Of course Jasmine Crockett should run for president

The leadership of the Democratic Party is as open as it has been in generations, with Nancy Pelosi occupying emerita status, Chuck Schumer under fire from half his party – and their most prominent governors hamstrung by problems at home or the fact they’d much rather be podcasting. The field is effectively cleared for an upstart to emerge based on sheer communications talent and the ability to take advantage of a power vacuum as an avatar of leftward frustration. And if that’s the direction Democrats decide to go in 2028, there’s no one who occupies that…

The leadership of the Democratic Party is as open as it has been in generations, with Nancy Pelosi occupying emerita status, Chuck Schumer under fire from half his party – and their most prominent governors hamstrung by problems at home or the fact they’d much rather be podcasting. The field is effectively cleared for an upstart to emerge based on sheer communications talent and the ability to take advantage of a power vacuum as an avatar of leftward frustration. And if that’s the direction Democrats decide to go in 2028, there’s no one who occupies that role right now more impressively than the constantly viral phenomenon that is the congresswoman from Dallas, Texas – Jasmine Crockett.

Crockett rose through the ranks quickly in Texas, where she was known as a canny political operator, who capably knocked off a Democratic incumbent in a primary runoff to take a Texas State House seat, before achieving elevation to replace long-tenured congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson. Her background is as a child of privilege, attending a $30,000-a-year private school in St. Louis before graduating from Memphis’s Rhodes College. Yet upon arrival in Washington, Crockett saw the value in code-switching, playing up an aggressive, brash, street-talking attitude that has led to her picking fights with Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia over her “bleach-blonde, bad-built, butch body” (a phrase Crockett swiftly moved to trademark), and another confrontation led Representative Nancy Mace of South Carolina to suggest they “take it outside” to see what happens (Crockett promptly ran fundraising ads off the exchange). Then just now, during a House DoGE Committee hearing with the chiefs of PBS and NPR, Crockett said, “The idea that you want to shut down everybody that is not Fox News is bullshit.”

These types of scraps may lead to eye-rolling condemnation from those in DC, but for Crockett, they’ve been gold for her name awareness and rise through the ranks as a trash-talking champion of the Democratic base eager for someone, anyone, to be a vessel for their rage against the second Trump administration. The latest example, from a speech to the Human Rights Campaign, displayed her now ubiquitous flair for gunning directly at Republicans:

Thank you so much, Morgan, um, because we in these hot-ass Texas streets, honey, um [audience chuckles] um… Y’all know we got Governor Hot Wheels down there, come on now! And the only thing hot about him is that he is a hot-ass mess, honey! So yes, yes, yes, yes. Right. OK, alright, Imma move on, Imma move on.

Well, that’s one way to get attention. The wheelchair-bound governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, fired back – along with a universe of Republican allies – against the insult. And unlike other situations she worked to exploit, there was some acknowledgement from Crockett that she may have gone too far with this one – but not really:

I wasn’t thinking about the governor’s condition – I was thinking about the planes, trains and automobiles he used to transfer migrants into communities led by black mayors, deliberately stoking tension and fear among the most vulnerable.

Literally, the next line I said was that he was a “Hot A** Mess,” referencing his terrible policies. At no point did I mention or allude to his condition. So, I’m even more appalled that the very people who unequivocally support Trump – a man known for racially insensitive nicknames and mocking those with disabilities – are now outraged.

Crockett understands the current dynamic. She can be good and be very forgettable, or she can be bad and be very popular. For a Democratic cohort looking at potentially four years in the wilderness, her brash nature is no defect, and the code switching isn’t just forgiven, it’s leaned into. In a party as hierarchical as the Democrats have been in recent years, it may be that she’s too young and too inexperienced to rise through the ranks. But if she does, it could be because she represents the most passionate portion of the base, who long in this moment for someone, anyone, to fight back.