Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, claimed Republicans rigged the Democratic Senate primary Tuesday night against her.
Crockett said voting confusion in Dallas County worked against her — and when the votes were counted, her opponent had won regardless.
State Rep. James Talarico defeated Crockett comfortably in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate, capturing roughly 53% of the vote to Crockett’s 46%, according to the Texas Secretary of State’s office. The Associated Press called the race in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
The chaos in Dallas County stemmed from a prior decision to scrap the county’s countywide voting system — which allowed voters to cast ballots at any location in the county — in favor of precinct-specific polling places. Under Texas law, party leaders can object to holding joint primaries, and a GOP switch forced Democrats to follow suit.
Dallas County Republican Party Chairman Allen West had cited concerns about election integrity and crossover voting as justification for the change.
Crockett claimed it rigged the vote against her.
Dallas County had stationed nonpartisan “election navigators” outside at least 75 voting sites to help redirect confused voters, and the county’s elections department had sent text messages, mailed notices, and run ads warning voters of the change ahead of the primary.
West pushed back on accusations of election rigging.
“That’s on them,” he said Tuesday. “You didn’t see us asking for an injunction. We did a good job of explaining the process to our voters.”
A Dallas County judge granted the county Democratic Party’s request to extend polling hours until 9 p.m., but Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton petitioned the state’s Supreme Court to intervene. The Texas Supreme Court blocked the lower court order and directed that any votes cast by voters not in line by 7 p.m. be separated from the rest of the count until a final ruling on their eligibility could be made.
Earlier, Crockett’s campaign issued a statement that claimed the election integrity changes were an effort to rig the vote against her.
“The Dallas County Republicans and Williamson County GOP chose to implement precinct-specific voting locations for election day,” the statement read. “This effort to suppress the vote, to confuse and inconvenience voters is having its intended effect as people are being turned away from the polls. We are monitoring the situation and working with our local county party to explore all solutions, including an extension of Election Day voting hours.”
“I can tell you now that people have been disenfranchised,” Crockett also told supporters Tuesday evening. “In my opinion, we will not know the election results overall tonight.”
However, Republicans made no secret of their preference to face Crockett in the November general election. Sen. John Cornyn called her decision to run a “gift” and described Talarico’s potential nomination as “dangerous.”
Talarico will now face the winner of the Republican Senate runoff between Cornyn and Paxton, set for May 26.