2024-08-21 03:45:01
Shortly after she arrived in Congress last year, freshman Rep. Jasmine Crockett was feeling overwhelmed, unsure if she had made the right decision to come to Washington as the GOP-led House struggled to elect a new speaker and her Oversight Committee had become, her word, “unhinged.”
During a visit with Vice President Kamala Harris at her residence at the Naval Observatory, the vice president immediately picked up on Crockett’s apprehension.
“What’s wrong?” Harris asked, causing the Texas Democrat to burst into tears.
“And the most powerful woman in the world wiped my tears and listened,” Crockett told a packed arena at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Monday night, choking up as she recalled her first meeting with Harris. “It’s so hard for me to tell this story. She then said, among other things: ‘You are exactly where God wants you. Your district chose you, because they believe in you, and so do I.’”
In her emotional and energetic speech to the party faithful at Chicago’s United Center, Crockett not only humanized the vice president and presumptive presidential nominee. The relatively unknown, 43-year-old former civil-rights attorney, public defender and state lawmaker also introduced herself to the Democratic Party and the nation in a raw, authentic way that deviated from many other scripted speeches on the same stage.
“What I love about Kamala Harris goes beyond her resume. It’s that she sees the humanity in everyone. She’s the only candidate in this race who was capable of empathy,” Crockett said.
Those who watched her speech in the arena said Crockett, whose Dallas-based congressional district is the most liberal in the Lone Star State, proved effective in painting a contrast between the two candidates.
“Let’s compare their resumes, shall we? One candidate worked at McDonald’s while she was in college at an HBCU. The other was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, and helped his daddy and the family business: housing discrimination, that is,” Crockett told the crowd. “She became a career prosecutor while he became a career criminal — with 34 felonies, two impeachments and one porn star to prove it.
“She’s lived the American dream, while he’s been America’s nightmare,” she continued. “America, looking at the two choices before you, who would you hire, Donald Trump or Kamala Harris?”
Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Fla., who serves in the Congressional Black Caucus with Crockett and watched the speech from a suite in the United Center, called the first-term congresswoman “phenomenal” and praised her ability to communicate a clear, concise message to an American audience that may have just started tuning into the election.
“Her comparison between the two candidates was epic and right on target,” Wilson, a 13-year veteran of the House said in an interview Tuesday. “She delivered a message that people at home who are busy and otherwise occupied needed to hear.”
While many Democrats may not have heard of Crockett until Monday night’s speech, the St. Louis native has been on the radar of her House colleagues. After winning the race to succeed retiring Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson in 2022, Crockett was elected by her peers to be the freshman class liaison to Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and the Democratic leadership team, giving her a seat at the leadership table. And she’s quickly impressed colleagues on the Oversight and Accountability Committee on which she serves.
“She’s incredibly dynamic and effective on the Oversight committee, and always does her homework,” said Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., who serves with Crockett on the Oversight panel and the Congressional Progressive Caucus and is a member of the Harris campaign’s national advisory board.
But Crockett also proved this year she won’t back down from a fight.
When far-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., mocked Crockett’s “fake eyelashes” during an Oversight hearing and Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., ruled the attack did not violate House rules, the Texas Democrat inquired if commenting on a member’s “bleach blond, bad-built butch body” would constitute breaking the rules.
Her words would go viral on TikTok and other social media platforms.
Wilson, herself known for her bright, sequin hats and blazers, described Crockett as “fashionable” (she wore oversized, sparkly heart-shaped earrings, a matching brooch and a sharp black and white suit), an accomplished attorney and public defender, and a “little fighter” who won a competitive race for Congress with a key endorsement from her predecessor, Johnson, who died on Dec. 31.
“I have been praising her and uplifting her since she arrived,” Wilson, a close friend of Johnson, said of Crockett.
Wilson said two young progressive women in Congress — Crockett and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. — wowed the crowd on the first night of the DNC. And she texted both of them to let them know after their speeches.
“I am so proud of these young women and their oratory skills. They bring me to tears,” Wilson said. “When VP Harris becomes president, she will leave an opening in the glass ceiling large enough for all of them to sail through.”
