxton, whomever. Wesley Hunt was a marvelous guest last week on this show. It would have been nice to see her go up against one of them for the US Senate seat, but that is not to be. She called earlier and sent out this tweet uh regarding James Telerico saying this morning I called James and congratulated him on becoming the Senate nominee. Texas is primed to turn blue and we must remain united because this is bigger than any one person. This is about the future of all 30 million Texans and getting America back on track. With the primary behind us, Democrats must rally around our nominees and win. I'm committed to doing my part and will continue working to elect Democrats up and down the ballot." End quote. That still doesn't get us to why she lost. Ladies and gentlemen, James Telerico and Jasmine Crockett essentially were very very similar in policies and their ideology etc. One wanted to focus a little bit more on terrorists than the others. Both of them were opposed to Trump's immigration policies and tactics. We all know this. But why did Jasmine Crockett lose this election? They want to tell you that she lost because she didn't ingratiate herself with Hispanics because they have over 6 and a half million Hispanic voters in the state of Texas and she didn't endear herself to them nearly as well as she should have. She was critic, you know, she's been criticized for comments perceived as alienating Hispanic voters leading into the election. remarks stem primarily from a 2024 Vanity Fair interview where she discussed Latino support for Donald Trump and immigration views. She described some Latino immigrants attitudes towards undocumented immigrants as reminiscent of quote unquote a slave mentality. She went on to say, "It almost reminds me of what people would talk about when they would talk about the kind of like slave mentality and the hate that some slaves would have for themselves." In the full context, she elaborated, "The immigration thing has always been something that has perplexed me about this community. It's basically like, I fought to get here, but I left y'all where I left y'all, and I want no more of y'all to come here. If I wanted to be with y'all, I would have stayed with y'all, but I don't want y'all coming to my new home." It's almost like a slave mentality that they have. It is wild to me when I hear how anti-immigrant they are as immigrants, many of them. Perhaps the most damaging thing was when Jake Tapper questioned her about an exact quote that she gave. It was at a church event in April of 2025. And she received backlash for implying racial stereotypes about labor and immigration. Quote, "So I had to go around the country educating people about what immigrants do to this country and the fact that we are a country of immigrants. The fact is ain't none of y'all trying to go out, go and farm right now. You're not. You're not. We're done picking cotton. We are. You can't pay us enough to find a plantation. Critics, including Latinos, called it racist and dismissive. This is not about me. This is not about you. It's not about anybody. This is about the voters in Texas and what they're saying ultimately had an impact in deciding how this election went. You got a guy in James Telerico who's is who's a seminarian and a teacher who believed in compromise and pulling folks over to his side and working across the aisle and doing stuff like that. That was his style. and he was focusing on Ken Paxton, a Republican candidate for the United States Senate, who's an attorney general in Texas, and was focusing on him because it's widely believed that he will beat John Cornin eventually, particularly in their runoff, whereas she was focused on Trump and not giving him an inch to breathe and being all up his you know what, for every little thing that he did. And what did Texas say? You see, this comes back to what I was trying to say months ago, weeks ago, days ago. That's Texas. It's a little bit different down there. Ladies and gentlemen, I was in Austin, Texas nearly two years ago and I was watching an episode of Martin at 1 in the morning. And this has never happened to me in my life. In the middle of the program, it shut down. It went to commercial. And the commercial was the American flag over the television screen and the national anthem was playing over the airwaves. That don't happen in New York. That don't happen in DC. It damn sure don't happen in LA, but it happens in Texas. A little bit different. Little bit different. And when we talk about all of these things, what it came down to Telerico versus Jasmine Crockett was style. Nothing else. That woman smart as a whip. licensed to practice law in the state of Texas, Arkansas, and federally. She's been in the House of Representatives for years. Trump is spewing her name. SHE'S GOT A NATIONAL PROFILE. SHE WAS FAR more known THAN JAMES TELERICO. HE had to be introduced by members of the Hispanic community WEEKS BEFORE THE ELECTION. THEY DIDN'T EVEN KNOW WHO HE WAS. So Heidi Bea styles make fights and his style worked for Texans. Slice it any way you want to. It worked for Texans. Now, Jasmine Crockett has her own beliefs as to why she lost this election, but she was still class personified and congratulating James Telerico and calling him and ultimately putting out that tweet, and she deserves a lot of credit for that. She also can't help the fact that James Telerico was was on uh Stephen Cobear's show on CBS February 16th and CBS according to Steven Coar wouldn't allow him to air that interview. So they put it on YouTube. It accumulated over 5.5 million viewers and bumped his campaign dollars up an additional $2.5 million in a 24-hour period following what he called his quote unquote censored interview. So understand there are certain things that transpired that were completely and totally out of her control. But in the end, what it came down to was strategy and tone. While he positioned himself as a teacher in the Senate, injecting progressive Christianity and focusing on education, compromise, and building coalitions. She positioned herself as a street fighter who thrives on confrontation, viral clashes with Trump and other Republicans, etc. She emphasized her national name recognition from congressional fights and argued criticism of her was rooted in racism and sexism. No doubt it worked with a lot of black voters. No doubt it worked with some women. But in the end, was it enough to beat the fellow Democrat who was a novice compared to her for United States Senate seat representing 31 million people out of the great state of Texas? No, it was not. That is a fact. As I've said on many occasions, you don't have to be extra when Trump gives you all the ammunition in the world. Just sit around, you know, treat him like the Dallas Cowboys. Be patient. Just wait for it. They won't let you down. Somehow, some way Trump won't let you down. I was saying this I was saying this countless times and in the end what it comes down to before I go to break is this. One could easily make the argument that Jasmine Crockett and frankly Kla Harris ran into similar issues. both leaning a lot, perhaps too heavily into emotional arguments and outrage over Donald Trump instead of focusing on a clear plan for the country, a plan. James Telerico had a plan. And you know what his plan part of his plan was? I barely need to mention Donald Trump. That ain't who I'm running against. I'm running against John Cornin. I'm running again against Pen Kim Paxton. I'm going to have to run against one of those two for the United States Senate seat. I'll deal with Donald Trump when I get to the United States Senate. Right now, this is what I got to deal with. I had somebody tell me earlier that criticizing Trump might energize people who already agree with him or people already agree with you. And of course, that's to be expected because a lot of people don't agree with him. But when you're trying to win, you got to strategize. James Telerico, learned pretty quickly what it took to win. Jasmine, who's a sensational political talent, who has her share of supporters. She had a different strategy, one that could potentially work against Trump someday. The problem was that ain't who she was running against. It was James Telerico. And that's why he's the Democratic nominee for the Senate seat for the great state of Texas and she is not. 8669676887. That's 866966967687 86696 pus. You're listening live to straight shooter with Stephen A right here on PUS radio channel 124. Up next, long time Democratic strategist, the one and only James Carville is coming up next. Can't wait to speak to him. It's a lot to discuss, no doubt. And he has a lot to say. James, don't cuss me out, man. I'm just a messenger, my brother. I'm just a messenger. He's up next with yours truly right here on Straight Shooter with Stephen A. Back with more in a minute.

Stephen A. Smith reacts to Rep. Jasmine Crockett losing the Texas Democratic Senate primary to James Talarico and breaks down what he believes went wrong. From campaign strategy and tone to messaging about Donald Trump, Stephen A. explains why Crockett’s approach didn’t connect with enough voters in Texas. Did focusing too much on Trump hurt her campaign? Was Talarico’s style simply a better fit for Texas voters? Stephen A. dives into the political strategy behind the race and what Democrats can learn moving forward. https://sxm.app.link/YouTubeSAS Connect with me on social media: Twitter: https://x.com/stephenasmith Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stephenasmith/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@stephenasmith Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stephena/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephen-a-smith-763b31194/