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Mar 03, 2026

Crockett Faces Backlash After ‘Slave Mentality’ Comment About Latinos

Jasmine Crockett Defends Past Remarks About Latino Voters as Senate Bid Draws Scrutiny

Texas Democratic Rep. Jasmine Crockett is facing renewed criticism over previous comments about Latino voters after announcing her plan to challenge Republican Sen. John Cornyn for a U.S. Senate seat.

During a recent interview on CNN, host Jake Tapper pressed Crockett about remarks she made in a 2023 interview with Vanity Fair. In that interview, Crockett suggested that some Latino voters who supported former President Donald Trump demonstrated what she described as a “slave mentality.”

Tapper referenced the large number of Latino voters in Texas who supported Trump during the 2024 election cycle, asking Crockett whether her comment applied to all of them.

“At the time that article came out, roughly one million Latino voters in Texas had supported Trump,” Tapper said. “Do they all have a slave mentality?”

Crockett pushed back on the interpretation, saying her statement was not meant to apply broadly to all Latino voters.

“No, that’s not what I said,” Crockett responded. “It certainly did not mean that every Latino voter has that mentality.”

Tapper followed up by asking whether her criticism was aimed at Latino voters who supported Trump’s immigration policies.

Crockett replied that she believes many voters did not fully understand the policies they were supporting.

“I don’t believe the people who voted for Trump truly understood what they were going to get,” she said. “Trump said he was going to remove the ‘bad guys,’ and that was the context I was referring to.”

Trump’s immigration platform included deporting serious criminal offenders living in the United States illegally, but it also emphasized broader plans for large-scale deportations. The stance gained significant support among Hispanic voters, particularly in parts of Texas.

Crockett said her perspective came from time spent campaigning along the southern border during previous election cycles.

“I’ve been to the border and campaigned in South Texas,” she explained. “When I worked as a surrogate for Beto O’Rourke during his campaign for governor, I spoke with many voters there.”

According to Crockett, some residents told her they supported stricter immigration policies because they had immigrated legally and believed others were bypassing the process.

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