(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . New Faces in Congress: Rep. Jasmine Crockett, the Shining Star of Dallas [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-08-27 New Faces in Congress is a diary series meant to highlight our new and diverse members of Congress in the Democratic Party. These 36 House freshmen range from political neophytes to seasoned legislative veterans. The series will run every Sunday morning, bright and early. Last week, the New Faces in Congress series continued with a profile on Rep. Morgan McGarvey from Kentucky’s 3rd district. If you missed it, feel free to click on this link to read all about him! This member of Congress was chosen for a leadership role amongst the new House members. That should have been a clear sign that a star was in the making. I went into 2023 not knowing much about this member of Congress, but now I am keeping tabs on her and I expect her to accomplish much during her tenure. How did she get into Congress? Longtime Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson decided to retire in 2022, leaving a dark blue Black majority district open. Next, there was the usual primary to navigate, along with a runoff (that’s how they roll down south). Our shining star easily navigated both obstacles, and that was tantamount to election in this VRA mandated seat in Dallas. Today, the spotlight is on Rep. Jasmine Crockett! Want to help the freshmen members of Congress like Jasmine Crockett? Please donate to the New Faces in Congress Fund on ActBlue! Rep. Jasmine Crockett (Texas-30) Donate | House Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube Biography Her biography on her campaign website and her official House website are very detailed. I would be violating fair use by taking all of the information about her from one source. I will start with her official House website. It details her time in the Texas Legislature and her career before becoming a politician. Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett has purposefully made every decision with one goal in mind: protecting the civil liberties of those in underrepresented communities. As a public defender, civil rights attorney, State Representative, and United States Congresswoman, Jasmine Crockett dedicates her life to public service, with the goal of serving justice and ensuring equality for all. In the midst of political turmoil, economic distress, and racial inequality, Congresswoman Crockett laced up her shoes to march for justice and run for the Texas House of Representatives. The sole Black freshman and youngest Black lawmaker in Texas during the 87th Legislative Session, Congresswoman Crockett navigated what has been marked as the most conservative session in Texas history. Despite the uphill climb, Congresswoman Crockett filed more bills than any other freshman, assembled a wide coalition to pass landmark criminal justice reforms in the House, and brought more accessibility and accountability to her office than before. She was a founding member of both the Texas Progressive Caucus as well as the Texas Caucus on Climate, Energy, and the Environment. As State Representative, she fought for economic opportunity as a member of the Business & Industry Committee, and advocated for reform on the Criminal Jurisprudence Committee. Congresswoman Crockett was one of the lead architects of the 2021 Texas House Quorum Break, which brought attention to the draconian and restrictive voting measures being proposed in the legislature. Her passion for justice and the protection of peoples’ rights led her to pursue a career as a public defender, and civil rights and criminal defense attorney. She focused on defending our most vulnerable among us from exploitation in the criminal justice system. As she began her career in the Bowie County Public Defender's Office, Congresswoman Crockett worked tirelessly to keep children safe and out of jail. Her time there serves as a reminder that criminal justice is an insurrectional issue. Rep. Jasmine Crockett bringing the receipts in an investigative hearing. In terms of her family and values, her campaign website has the goods. Of note is that she is a member of the Divine Nine. From the courtroom to the capitol, Jasmine has never lost sight of the people and has been a voice for thousands of Texans. Jasmine has represented over 5,000 Texans in court, including over 400 peaceful protestors whom she represented pro bono. She has served as a public defender before opening her own Civil Rights, Criminal Defense, and Personal Injury law firm. Jasmine's high-profile cases include representing the families of Jacqueline Craig, Jordan Edwards, and numerous Texans who have faced injustice and brutality. Jasmine is the former President of the Dallas Black Criminal Bar Association and holds numerous leadership positions in the legal community. After growing frustrated with fighting one injustice at a time, Jasmine knew it was time to change the system of laws that perpetuated inequality in our community-so she laced up her boots and stepped up to run for office. Jasmine was raised by her parents who instilled within her a commitment to serving the community. Her father is a teacher and preacher, and her mother has been a public servant her whole life as well working for the United State Postal Service. In college, Jasmine studied business and marketing, graduating from Rhodes College with a BA in Business Administration, but it wasn't until Jasmine witnessed discrimination on a large scale that she decided to change career paths and pursued law. She went on to study law at the Thurgood Marshall School of Law and the University of Houston Law Center. Jasmine has been a practicing attorney for over 15 years and is licensed to practice in Texas, Arkansas, and federal courts. Jasmine has served as a public defender and continued representing indigent clients in criminal courts her entire time serving in the Texas House. The shocking fact is that if it was not for her defeating an incumbent in a State House primary very narrowly, she would not be in Congress. Sometimes, those little elections mean a LOT. They are what build our bench — and we have no room for deadwood with the challenges facing us. In 2019, after Eric Johnson vacated his seat in the Texas House to serve as mayor of Dallas, a special election was held on November 5 for the remainder of his term, which Lorraine Birabil won. Crockett announced that she would challenge Birabil in the 2020 Democratic primary. She narrowly defeated Birabil in a primary runoff, advancing to the November 2020 general election, which she won unopposed. She assumed office in January 2021.[6][7] I’ve never seen a CSPAN interview have so many views. She expounds upon the experiences that led her to the halls of Congress. These are all of the ingredients of a star in the making! Notable Media Headlines Rep. Jasmine Crockett has been in the headlines ever since being elected. If I had been paying closer attention, I wouldn’t have needed five months to realize that she was the cream of the freshmen crop. The Grio identified her as a “rising star to watch” way back in February! Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, may be a politician but she’s not in office for political games. “I want to make an impact in my community,” says Crockett, who sits on the House Oversight Committee. “That is why I initially got into politics. I could care less for the actual political side of things, but I love people and I love doing everything that I can to make sure that people feel like they have a real and educated voice that will speak up for them.” Crockett, 41, left a career as a civil rights attorney and public defense attorney to run for the state legislature, then the U.S. House of Representatives after former Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, 87, decided not to seek another term. …. Crockett had worked to help protestors during the George Floyd demonstrations and Black Lives Matter movement and found even more inspiration for the work at hand. To any young person or political newbie who is considering a run for office, the congresswoman says there’s nothing to it but to get in the arena. “Just do it,” Crockett tells theGrio. “Young people have been saving this country for a very long time. Most people don’t realize that MLK [Martin Luther King] was younger than I am when he was assassinated. Just think about how much he did in his short time on this earth. If you feel like this is what you want to do and you’ve got pure intentions, then go out and do it.” She has been profiled in the Guardian for her work on voting rights — first in the Texas State House and now in the halls of Congress. She led the quorum busting tactic that killed the voter suppression bill and that got her notoriety even before reaching Congress. In July 2021, Jasmine Crockett entered the US Capitol for the first time. Then a state representative, Crockett was a lead architect of Texas Democrats’ unprecedented plans to board a flight and travel to Washington to break quorum in Texas and block Republicans from enacting the voting restrictions they were steamrolling in the state. Less than two years later, Crockett came back to the Capitol, this time to be sworn in to the House of Representatives – one of 22 women and 13 women of color in the class of 74 new freshmen. Back in her district in Dallas for the first time since officially becoming a member of Congress, Crockett has had to hit the ground running. “I’m running around like a chicken with my head cut off,” she told the Guardian in a phone interview. “Everybody wants to get their meetings in, and I’m like, ‘Guys, we have a full two years. And it’s not like we’re going to be that legislatively aggressive this season, so we’ve got time.’” Here is a more recent media appearance after the GOP tried to kill voting rights with their bill in the House. x "We can't look at this like as if it is a monolith. We can't look as if it is only happening in only one place, but we have to understand that it is multi-faceted and it is working through each of our state houses." @RepJasmine w/ @NicolleDWallace pic.twitter.com/RXmFbobMqk — Deadline White House (@DeadlineWH) July 12, 2023 She sits on the House Oversight Committee, which is a perfect perch in which to make notable speeches and trade barbs with her colleagues across the aisle. Two recent DailyKos diaries attest to that fact. First up, Denise Oliver Velez brought Rep. Jasmine Crockett to my belated attention through her diary covering her bringing receipts at the “George Santos” hearing to decide what to do about that embarrassment. x .@repjasmine: "Republican colleagues want to talk about keeping DC streets crime free. They can’t even keep the halls of Congress crime free...My freshman colleague has just been indicted on 13 counts…" pic.twitter.com/cqMiSqsm2L — CSPAN (@cspan) May 17, 2023 Aldous J Pennyfarthing took it from there, with Crockett yet again bringing the receipts on all of the phantom whistleblowers and fake documents provided in a desperate attempt by the GOP to smear POTUS Biden. Rep. Jasmine Crockett recently clapped back at Rep. Lauren Boebert when she railed against the ATF and regulations. Rep. Jasmine Crockett is an amazing media presence. She will continue to make headlines and to clap back at the weapons grade morons on the other side of the aisle. There is never a dull moment when she has the podium! Bills and Legislative Priorities Rep. Jasmine Crockett is used to being in the minority in the legislative bodies she has been elected to. She knows that without bipartisan support, her bills are unlikely to be voted on, let alone passed into law. Sometimes though, what you sign onto is all about sending a message about where you stand. Crockett is a proud member of the Congressional Black Caucus and the Congressional Progressive Caucus. That includes supporting items such as the Momnibus! x On the House Agricultural Committee, she has proposed reforms to the SNAP program that aim to make it more flexible for people on the program. This includes the SHOPP Act she helped introduce. x Another one of her pieces of legislation is the STRIP Act. That naughty sounding bill aims to decriminalize fentanyl test strips so that people can detect fentanyl laced items which are increasingly popping up. x She is also trying to restore the voting rights of people who have finished their sentence in prison. The Democracy Restoration Act is an important piece of legislation that will have to wait a while. x My Democracy Restoration Act would restore voting rights in federal elections to all released felons regardless of parole or probation status. Black & brown voters are getting the message that just casting a vote could land them in jail. I demand change.https://t.co/lXbDAaxwNh — Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett (@RepJasmine) August 15, 2023 She is prolific on social media, to the point where it is difficult to sift through all of the tweets and Facebook posts she writes. I could make this section extraordinarily long if I needed to. The good news is that she writes what she calls a “legislative lowdown” each week, which talks about bills she has co-sponsored or introduced. Here is an example from June… x ✅H.R. 3962 - Establishes a Federal Advisory Council to support victims of gun violence ✅H.R. 3970 - Improves Federal populations surveys by requiring collection of voluntary, self-disclosed information on orientation, gender identity, and variations in sex characteristics — Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett (@RepJasmine) June 16, 2023 Crockett was a NO on the Bipartisan Debt Ceiling Deal, saying that the consequences of the cuts were too severe to vote yes for her district. This is a similar position as Rep. Barbara Lee and Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove took. Undoubtedly, if their votes were actually needed, they would have flipped over to YES. x Naturally, Rep. Jasmine Crockett had some choice words about what the Extreme Court did to affirmative action, the LGBTQ+ community, and especially student loan debt. Here are her thoughts on each of them below. x x x Rep. Jasmine Crockett has 32.1k followers on Twitter, which is an amazing amount for a new legislator. It shows that she has already made an impact in the halls of Congress, through her media exposure and her work behind the scenes. Rep. Jasmine Crockett did not come to DC to play political games. She came for the reason ALL legislators should have the job — to help out constituents in need. This is why she always has the receipts and she has low tolerance for idiots on the other side of the aisle. At the same time though, she is capable of working across the aisle when there is a sign of intelligence present. Rep. Jasmine Crockett has been in the headlines ever since joining the state legislature in Texas, and that streak will likely continue. I’d actually argue that she isn’t featured prominently enough, and that in the coming years she should be a go to voice for both the media and her Democratic colleagues. But I expect misogynoir to hold her back. I am actually worried about how long she can last in the position. Crockett said herself that if this job changed her too much, she’d know that it was time to move on. Her remarks in some of the videos make me fear that she will burn out, just like a type O star. We need Rep. Jasmine Crockett to continue to be a star shining out of Dallas, TX for as long as possible! Next week, I am profiling Rep. Shri Thanedar of Michigan’s 13th district. See you then! Rep. Jasmine Crockett (Texas-30) Donate | House Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube Please help our Democratic freshmen in the 118th Congress raise more funds with the New Faces in Congress Fund. Until election day in 2024, we plan to regularly add new names to our list of recipients. Please share a link to this site on your social media! 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