The key facts
- Democrat James Talarico defeated Republican Ken Paxton in the US Senate election in Texas — the first time a Democrat has won a Senate race in that state since 1988
- The campaign became the most expensive Senate race in US history: more than half a billion dollars was spent, with Elon Musk directing $158 million in support of Paxton
- At the same time, Democrats took the Texas governorship from the Republicans and won the Senate seat from North Carolina
A victory 38 years in the making
Democrat James Talarico won the US Senate election in Texas, defeating the state's attorney general, Republican Ken Paxton. The BBC calls this result likely the biggest upset for Republicans in the current elections. Initially, Life.ru, citing The Texas Tribune, reported only that Talarico had taken the lead as votes were counted; later the BBC declared his victory.
Who is Talarico and why it matters
Talarico, a former schoolteacher and member of the Texas House of Representatives, was a little-known figure just a year ago. He ran for the seat of incumbent senator John Cornyn, who lost to Paxton in the party primary and could not seek re-election. Talarico made the rising cost of living under Texas's Republican leadership the central theme of his campaign. With his win, he became the first Democrat elected to the Senate from Texas since 1988, when Lloyd Bentsen, who later became US Treasury Secretary, was re-elected: since 1993, both of the state's Senate seats had been held by Republicans.
The most expensive Senate race in history
Campaign spending exceeded half a billion dollars, making it the most expensive Senate race in US history. According to the BBC, billionaire Elon Musk directed $158 million to a super-PAC supporting Paxton — a fact Talarico used to criticize his rival. Unexpectedly, two members of the Bush family endorsed Talarico. Paxton, for his part, portrayed his opponent's views as too progressive for the state and campaigned alongside Donald Trump, who traveled to Texas several times to support Republicans. George Washington University political science professor Kuardrikos Driskell called Paxton an
Shifts in the electorate and the broader backdrop
Polls, according to the BBC, showed that support for Trump among Texas Latinos, who make up a third of the state's population, had declined noticeably: many of them pointed to his hardline immigration policies, including the detention of citizens and mass detentions of nonviolent offenders. Voters also linked high prices, including gasoline prices, to Trump's tariff policy and the war with Iran. Paxton was additionally burdened by scandals: in 2023 he was impeached by his own party on corruption charges (the state senate later acquitted him), and federal fraud charges from the US Securities and Exchange Commission were dropped.
The bigger picture
Talarico's victory became part of a broader Democratic surge: the BBC notes that it helped secure full Democratic control of Congress. At the same time, according to the same publication, Texas's Republican governor Greg Abbott was defeated — for the first time since the 1990s, the governorship of the state went to a Democrat. Life.ru also reported the victory of Democrat Roy Cooper in the North Carolina Senate race over Trump-backed Michael Whatley, the former chairman of the Republican National Committee, narrowing the gap between the parties in the upper chamber.
