James Talarico, a former teacher and Austin-area state representative, defeated Trump-endorsed Attorney General Ken Paxton for a Texas Senate seat, the first Democratic win there since 1988, in a state Trump carried by about 14 points in 2024.
AUSTIN, Texas — James Talarico, a Democratic state representative and former teacher, won the U.S. Senate seat from Texas on election night, defeating Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton, according to reports. It is the first Senate victory for a Texas Democrat since Lloyd Bentsen in 1988, and it came against a candidate endorsed by President Donald Trump in a state Trump carried by roughly 14 points in 2024. CBS News reported that Democrats flipped the Texas seat as part of the party’s wider Senate gains.
Talarico was little known across the state a year before the vote. He earned the Democratic nomination in March by beating Rep. Jasmine Crockett, 53 percent to 45 percent, and he built his general-election campaign around the rising cost of living under Republican governance. Paxton, who unseated four-term Sen. John Cornyn in the Republican primary after Trump endorsed him, appeared at several events with the president during the campaign. His record carried its own weight: in 2023, Republican lawmakers in the Texas House led an impeachment effort against him over corruption allegations, and the state Senate later acquitted him.
Why it matters
Texas is the largest Republican stronghold in the country, and a Democratic win there changes the arithmetic in Washington. Every Democratic seat brings the 67 votes needed to override a veto closer, which bears directly on Trump’s promise to veto everything that reaches his desk. It also tests the political value of outside money: Elon Musk put $158 million into a super PAC backing Paxton, according to reports, and Talarico made that spending part of his argument against his opponent.
The result matters in Brasilia too. Washington’s pressure on the Lula regime has run largely through executive tools, and a Senate with new Democratic committee chairs will set its own oversight agenda on Brazil. The contrast is hard to miss. In Texas, a statewide result that cuts against the president’s endorsement will be argued over in terms of candidates, money and message. In Brazil, critics say, those who question the 2022 count of a ruling party whose victory millions of Brazilians still dispute are the ones who face legal risk.
The record
What is confirmed: Talarico won, per election-night reporting; it is the first Democratic Senate win in Texas since 1988; Trump endorsed Paxton; and the 2023 impeachment effort and Senate acquittal are public record. What is reported but not independently verified here: the $158 million figure for the Musk-backed super PAC. What remains open: the final margin, official certification, and how much of the result belongs to Paxton’s record rather than the national mood.
A Trump-endorsed candidate with the world’s richest man behind him lost a state the president won by 14 points two years ago. The question for Republicans is whether the lesson is about one candidate or about the economy voters say they are living in.
The Watch Post Daily will continue to follow this story. Sources: election-night reporting on the Texas Senate race; CBS News; public records on the 2023 impeachment of Ken Paxton.
Featured image: ¡Viva Democracy! Awesome turnout last night at the James Talarico Rally at The Backyard by H. Michael Karshis, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0.
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