James Talarico won Texas’s Democratic Party Senate primary last night by running a race focused on Texans, not on defending the Democratic Party or its leaders. Whether it will be enough to win the general election is another question. But the primary has suggested answers to some critical questions about what direction the Texas Democratic Party can take now and in the years to come.

The Texas Senate race has been fiery and divisive. You could be forgiven for imagining there is a massive difference in platforms between Talarico and his opponent, Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett. In fact, rather than the policy battles that dominated the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, this race has been a lot more about style over substance. But in this case, the style matters.

Talarico infused his Christianity with an economic populist message. “We already have class warfare in this country. It’s the billionaires waging war against the rest of us,” Talarico told a voter at a town hall. His ability to tap into this populist anger, no doubt, explains one key aspect of his victory; Talarico racked up huge margins in counties that Bernie Sanders won in the 2020 Texas primary. The fact that Talarico was able to do so, while not supporting Sanders’s signature Medicare for All proposal, raises some critical questions for the progressive movement in Texas and nationwide.