Rep. Jasmine Crockett’s (D-Texas) last-minute bid for Senate is dividing Democrats as the party looks to oust incumbent Sen. John Cornyn (R).

Crockett, a polarizing figure who has built a significant following through her viral attacks on President Trump and other Republicans, immediately became the likely Democratic front-runner when she entered the primary earlier this month.

But her entrance into the race has drawn concern from notable corners of the party, with Democrats like James Carville criticizing her approach to politics and some operatives fearing she could be a gift to the GOP in the general election.

Other Democrats have rushed to her defense, arguing she has name recognition and grassroots energy to be competitive next fall.

“Jasmine’s challenge is to prove people wrong that she somehow benefits the Republicans by being in the race,” said Matt Angle, director of the Lone Star Project, a Democratic PAC in the state.

Crockett, who announced her Senate bid just hours before the filing deadline, will square off in Texas’s March primary with state Rep. James Talarico (D), another rising star who gained national prominence as one of the Democratic legislators who fled Texas over a GOP-led redistricting effort. Talarico has welcomed Crockett’s bid, stressing Democratic unity.

Just days after a campaign launch that leaned heavily into her image as an outspoken Trump opponent, a new survey from Texas Southern University found her with an 8-point edge over Talarico among Democratic primary voters.

But in a race for statewide office in red Texas, which went to Trump by double digits last fall, some experts worry that Crockett’s progressive pitch and firebrand approach could pose a problem in the general election.

“Seems like she’s got a lot of energy. But she, to me, she violates the first rule of politics, and that is, in politics, you always make it about the voters and never about yourself,” Democratic strategist James Carville told his “Politics War Room” podcast co-host Al Hunt last week. “If you listen to her talk, it’s a lot more about herself than it is about the voters.”

Across the aisle, Cornyn is in a three-way fight with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) and Rep. Wesley Hunt (R-Texas). The latest polling average from Decision Desk HQ puts Paxton, a top Trump ally, 5 points ahead.

“I think you are more likely to see people who would have wanted to skip Paxton on the ballot vote for Paxton because they see [Crockett] as the worse choice. That’s my fear in a general election,” said Nancy Zdunkewicz, an Austin-based Democratic pollster who’s unaffiliated in the race.

“The burden is on her to show that she can be persuasive and not produce a backlash.”

Axios also reported this week, citing multiple anonymous House Democrats, that Crockett has frustrated fellow lawmakers who fear she could alienate swing voters and hamper Democrats in a general election.

“She offers an explicitly partisan, political pitch to people who are apolitical. I don’t see how that brings new people into the process,” Zdunkewicz said.

Other Democrats voiced frustration with the eleventh-hour timing of Crockett’s entry, which has scrambled the calculus for the rest of the party in the state.

And across the aisle, Republicans have hailed her entry.

“Maybe she’ll get the Democratic nomination, but I think it’s a gift to Republicans,” Trump told reporters last week.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) called it “one of the greatest things to happen to the Republican Party in a long, long time.” Johnson and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) separately called her “the face of the Democratic Party.” Cornyn told Semafor in a recent interview, “Am I hiding my glee? I’ll try to wipe the smile off my face, I would say it’s a gift.”

Democrats see the race, which the Cook Political Report rates as “likely Republican,” as vital to their efforts to flip the Senate next year, while acknowledging the challenges they face.

Many in the party have defended Crockett, arguing her national profile and anti-Trump approach are well suited to pull in national fundraisers and mobilize disaffected Texas Democrats.

A “small minority” of Democrats have expressed concerns that Crockett is too progressive for the Lone Star State, noted Texas Democratic strategist Joel Montfort. But for Democrats to make inroads in Texas, “We need to run progressive candidates that motivate new voters and disenfranchised voters to show up to the polls.”

“There are challenges for any Democrat trying to win statewide in Texas, and one of those for Jasmine Crockett is to not be the polarizing candidate that Republicans want to paint her out as being,” said Angle, who shrugged off concerns about Crockett as “mostly a national narrative.”

Talarico, who has a lower name recognition, will have to make up the gap in the latest primary polling and would face his own set of challenges in a general race.

“Republicans treat whoever the Democratic nominee is the same, regardless of who it is,” said Katherine Fischer, the executive director of Texas Majority PAC, a group staying neutral in the primary and focused on flipping statewide seats to blue.

“People have a lot of hot takes about how viable Jasmine is, or how viable James is, and we just really don’t know. We haven’t won statewide in Texas in 30 years. And if anyone really knew how to do it, we would have done it already. No one’s sitting on the secret.”

Crockett herself hit back at some of her detractors in a statement to The Hill, calling it “disappointing to see Democrats focusing their criticism on a member of our own party.”

“Democrats need to be laser-focused on Republicans who are doing the real damage in Texas — not members of Congress who have the courage to go toe-to-toe with Republicans and refuse to stay silent when Texans are under attack,” Crockett said in the statement, adding “we were divided in 2024 and we paid the price.”

Crockett in a recent interview on MS NOW also pitched her campaign to voters of all party affiliations, including Texans who “are regretting that they voted for Trump.”

“There are some Democrats who [think] … she’s too bold, she’s too brash, and she’s, let’s be honest, egocentric,” said Jon Taylor, department chair of political science at the University of Texas at San Antonio.

“But if you’re going to flip a conservative state, if you’re going to flip a Senate seat, you’ve got to basically push yourself out there, push the idea that you’re different and that it’s … time to do something that is radically different than what we’ve seen in Texas politics.”