James Talarico Wins Texas Senate Seat, Ending 38-Year Democratic Drought

State Representative James Talarico defeated Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton in the Texas U.S. Senate race on November 3, becoming the first Democrat to win a Senate seat in the state since Lloyd Bentsen in 1988 and the first Democrat to win any statewide office since 1994.

Talarico, 37, a four-term legislator from the Austin area, a former middle school teacher and a Presbyterian seminarian, told supporters in Austin that the result showed all the money in the world is no match for the people of Texas. He said a politics of division is no match for a politics of love. The Associated Press called the race with Talarico holding a clear lead.

Paxton had defeated longtime Senator John Cornyn in a bruising Republican primary runoff after receiving late support from President Donald Trump. Paxton has faced controversies that include a 2023 impeachment and a securities fraud case. Republicans spent more than $316 million to hold the seat. Overall spending in the race exceeded $500 million, making it the most expensive Senate contest of the cycle. Elon Musk directed $158 million into a super PAC supporting Paxton.

Talarico raised more than $146 million, a record for a Texas Senate candidate. He first defeated former U.S. Representative Colin Allred for the Democratic nomination after Allred withdrew to run for Congress again, then defeated U.S. Representative Jasmine Crockett in the primary. Polling showed the race competitive or slightly favoring Talarico through the summer and fall despite heavy negative advertising.

Trump carried Texas by 14 percentage points in 2024. Talarico improved on Kamala Harris’s 2024 margins by an average of nine points per county and on Beto O’Rourke’s 2018 margins by more than four points per county. More than two dozen counties flipped from red to blue compared with the 2024 presidential map. In Harris County he received roughly two-thirds of the vote, about 14 points higher than Harris. Starr County shifted from 42 percent for Harris to 77 percent for Talarico.

Talarico will become the youngest member of the Senate and will replace Cornyn, who is 74. His victory forms part of a broader Democratic sweep in Texas that also saw State Representative Gina Hinojosa defeat Governor Greg Abbott. The twin statewide wins end the longest Democratic drought in any state.

Paxton had never lost an election since winning a seat in the Texas House in 2002. His primary defeat of Cornyn had been expected to strengthen the Republican hold, yet the general-election result reversed that calculation. Talarico centered his campaign on faith, outreach to moderate voters and criticism of outside spending. He told CBS that Musk wanted a senator who would sell Texas land to data centers and give away water resources.

The result hands Democrats a second Texas Senate seat and contributes to their control of the chamber. How Talarico will vote on energy, border and data-center issues remains to be seen once he is sworn in. For now the numbers show a clear shift in urban, suburban and border counties that previous Democratic candidates had not achieved at the same scale.

Republican outside groups spent heavily in the final weeks yet did not close the gap. Talarico’s fundraising edge and message discipline held through the barrage of advertising. The win marks the first time since 1988 that Texas voters have sent a Democrat to the Senate and the first statewide Democratic victory in more than three decades.