Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett is drawing attention online with a fresh set of fiery remarks about why most Black people don’t side with the Republican Party.
The Texas House Democrat was part of a panel discussion at Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival, where she delivered her viewpoint on where many Black Americans stand when it comes to the GOP.
“I talk to Black folk all the time as somebody that’s a child of a preacher. Listen, most Black people are not Republicans simply because we just is like, ‘Y’all racist. I can’t hang out with the KKK and them.’ That’s really what it is,” Crockett said.
She continued: “But when we think about who we are as Black people, and we think about where we come from, most Black people have very conservative values, right? But the reality is that like, we just can’t side with like the neo-Nazis and them. We like, ‘We not-, we not dealing with y’all like that, right?’”
Crockett’s remarks were part of a larger discussion about rousing the Democratic Party to take bolder action in Congress to pass more legislation and advance its agenda.
The Texas representative has earned notoriety nationwide in recent years as one of the most vocal critics of President Donald Trump and his supporters in Congress.
But on several occasions, her remarks have often landed her in hot water, especially with MAGA voters.
In this case, much of the backlash she’s drawing online is linked to how she affiliated the Grand Old Party with the KKK.
“The democrats were the KKK. She’s such a liar,” one X user wrote.
“Let’s get the facts straight: The Ku Klux Klan was founded and run by Democrats during the Reconstruction era, not Republicans,” another person added. “Crockett’s claim that Black people avoid the Republican Party because of perceived ties to the KKK is not just misleading—it’s a deliberate distortion of history. The realignment during the Civil Rights Movement saw many segregationist Democrats switch to the Republican Party, a fact she conveniently ignores.”
While many critics tried to teach Crockett an incomplete history lesson, some flung insults at the congresswoman and accused her of reverse racism.
“How embarrassing that she speaks in that ghetto Ebonics trash. She is trash,” one critic wrote on X. “She’s racist. She’s a hater,” another wrote.
After the Civil War, Confederate veterans founded the KKK, and for decades — well into the 19th and 20th centuries — most members were tied to the Southern Democrats, a party that, at the time, championed segregation and enforced Jim Crow laws.
Things started shifting in the 1960s, when Democrats began pushing for civil rights legislation. That move drove away many Southern white conservatives, including KKK sympathizers. Sensing an opportunity, Republicans launched what became known as the “Southern Strategy,” aiming to win over these voters by leaning into conservative positions and, often in subtle ways, signaling support for segregation and limiting Black political power.
This political shift can also be seen in figures like David Duke, a former KKK grand wizard who ran for office as a Republican in the ’80s and ’90s, and later endorsed Donald Trump in 2016. Studies of voting patterns have also found that counties with active Klan chapters saw an uptick in Republican support. While the KKK doesn’t officially align itself with any political party, there’s evidence pointing to a change in where its sympathizers lean politically.
Watch the complete panel discussion below. Crockett’s remarks begin at 37:40:
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