Jim Geraghty writes for National Review Online about the impact of one Democratic politician’s election loss this week.
I think I was in a cable news network green room with Texas Democratic Representative Jasmine Crockett once, before she became as high-profile as she is today. As I remember, she was nice. But that was before the representative became Jasmine Crockett, the brand.
The Democratic Celebrity-Industrial Complex did not push Crockett quite as much as it pushed Beto O’Rourke or Stacey Abrams. But the Dallas-area representative got her share of enthusiastic profiles — Ms. Magazine asking her about “politics, patriarchy, profits and the presidency.” She became a regular guest on MSNBC, now called MSNOW. Jimmy Kimmel loved having her on his program. …
… In a normal political environment and healthier culture, the May 2024 House Oversight Committee meeting that devolved into juvenile name-calling would be remembered as an embarrassment for all involved; former Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene sneered at Crockett, “I think your fake eyelashes are messing up what you’re reading,” and Crockett shot back, referring to Greene’s “bleach blond, bad-built butch body.”
Instead, Crockett’s pastor called her to tell her that her remarks had gone viral. Crockett trademarked the phrase and started selling merchandise. In the following weeks, Crockett “joined President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on Air Force One to launch the campaign’s Black voter outreach effort.” She gave a keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention and was a national co-chair of Kamala Harris’s campaign. …
… Crockett will serve out the remainder of her term. She’ll probably become an MSNOW commentator next year. She could run again in her newly redrawn district, which scores a D+19 in the Cook Partisan Voting Index, in 2028 if she chooses. But the prospects for an ambitious Texas Democrat are comparable to an ambitious New York or California Republican. Any bid for statewide office begins as the longest of long shots.
And one wonders if Crockett’s boundary-breaking, four-letter-word-dropping identity only works to the degree it does when lots of Democrats believe the country is being governed by the devil himself.
