Democratic representative Jasmine Crockett launched a bid for US Senate in Texas on Monday, bringing a high-profile official to a race that may be critical to Democrats’ bold ambition to reclaim a Senate majority in next year’s midterm elections.

Crockett, one of Congress’s most outspoken Democrats and a frequent target of GOP attacks, made the announcement shortly before the state’s 6pm deadline for candidates to file the paperwork to run in the primary, due to be held on 3 March. The two-term representative of Dallas is seeking to flip the seat held by Republican John Cornyn, who is running for re-election in the GOP-dominated state.

She will be up against state representative and rising star James Talarico of Austin, whose campaign has generated national headlines with viral social media posts challenging Republican policies such as private school vouchers and requiring the Ten Commandments in classrooms.

Democrats need a net gain of four Senate seats to wrest control from the GOP next November, when most of the seats up for re-election are in states like Texas that Donald Trump won last year. Democrats have long hoped to make Texas more competitive after decades of Republican dominance.

Crockett’s entry into the race comes after another Democratic Senate candidate, former representative Colin Allred of Dallas, dropped out earlier on Monday. Instead of running in the Senate race, he opted to file to run for the newly drawn 33rd congressional district in Dallas county.

In recent weeks, Crockett publicly debated whether she would jump into the race, telling PBS News she would only do so if we she believed she could win a general election and not just the primary. “If the numbers are strong that I am our best shot, then it’s bigger than my district. It’s bigger than the state of Texas. This is about the country because we know if we can change the Senate map in this country, then that’s where we start to get wins,” she said.