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Without a clear party leader after losing up and down the ballot in 2024, progressive Democrats head into next year’s highly contested Senate race and exposing deep ideological divisions that some strategists warn could alienate swing voters ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
Republicans celebrated the decision of Progressive Rep. Jasmine Crockett to launch a Senate campaign in Texas. While President Donald Trump dismissed her as “low IQ,” Crockett built a national audience, amassing millions of social media followers and name recognition to rapidly reshape the race.
“The Democratic Party is in trouble everywhere across the country – and nowhere is it more evident than in Texas,” National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman Sen. Tim Scott, RS.C., told Fox News Digital. “Jasmine entering this race is good news.”
For Republicans, Crockett’s rise supports their argument that Democrats have strayed too far to compete in red and purple states. His campaign did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
JAMES CARVILLE CONTINUED CROCKETT FOR BREAKING THE ‘FIRST LAW OF POLITICS’ THAT LOOKED AT HIMSELF OVER THE VOTERS.
Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, a member of the House Judiciary Committee, arrives on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, Wednesday, December 17, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who is defending his seat, agreed, telling Fox News Digital, “He can’t win, so I’m very glad he decided to run.”
THE CONTINUING POWER CONCLUSIONS PRESENT A MAJOR BATTLE WITH THE DEMOCRATIC ESTABLISHMENT AHEAD OF THE 2026 ELECTIONS.
And while Republicans are breathing a sigh of relief, since Texas could be a chance to get the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee in 2026, some moderate Democrats aren’t convinced that a candidate like Crockett will benefit the party in the long run.
Liam Kerr, a Democratic strategist and founder of the centrist group Welcome, published an October report titled, “Determining Victory,” warning that Democrats risk alienating voters by adopting far-left positions.
“Any Democrat who knows how to do math should be worried,” Kerr told Fox News Digital, arguing that “it’s not just about losing this race.”
“It hurts the name of the party in general, it hurts the people who will be voted down, and it loses the muscles that you build focusing on persuading voters,” he said.
Crockett has gone viral for his public misbehavior, from calling Gov. Greg Abbott, “Governor Hot Wheels,” to refer to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene as “a bush made of red and white,” during a House Oversight Committee hearing.
President Donald Trump appears during a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, DC, Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025. (Yuri Gripas/CNP/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“If you say clearly that we don’t need Trump voters to win, you’re not only denying a lot of people, you’re blocking the opportunity for voters to consider Democrats in other races and in the future,” Kerr said.
Kerr added that “the moderates must not be sidelined with the same force that the left is bringing to these battles.”
“Republicans have created a clear framework for voters to view Democrats as elitist, out of touch, and extreme,” Kerr explained. “Every time a high-ranking Democrat says something offensive or extreme, it just adds credibility to that, and it’s like the voter is sitting in a jury, where the Republicans have a strong prosecutor and the Democrats have terrible witnesses, and you keep giving more evidence that you’re guilty of bigotry.“
And Republicans who spoke to Fox News Digital this week appeared to be following that same playbook.
“Across the country, what we’re seeing is that Jasmine is replicated, replicated across the country,” Scott said. “Socialism is rampant in the Democratic Party. It is a sad day all over the country for those who believe that the Democratic Party will come back. They are not coming back. We will win, keep the majority, and expand the majority all over the map.”
However, the Democratic Party says it is still “guilty” following gubernatorial victories in Virginia and New Jersey this year and after losing the red state of Tennessee by nine points in a December special election.
But Scott, the Republican leading efforts to retain the Senate majority, said the buck doesn’t stop at Crockett.
“Democrats, you look at who’s in their primaries – the Cocoa Puffs cuckoo,” Scott said. “Michigan, devastating showdown. Three Democrats fought tooth and nail to defeat Mike Rogers.”
Michigan’s Democratic Senate candidates include rising star state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, Sen. Bernie Sanders with Dr. Abdul El-Sayed and Rep. Haley Stevens, who recently filed impeachment documents against Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Cornyn said the progressive candidates running in these Senate Democratic primaries prove that “the Democratic Party is a prisoner of the left,” pointing to the successful campaign of New York City Socialist Zohran Mamdani.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y. speaks to reporters during a news conference on Capitol Hill. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
“Even people like Chuck Schumer have been hijacked by the Bernie Sanders wing and the AOC of the Democratic Party,” Cornyn said, referring to progressive star Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, DN.Y.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, DNY, did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment on the implication that he is losing control to Senate Democrats.
Cornyn, who has chaired the NRSC for two terms, said that parties, like the DSCC, are losing their power as candidates can gain national recognition and build their own coalition without the support of organized political parties.
“Organized political parties have lost power because of the advent of Super PACs and all these different ways people, without the support of a political party, are able to win competitive primaries, and those few who vote in primaries and very aggressive activists, elect people in the end, and I hope, they will not be elected,” said Cornyn.
And Kerr told Fox News Digital that the DSCC “has a strong history, but the political industry is moving away from being control groups.”
JASMINE CROCKETT USES TRUMP’S ‘LOW IQ’ CHARACTERS TO INTRODUCE HER TEXAS SENATE CAMPAIGN IN FIRST AD
“The official party has less and less power with each passing year. And candidates who can raise money and communicate directly with hard-line Democrats gain more power compared to the party,” said Kerr, arguing that the “ability of the DSCC” to limit or stop these candidates decreases over time.“
When reached for comment, the DSCC dismissed criticism that the Senate Democrats’ campaign arm was out of control.
“The DSCC has one goal: to win a Democratic Senate majority,” DSCC spokeswoman Maeve Coyle told Fox News Digital. “We’ve created a way to do that by recruiting strong people and expanding the map, building a strong national election infrastructure, and taking out Republican opponents — those are the strategies that have led Senate Democrats to do so well in four election cycles, and that’s how we’re going to flip the majority in 2026.”
Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, speaks to reporters after announcing her run in the US Senate Democratic primary on Dec. 8, 2025, Dallas, Texas. (AP Photo/LM Otero)
While Republicans are holding Democratic primaries and accusing candidates of managing the party, Democratic analyst Kaivan Shroff, a former student of Hillary Clinton’s campaign, told Fox News Digital that primaries can be a really good thing, and “as a rising star who deserves a party whose seat is closed again,” Crockett deserves a chance to run.
But Shroff cautioned that “it cannot be a vicious, divisive base where everything you don’t like about the other candidate is a conspiracy or everything is accused of being invented.”
A Democratic analyst applauded Texas state Rep. James Talarico for quickly reaffirming his commitment to treating Crockett with “great respect” in the primary.
““I think there’s a good case that win or lose, that Crockett is in the race,” Shroff said, especially if the two candidates could debate their policy differences instead of just chewing Trump out.
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Although traditional party structures seem less influential as candidates can build a name for themselves and an alliance, Shroff said the party lacks a clear leadership to steer candidates through such ideological intersections.
“We saw Nancy Pelosi as a really unique expert in that, and the way she managed the Squad when they first arrived, the AOC and that evolution was unique. I don’t know that we have a leader in the group who can show that kind of leadership at this time,” said Shroff.
