Former Vice President Kamala Harris has endorsed Representative Jasmine Crockett of Texas in the state’s Democratic primary race for Senate, her most significant endorsement since leaving office 13 months ago.
Ms. Crockett is locked in the final days of a close contest with James Talarico, a state representative who has built a substantial following on social media. Ms. Crockett, a second-term congresswoman, has crafted her image as a bare-knuckled partisan fighter in an era in which Democratic voters have been drawn to candidates who vocally oppose President Trump.
The endorsement from Ms. Harris came in a recorded phone message being sent to Texas Democrats.
“Texas has the chance to send a fighter like Jasmine Crockett to the United States Senate,” Ms. Harris says. “Jasmine has the experience and record to hold Donald Trump and his billionaire cronies accountable.”
Ms. Harris urged recipients of the call to vote early or on Primary Day on Tuesday.
News of the endorsement was earlier reported by The Texas Tribune.
Though many Democratic officials have grown more skeptical of Ms. Harris since she lost the 2024 election to Mr. Trump, she has retained a strong political bond with Black voters, who also make up the core of Ms. Crockett’s base in Texas. Both women are Black.
Ms. Crockett and Ms. Harris have long been political allies. Ms. Crockett was a national co-chairwoman for Ms. Harris’s presidential campaign in 2024 and spoke at the party’s national convention that nominated the vice president.
The Democratic primary contest in Texas has boiled down to two theories of how the party could win a Senate race in the state for the first time since 1988. Ms. Crockett’s argument is that she would attract legions of Black voters and other Democrats who have skipped past general elections.
Ms. Harris, in the call, alluded to the long Democratic slump in Texas. “It’s time to turn Texas blue,” she said.
Mr. Talarico, a white Presbyterian minister, has made the case for expanding the party’s coalition beyond its traditional base in an attempt to attract independent and Republican voters repelled by Mr. Trump and his acolytes without appearing wedded to left-wing social positions that have hurt Democratic candidates like Ms. Harris.
The winner of Tuesday’s primary will face one of three Texas Republicans vying for their party’s nomination: Senator John Cornyn; Ken Paxton, the state attorney general; and Representative Wesley Hunt. The G.O.P. contest will go to a runoff election in late May if no candidate wins at least 50 percent of the primary vote on Tuesday.
Reid J. Epstein is a Times reporter covering campaigns and elections from Washington.
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