Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett shook up the 2026 midterms by entering into the race for U.S. Senate on Monday. Now, her religious mentor wants to follow her into politics.
On Monday morning, Dallas pastor Frederick Haynes III of Friendship-West Baptist Church filed paperwork to run for Dallas’ 30th Congressional District, the seat Crockett is vacating to run for Senate. The filing was first reported by the Dallas Morning News.
Haynes, a Dallas native who at one point lived in San Francisco and studied at Christ College at Oxford in England, has been the senior pastor of Friendship-West since 1983. He’s overseen the church’s explosive growth, with Friendship-West moving three different times to accommodate the influx of new congregants, according to the church’s website. Friendship-West says its Oak Cliff church counts 13,000 members in its flock. Notably, Haynes is also Crockett’s pastor and has backed her campaigns for Congress…