Politics

Jasmine Crockett Ally Suggests She Hasn’t Run TV Ads Because System Is Racist

Screenshot/CSPAN

Democratic Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett’s Senate campaign is falling far behind in fundraising and spending, but one ally of the firebrand lawmaker says race limits her ability to rely on traditional campaigning methods.

Jen Ramos, a political commentator and member of the Texas State Democratic Executive Committee, suggested to NOTUS that Crockett is taking an “unconventional” approach to statewide campaigning because “traditional” methods such as large ad buys and hiring a campaign manager are “not designed” for her.

“Candidates of color cannot use these traditional methods because these traditional methods were not designed for them,” Ramos told the outlet.

The political advertising company AdImpact stated in a Monday X post that Crockett will start airing TV ads Tuesday and has made $112,000 in “linear TV ad reservations.”

Crockett’s reported push to the airwaves comes just days after her primary opponent, Democratic State Rep. James Talarico, spent more than $100,000 to air a 30-second Super Bowl ad Sunday focused on halting Congressional stock trading and raising taxes for billionaires. Crockett supporters have also rumored that ads attacking Talarico are on the way.

The most recent ad Crockett released on social media, which depicted Trump as an anime-like figure, has been scrutinized on social media for using artificial intelligence (AI) to create a final shot depicting hundreds of Texas voters standing behind her. The ad also does not detail Crockett’s policies or plans, but describes the left-wing congresswoman as “a champion” for Texans who “drives the president crazy.”

Talarico has pushed for legislation to regulate AI-generated political advertisements.

The state senator has spent $6.6 million so far on advertising across broadcast, cable, digital and streaming platforms, outspending Crockett 19-to-1, according to AdImpact. Talarico has also released ads in Spanish and launched a campaign channel dedicated solely to Spanish-language content. Crockett meanwhile has spent $260,000 on advertising, NOTUS reported.

Crockett’s campaign waited nearly two months after her entry into the race to add an “issues” section to her campaign website. Under the mental health section, one bullet point had included the since-removed words, “Write out your bullet points here. Anything from a sentence to a paragraph works,” according to screenshots multiple users posted to X.

On the page, Crockett had also detailed her “common sense gun reform” achievements with information regarding bills on Social Security reform she co-sponsored. One X user who appeared to be a site administrator claimed the mislabeling issues were due to the fact that, “Every website has issues when it launches.”

While recent polling by the University of Houston puts Crockett ahead by eight points, an Emerson College survey from January showed Talarico up by nine points. Absentee voting is already underway in the closely-watched race and in-person early voting is set to kick off on Feb. 17.

Crockett and Talarico’s campaigns did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.