While The Atlantic was drafting a recent article on Rep. Jasmine Crockett, the South Dallas Democrat unsuccessfully proclaimed she was “shutting down the profile.”

But Sholdon Daniels plans on shutting down Crockett – for good.

Daniels, a lifelong north Texan, is a Republican challenging Crockett to represent District 30 in 2026.

“She’s running from a debate,” Daniels told The Dallas Express. “The article that just came out from The Atlantic … It’s a lot of insight on the type of person that she is, and how fragile her ego is.”

The congresswoman frequently takes the spotlight – at one point deriding Gov. Greg Abbott’s disability, calling him “governor hot wheels.” She has become a “fundraising juggernaut,” according to the Houston Chronicle, raising $3.8 million in the last six months.

“Kamala bankrupted the Democrats, and they needed someone to go out there and be a firebrand and try to keep the dollars coming in. Jasmine Crockett signed up for that happily,” Daniels said. “We don’t get a representative, but the Democrats get a nice puppet to raise money.”

The Dallas Express reached out to Crockett’s office repeatedly for a profile, but received no response.

North Texas Roots

Daniels currently resides in Dallas, but he was raised in Sherman by his teenage single mother.

“She taught me about grit, and grace, and manners, and being a gentleman, and not allowing your environment to determine who you are,” Daniels said. “We didn’t have a lot. We had faith.”

As the eldest sibling, Daniels said he always felt a responsibility to look out for others. He eventually served in the Army as a communications specialist.

Daniels would return to Dallas, where he attended the University of Texas. He then went to law school at Texas Southern University in Houston.

Today, he is a criminal defense attorney in his own law firm. Daniels said he and his wife also own a small vending machine business, which they started with their children to “teach them business.”

“I’m a very involved father. I try to tuck my kids in every night, no matter what,” he said.

Daniels said he does not pretend to be a “prim, proper, very polished politician.”

“I’m still a very human and real person,” Daniels said. “I have made mistakes as a young man, like a lot of people do, but I’ve taken ownership of my mistakes.”

Daniels said he lives the “same life” as the people he wants to represent in Congress.

“I understand the real-life struggles that they have, as opposed to our current representative,” he explained.

Crockett was born and raised near St. Louis, Missouri, where she graduated from the Mary Institute and Saint Louis Country Day School in 1999, with a current high school tuition of more than $34,000 per school year.

She later came to Texas for law school, where she briefly attended the same institution as Daniels before transferring to the University of Houston Law Center.

“I am a native son of North Texas – not just Texas, but this area,” Daniels said. “My children, this is home for them, so they’re not country kids like me.”

Making Communities Like ‘The Jetsons’

If elected, Daniels said he wants the United States to lead the world again.

“We actually were the leaders in the world,” he said. “I want TX-30 to be the blueprint for what happens when you elect someone who’s a regular person that cares about the community, but who is laser focused on building – and not just talking, and not just furthering their own brand.”

He said he wants to see American communities become like “The Jetsons.”

“I want smarter infrastructure, I want real vocational training,” Daniels said. “In TX-30, a lot of the businesses are ‘mom and pop,’ very small locally-owned companies. So I want to fight for them.”

Daniels also said he wants to eliminate the “qualified investor rule,” which places barriers on certain hedge funds, making them off-limits to most investors.

“I just don’t think it’s fair to saddle an entire generation of young people who are just ready to go,” Daniels said. “We have the skills, we’re willing to risk it for our future. But we’re hamstrung by these rules that tell us we’re not rich enough to make money.”

The Strategy

Crockett swept the 2022 election for District 30 with nearly 75% of the votes, according to Ballotpedia.

But Daniels has a strategy. Despite the odds, he is predicting a win.

“We’re going to win. We’ve got a plan,” he said. “If the people come out and vote, and vote values, we win in a landslide. That’s why Jasmine is flopping and flailing all around.”

Since Ltc. Allen West – a former congressman and Texas GOP chairman – is now leading the Dallas County Republican Party, the conservative movement in South Dallas is gaining steam.

“He’s kind of like the X factor. It’s like having a LeBron James on your team,” Daniels said. “He’s mounted a massive effort to have a presence in TX-30, and in the southern sector of Dallas County.”

He said before, the district was “all but neglected,” with precinct chairs few and far between. Daniels added that he has been laying the groundwork – working with data, finding strategic precincts, fundraising, and recruiting precinct chairs.

“That’s one of the challenges… is just having to lay that foundational infrastructure,” Daniels said. “Once we get it down, it’s great because now it doesn’t just help me, but it helps future candidates.”

Daniels said “local bigwigs and career politicians” have been backing Crockett, and one of her most reliable voting blocs is black women older than 50.

“Just because [Crockett] is a Democrat – like that drug-addicted relative that we love – even when they’re messing up, we’re not going to pick anybody over them,” Daniels said. “It’s a tough demographic to try and crack. They are emotionally and traditionally tied to the Democrat Party.”

However, Daniels explained that this demographic’s husbands – black men older than 50 – are more conservative.

“Those guys are more pragmatic, more free thinking, and I think they don’t buy the lies about Donald Trump,” Daniels said. “If you’ve had to get it out the mud, so to speak – to eke a living out – you understand that Donald Trump is not a racist, and you understand that Donald Trump is just a hard-working American that’s been villainized by the media.”

Texas’ recent redistricting has thrown a curve in Daniels’ planning, he said.

“I want to be sure that they’re roping in conservatives, and not just basically handing it over to the Democrats,” he said.

Daniels does not expect Crockett to debate him before the election, adding, “She wouldn’t be able to hold her own.”

“I can really connect with people,” Daniels said. “Jasmine can raise $100 billion, but it’s not going to beat me meeting them and showing them that I care in person, and having a real relationship.”