James Carville Says Jasmine Crockett Is Violating The 'First Rule Of Politics'

“First of all, it seems like she’s well-educated. It seems like she’s — got a lot of energy. But she, to me, she violates the first rule of politics and that is in politics, you always make it about the voters and never about yourself,” said Carville, in remarks on his “Politics War Room” podcast with Al Hunt.

On Monday, Crockett announced her bid to unseat Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) in next year’s election, a move that took place just hours after Rep. Colin Allred (D-Texas) dropped out of the race to run in a newly drawn House district.

Crockett has stressed that internal campaign polling showed she could win, a message she reportedly shared over the phone last week with Allred and Texas state Rep. James Talarico (D), the latter of whom remains in the race.

Crockett’s campaign has yet to share the polling results as of Friday evening. Public polling on the congresswoman has varied, with one poll indicating that 40% of Texas voters held an unfavorable view of her and another showing her leading Talarico among voters in March’s Democratic primary.

Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) speaks during a rally featuring California Governor Gavin Newsom in Houston on Saturday, Nov. 8, 2025.

Houston Chronicle/Hearst Newspapers via Getty Images

As Crockett looks to end Republicans’ 30-plus-year streak of winning statewide elections in Texas, Carville said he’d like the congresswoman a lot more if she helped Democrats campaign in districts where Republicans have a slim advantage.

“You can stay in Congress as long as you want, you can get all the hits, you can get all the clicks, you can get on all of the TV shows. You can get in as long as you’re polemic, but you’re not helping very much,” he said.

He stressed that the Democratic Party knows “what wins elections.”

“What wins elections is not sitting there talking incessantly about yourself,” Carville said.

“Winning elections is not about how many clicks you get or how much overnight fundraising you do. Winning elections is being part of framing issues and understanding where people come from and I don’t think Congresswoman Crockett is very good at that, I’ll be very frank.”