Jasmine Felicia Crockett, elected to the United States House of Representatives on November 8, 2022, was born on March 29, 1981, in St. Louis, Missouri. Growing up in the city, she attended Mary Institute, St. Louis County Day School, and Rosati-Kain, an all-girls Catholic School in St. Louis. Crockett later attended Rhodes College, a private liberal arts school in Memphis, Tennessee. While there, she and several other Black Rhodes students were victims of a hate crime which led her to pursue a career in social justice. She graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Business and continued her education at the University of Houston Law Center, where she earned a Juris Doctor degree, allowing her to practice law.
After graduation, Crockett initially worked as a civil rights attorney in Texas. She later worked as a public defender in Bowie County, Texas before establishing Crockett Law Firm, PLLC. The firm took on several pro bono cases of Black Lives Matter advocates.
In 2020 Crockett turned her attention to politics and announced she would challenge the incumbent Democrat representing the 100th District in the Texas Legislature. She narrowly won the primary election but easily defeated her Republican challenger in the 2020 general election. Crockett served one term in the Texas Legislature, where she was one of 56 Democratic lawmakers who left the state in an effort to block the passage of restrictive voting legislation.
In 2022 the incumbent Congressional Representative for the 30th Congressional District of Texas, Eddie Bernice Johnson, announced she would not seek reelection. A few days later, Crockett, with the endorsement of Representative Johnson, announced her candidacy to represent the 30th, a district that encompasses the heart of the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan complex. It covers large parts of Dallas and Tarrant Counties and, as such, is one of the most ethnically and racially diverse congressional districts in Texas and the country.
Crockett won the Democratic Party nomination in the state’s primary run-off and then the General Election, garnering nearly 75% of the votes. She assumed office on January 3, 2023. Crockett’s other first-term colleagues recently chose her as the representative between the House Democratic leadership and the newly elected Democratic members of the United States House of Representatives. She is also a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, the Congressional Equality Caucus and the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
During her 2022 Congressional campaign, Crockett promised to “expand access to healthcare, voting rights, economic opportunity, and dignity for all.” She hopes to also expand social safety net programs and protect civil liberties and immigrant rights. One issue that may haunt her in the future, however, is the estimated $2.5 million in campaign donations she received from controversial crypto-currency SuperPACs including $1 million from Sam Bankman-Fried’s Protect Our Future PAC.
In 2024 Crockett voted to provide Israel with support following the 2023 Hamas attack on Israel. She subsequently joined most Democrats who voted in April 2024 for three military aid packages for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. She gained national attention on May 24, 2024 following a dispute with Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene when the two traded insults about each other’s person appearance.
Crockett, who is single, is an active member of the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority.
