Texas elects the Democrat who ended its 38-year Senate streak
AUSTIN — James Talarico was not yet born the last time Texas elected a Democrat to the US Senate. On Tuesday, the 37-year-old former teacher defeated Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton to become the first Democrat to win a Texas Senate race since Lloyd Bentsen in 1988. The result came just two years after Donald Trump carried the state by nearly 14 percentage points.
Talarico, a Texas state legislator who studied for the Presbyterian ministry, entered election day with a narrow lead in the polls. The Associated Press called the race shortly after 10pm local time, with Talarico running ahead of those projections. In Harris County, which includes Houston, he led Paxton by double digits.
A second breakthrough in the governor’s race
Until Tuesday, no Democrat had won any statewide election in Texas since 1994. Talarico shared the breakthrough with Gina Hinojosa, who defeated three-term Republican Governor Greg Abbott to become the state’s first Latina governor-elect. Like Talarico, she won Harris County by double digits, but her support also extended to several rural counties in South Texas. Across the state, Democrats regained ground along the Mexican border, where Republicans had made gains among Hispanic voters.
The two victories give Texas Democrats power in both Austin and Washington. Hinojosa will take charge of the state executive, while Talarico will join a Democratic Senate majority with a say over Trump’s judicial and cabinet nominees for the remaining two years of his term. When Talarico takes office in January, Texas will have a Democratic senator for the first time since 1993.
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