Philip M. Bailey

The thought initially, Dana, was that Jasmine Crockett entering this race, she was going to be this fundraising powerhouse.

She's this quick-witted civil rights attorney who took off on cable news with her clapbacks at Marjorie Taylor Greene and Donald Trump.

Long before Democrats were doing that, Jasmine Crockett of Texas was doing that.

But then you see James Tallarico has really taken off in terms of leaning into a populist message, really laced with his more progressive but yet Christian values.

And it's become a really nasty sort of primary in the sense that it's a question of electability, which Congressman Crockett told me, and she said this to other media outlets as well, which she feels like is a dog whistle for her race and gender as a black woman.

She makes the point that, hey, other Democrats have taken on Donald Trump in the same way.

And what's the issue with their electability?

I think part of it, Dana, is because Texas Democrats haven't had a Democratic senator since 1988.

So we'll see how things are turning out there.

The turnout, like I said before, is surging.

There is an issue of a personality difference between the two.

Congressman Crockett often talks about politics through herself.

emphasizing the things that she has done, her credentials and her background, that she's a fighter, whereas in Tallarico talks about the group, the affordability crisis, the healthcare crisis.

Even though I think in a lot of these issues, Congressman Crockett is actually to the left of Tallarico, he tries to have, I think, both ways where he appeals to moderates and some of his supporters say, oh, he's a better person to maybe stretch Republicans in a general election.

At the same time, he still tries to say, I'm just as progressive, maybe even more so than

And Congressman Crockett, when you put their two records side by side, there's some tad differences, but it's really a personality test more than anything else.

On the Republican side now, this is where it gets interesting.

John Cornyn, an institution in Texas politics, really comes from the George W. Bush era of Texas conservatism.

longtime republican senator there is really in a fight for his political career most polls show him either tied or down to attorney general ken paxton who was a scandal-plagued republican out of texas and also running his congressman wesley hunt a maga firebrand who isn't shying away from taking punches at cornyn either many expect experts are all telling me that look this is probably going to be a runoff between paxton

and Cornyn, with Paxton probably coming in ahead.