Accusations fly as 30th District Democratic primary heats up
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - The Democratic primary runoff for the 30th Congressional District grew even more contentious on May 19 amid accusations of lies and distortions between the candidates and their supporters.
The bitter race between Jasmine Crockett, a State Representative of Dallas, and Jane Hope Hamilton, a longtime Democratic political consultant, led the retiring veteran Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson to speak out at a news conference.
Johnson and Pastor Freddy Haynes previously endorsed Crockett and accused Hamilton and her campaign of lying to voters about the state representative's record.
Standing in the African-American Museum of Dallas, Congresswoman Johnson said, "I do not dislike people but what I don't like is falsehoods and deception. We've not had a campaign that had this much deception and lies in District 30 since its inception."
Haynes said, "We're simply saying, c'mon, let's get real. Number one tell the truth."
Hamilton held a news conference of her own Thursday to respond to the accusations. "That's absolutely false."
She's backed by State Senator Royce West of Dallas, Congressman Marc Veasey of Fort Worth, and Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price.
"There's been a lot of deception in this campaign and Jasmine Crockett really needs to stick with the facts and be honest with the voters."
Crockett's supporters said Hamilton has wrongly blamed Crockett for the Republican majority's ability to pass a new elections integrity law in the Texas Legislature last August.
Crockett was among the Democrats who didn't return to the Texas Capitol during the vote, and Hamilton said that kept her from negotiating improvements in the bill as other Democrats did.
"That is huge and we needed that. We needed people to stand there and have our back. She was absent."
We caught up with Crockett Thursday afternoon, who blamed other state Democratic lawmakers for returning to the Capitol.
"If anyone helped the Republicans do what is happening right now specifically in my district, it's those of them that went back and actually voted because if they weren't there, there wasn't a vote to take."
Hamilton has also criticized Crockett for welcoming about $2.5 million in funding by a two super PACs from the cyrptocurrency industry.
But Congresswoman Johnson said the groups are above board and that any candidate would have pleased to receive the support.
There are no polls in this race, but Crockett nearly won out-right during the March 1 primary.
Because far fewer people vote in the primary runoffs, political analysts say it's crucial for both candidates to get their supporters to the polls for the election.
Early voting ends Friday evening and Election Day is Tuesday.
