A reporter who was unceremoniously ejected from Rep. Jasmine Crockett's campaign event for Texas Senate is speaking out in a piece for The Atlantic, describing her experience and what she believes it says about the campaign.
Crockett has sometimes been described as a rising star in the Democratic Party, for her ability to tear apart Republican witnesses in House committee hearings. Her main competition in the Senate primary is James Talarico, a Presbyterian minister and state representative who has been campaigning as a progressive unifier.
The reporter, Elaine Godfrey, has reportedly been on Crockett's bad side since writing a profile of her last year, in which she wrote a handful of unflattering personal details, including that Crockett used a headshot of herself as the lock screen on her phone.
When Godfrey showed up to a campaign event for Crockett's Senate run in Lubbock, she discovered the extent of those lingering ill feelings.
"As I attempted to join the other reporters interviewing the lawmaker, a woman with a badge approached me," wrote Godfrey. "'Are you Elaine?' she asked. I recognized her from the entrance of the event, where I had identified myself as she’d waved me into the building’s press area. Yes, I answered. 'Her team has asked you to leave,' she said. When I asked why, the staffer looked at her phone and read dutifully: 'They just said, ‘Elaine from Atlantic, white girl with a hat and notepad. She’s interviewing people in the crowd. She’s a top-notch hater and will spin. She needs to leave.’'"
Godfrey says she was promptly thrown out by armed guards, who "left me on the edge of a Texas-county road."
Crockett has denied that this took place, telling CBS News there is "no evidence" of any reporter being ejected from her events.
"Perhaps my — very real — ejection shouldn’t have come as a surprise," wrote Godfrey. "Crockett is not known for calm restraint. This, in fact, is core to her appeal. For the Democrats who are sick of their leaders wilting before President Trump like cut hydrangeas, Crockett is a refreshing exception."
"The two-term congresswoman has established herself as the most anti-MAGA candidate in the race and is unafraid to match the president’s vulgarity with insults of her own, such as when she referred to former Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene’s 'bleach-blond, bad-built, butch body' and called Governor Greg Abbott, who uses a wheelchair, 'Governor Hot Wheels,'" she continued. "Crockett’s supporters believe that her pugnacity makes her well suited for this coarse, high-stakes political moment."