U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett and state Rep. James Talarico will face off Saturday in their first, and perhaps only, debate in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate, giving voters their first side-by-side glimpse of the candidates’ contrasting styles and proposals ahead of the March 3 election.

The two Democrats are set to debate for an hour at the Texas AFL-CIO’s political convention in Georgetown. The debate will air at 2 p.m. on Nexstar Media Group’s local market websites and smart TV apps, including kxan.com in Austin, cw33.com in Dallas and cw39.com in Houston.

Early voting begins Feb. 17, just over three weeks out from Saturday.

Crockett, D-Dallas, and Talarico, D-Austin, are competing for their party’s nomination to take on the eventual Republican nominee in November, when Democrats hope that backlash to the Trump administration — and a GOP nominee damaged from a bruising primary battle — will help lift the party to its first statewide victory in over three decades. U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, the Republican incumbent, is fighting to defend his seat in a bitter primary against Attorney General Ken Paxton and U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt of Houston.

Crockett has pitched her candidacy, defined by her reputation as a political brawler, as the one best positioned to expand the electorate, with a focus on juicing Democratic turnout and motivating low-propensity voters to show up at the polls. Talarico, meanwhile, has emphasized his Christian faith and a top-versus-bottom brand of economic populism, betting those tenets can win over disaffected Republican and independent voters while also engaging the Democratic base.

The most recent public polling, conducted by Emerson College, showed Talarico, a Presbyterian seminarian and former middle school teacher, leading Crockett by 9 percentage points in the primary, with his margin largely driven by support among white and Latino voters. Soon after the Emerson poll’s release, Crockett published an internal survey that put her up 13 points.

Talarico has sought to grow his support among Latino voters, buying air time for a Spanish-language TV ad that played this week in nearly a dozen of the state’s largest media markets. Last month, Talarico rallied with Tejano music star and congressional candidate Bobby Pulido during a stop in the heavily Latino Rio Grande Valley, where the two Democrats endorsed each other.

Crockett, meanwhile, has faced criticism for year-old comments she made to Vanity Fair saying that some Latino Texans’ anti-immigrant attitudes were “almost like a slave mentality,” and over a remark last year in which she suggested the country needed migrants because “we’re done picking cotton.”

Asked about her comments by The Texas Tribune at a campaign event this month, Crockett said, “there was never an intent to actually offend somebody.”

“Before I was elected, and through all of my elections, I have always stood with all people,” she said.

Crockett, who is in her second term in Congress after previously serving in the Texas House and as a public defender in East Texas, maintains overwhelming support among Black voters, a central voting bloc in the Democratic primary. Eighty percent of Black voters surveyed by Emerson said they planned to support Crockett, mirroring a December poll by Texas Southern University that found 89% of Black voters were behind her. Almost half of Black voters surveyed by TSU said they did not know enough about Talarico.

Polling has consistently shown Talarico lagging behind Crockett in name recognition, with Crockett known almost universally among Democratic voters for her breakout viral moments clashing with Republican colleagues in Congress and assailing President Donald Trump, who has further elevated Crockett by bashing her on social media.

Talarico has also risen in the Democratic Party by capturing attention on ideologically mixed online platforms, including Joe Rogan’s podcast last summer. He has frequently gone viral with clips of his debates in the Texas House on education issues and GOP proposals to expand the influence of religion in public life.

Talarico’s progressive outlook on his Christian faith came under fire from conservatives earlier this month after the Austin Democrat said on Ezra Klein’s podcast that he believed Christianity “points to the truth,” while adding, “I also think other religions of love point to the same truth.”

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