Democrats want a fight. In Texas, they’re divided over how — and whom — to fight next.

AUSTIN, Texas — Texas Democrats may be divided over whether state Rep. James Talarico or Rep. Jasmine Crockett should be their party’s Senate nominee. But they agree on one thing: they want to fight.

And whoever wins next week’s Senate primary will provide some clues about how exactly Democrats want to go about it — and who they want to focus on.

Both Talarico and Crockett present themselves as fighters, exploiting Democratic voters’ angst and frustration with party leaders who pushed record ratings for the Democratic Party following President Donald Trump’s 2024 victory.

As Talarico spoke to hundreds of supporters gathered at an event center last week in North Austin, one of his loudest applause lines of the evening came as he took aim at his Democratic colleagues.

“If you hate politics and you’ve never voted before, you belong in this campaign. If you voted for Democrats but are tired of Democrats in Washington always folding, you belong in this campaign,” he said.

“And if you voted for Donald Trump but are fed up with the extremism and corruption in our government, you belong in this campaign,” Talarico added.

Days later, Crockett spoke to about 200 supporters gathered at the Cathedral Church in the city of Conroe, where she criticized her party for trying too hard to appeal to Republicans in 2024.

“I’m not saying Republicans aren’t welcome, because the fights I’m fighting are for everyone,” Crockett said. “But I also think it’s really fair for the Democratic base to step up and say, ‘I’m a Democrat and I’m going to fight for principled things like raising wages,’‘ which, again, helps everyone, right,” she said.

Talarico and Crockett laid out competing visions for the Democratic Party as it seeks a path forward after a deflating defeat to Trump — and as Democrats try to win their first statewide race in Texas in more than 30 years.

One seeks to energize voters across the political spectrum in the fight against a “corrupt” political and economic system. The other seeks to energize Democrats’ core supporters in the fight against Trump. And conversations with nearly 30 Democratic voters in Texas in recent days reveal they are still divided on which path to take and which one will lead to a victory in November.

Fighting a “corrupt” system

Talarico’s message is rooted in his belief that he can appeal to Democrats, independents and Republicans, arguing that multi-party appeal is the winning strategy in Texas, which Trump won by nearly 14 points in 2024.

He certainly took aim at Trump, having recently clashed with the administration over a Stephen Colbert interview, which the comedian said CBS had blocked from the airwaves due to federal regulatory concerns. Talarico seized on the controversy and suggested that the Trump administration viewed him as a threat.

CBS said Colbert’s show “was not barred by CBS from airing the interview. The show received legal guidance that the broadcast could trigger the FCC’s equal time rule for two other candidates, including Rep. Jasmine Crockett, and presented options for how equal time for other candidates could be respected.”

Still, Talarico claimed that “Trump’s FCC colluded with CBS media executives to prevent this interview from airing, and I think it’s safe to say their plan backfired,” he told the packed gathering Tuesday, hours after his interview was announced. His campaign raised $2.5 million over the next 24 hours.

But while Talarico referenced Trump a half-dozen times during his rally speech, he emphasized that the most fundamental fight was against “a broken and corrupt political system” that benefits the wealthy.

“The reason our politics sucks right now is not any one politician. It’s the system itself,” he said at the rally in Austin.

“The real fight in this country is not left versus right, but top versus bottom,” Talarico also said, repeating one of his familiar phrases on the campaign trail, on the airwaves and on the debate stage.

Talarico’s campaign has spent $11.2 million so far on ads touting such a message, about four times more than Crockett’s ad spending, according to ad tracking firm AdImpact. Although each of the Talarico campaign’s four television ads uses the word “fight” or “fought,” none directly refers to Trump.

In his first television ad, Talarico referenced his work against the Republican Party’s policies on education, redistricting and abortion, saying he wanted “the United States Senate to take on corruption and make life more affordable.”

Asked after his rally whether that message would resonate with primary voters who might be eager to go after Trump more directly, Talarico told reporters: “My job is to tell the truth and be myself. And if that resonates with primary voters, then that’s wonderful. And then we can win this primary and go on and win the general. But if not, so be it.”

“This is how I assess the fragility of this country,” he continued.

That message resonated with supporters in attendance, some of whom spoke to NBC News about their frustration with the dysfunctions of the “system.”

“He understands that there is something fundamentally wrong with the system as it is currently set up,” said Noah, a civil engineer who declined to reveal his last name. The Austin native later added of Talarico: “I believe he’s actually going to make some fundamental changes.”

Ethan Adams, 25, who works in the tech sector in Austin, said he supports Talarico in part because of his “anti-big money” stance.

“I think any chance to lessen the perception of corruption in the system, slash, would be great,” Adams said.

Fight Trump

Crockett also criticized a “broken” system, but she took more direct aim at Trump on the airwaves and on the campaign trail. And she believes her message will help energize disaffected voters, who are more likely to support Democrats.

“They’re going to try to convince you over and over again that we can’t do this in Texas,” she said during the event at the Conroe church.

She said that when looking through Texas election data, “What I saw was that we were a non-voting state. It wasn’t that we were so red, we weren’t voting.”

Although she is only serving her second term in Congress, Crockett has gained national prominence by clashing with Trump and other Republicans in the media and in videos that have gone viral online.

Crockett launched her Senate campaign with a speech in which she addressed the president directly — and with a 45-second video showing Trump’s voice hurling insults at the prominent two-term congresswoman.

Crockett’s campaign’s first television ad features a caricature of Trump, with a narrator saying: “Texas has a warrior fighting back, a champion for us, our votes, our rights. It drives the president crazy.”

“For me, I will always make sure that I fight for the American people,” Crockett told reporters after meeting with faith leaders in Houston last week. “And that means going even to the highest levels of government, that means going against Pam Bondi. If necessary, that means going against Trump.”

Several of Crockett’s supporters said they supported the congresswoman because they considered her “a fighter.”

“She’s just not afraid,” said April Inman, a Montgomery County voter, as she waited to hear Crockett speak in Conroe. “And I think that’s been a problem with Democrats in the past, they’ve been very passive. And I think we need a leader like Jasmine who’s not afraid to stand up for what’s right.”

The clashes between Crockett and Trump “definitely” affected Tiffany Bowens’ decision to support the congresswoman in the primary.

“Someone has to stand up to him, because everyone else in Congress is letting him do what he wants, and that’s why we’re here now,” said Bowens, who is originally from Huntsville and works in the prison system. She donned a Crockett campaign T-shirt as she waited to hear the Democrat speak in Conroe.

“Jasmine will say so,” Bowens added. “She doesn’t sit back and let him do it. She calls him out. And I like that.”