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“You gotta be realistic and practical about issues that are facing people in rural areas,” said Rep. Henry Cuellar, a conservative Democrat whose district stretches from the Southern border to San Antonio. If Sanders is at the top of the ticket, he said, Democrats in Texas will have to distance themselves from his far-left ideas to win over moderate voters in potential swing districts.

“Can you please name all the liberal seats that Republicans are in so we can go after that?” Cuellar said.

The party divide in Texas has also become even wider as Democrats still chew on Beto O’Rourke’s ill-fated 2018 Senate campaign against Ted Cruz, drawing a litany of different lessons about whether his 2.5-point loss was a victory or a missed opportunity.

Hewitt said O’Rourke’s loss reveals that far-left ideas don’t bring out enough people to flip seats. “The idea that more people will come out to vote if a progressive is on the ballot, that’s fools gold,” he said.

But some Democratic operatives in Texas point to two decades of Republican dominance and argue O’Rourke’s popularity in the state as proof the party needs to differentiate itself from the right.

“We should be more worried about a moderate candidate in a highly polarized environment,” said Tory Gavito, co-founder and president of Way to Win, a group that organizes progressive donors and strategists. “We have the deepest well of young voters and voters of color — who is the best candidate that can turn them out?”

Texas Republicans, facing competitive elections for the first time in decades, say that regardless of who wins the nomination, Sanders candidacy puts Democrats on the defensive.

“The reality is that every Democratic president candidate has happily endorsed socialist policies,” Texas GOP Chairman James Dickey said.

Polls have offered little guidance. Biden is still a favorite among establishment figures and led a poll of Texas voters before Iowa but Sanders surged after the caucuses and Michael Bloomberg is on the rise.