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On Tuesday, Texas Democrats will go to the polls to pick their party’s nominee for a U.S. Senate seat. Texans haven’t elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1988, but changing demographics and widespread disgust with President Donald Trump and his Republican Party have put the state in play this year. That’s particularly true if Republicans, who also vote today, pick their leading candidate, who comes with massive personal and legal baggage.

Democrats are choosing between strong candidates, both of whom strongly oppose Trump, but who represent diametrically opposed theories of power, as well as very different views on what the Democratic Party needs now. And the election itself is raising old questions in a high-stakes context: What does it mean to be “electable,” and how do race and gender shape perceptions of what a respectable, powerful person looks like? When the GOP has gone low and then lower, should Democrats still take the moral and strategic high ground, or take the fight into the muck? In an increasingly post-factual world where fewer people get their news from reliable sources, is social media attention-grabbing evidence of a narcissistic campaigner, or a smart, modern campaign? And perhaps most importantly: Is the Democratic path to victory through appealing to the base, or pulling in new supporters?

Texas voters are deciding between two young Democratic rising stars, Jasmine Crockett and James Talarico. Crockett, 44, is a lawyer and US congresswoman who catapulted to viral fame when she responded to an insult from congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene’s by ridiculing her “bleach-blond bad-built butch-body,” a phrase she has since attempted to trademark and used to sell campaign merch. Talarico, 36, is a seminarian and Texas state representative who injects progressive Christianity into his politics and has had his own viral moments, most recently when CBS News refused to air his interview with Stephen Colbert (Colbert posted it on his YouTube channel, and it quickly amassed millions of views and raised $2.5 million for the Talarico campaign).

Polling on the race doesn’t point to a clear frontrunner. Crockett has led several polls, at times by a wide margin. But this weekend, the highly respected Emerson College poll gave Talarico a solid lead. In short, the race appears extremely competitive. It should be: Both Democrats are strong and inspiring candidates who can make a legitimate argument for why they’re the party’s best option for this fall.

But elections are binary choices, and given the realities of Texas and my own hunger to return to a more decent and productive politics, Talarico seems to me the better candidate. I think Crockett is primed to lose state-wide (more on “electability” in a bit), and I worry that she’s adopting some of Trump’s worst behaviors, effectively normalizing them on both sides of the........

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