Texas, considered for decades an almost impregnable fiefdom for the Republican Party since the late 20th century, has starred this Tuesday in an unprecedented political turn by opting for Democratic candidates both for the federal Senate and for the Governorship. The result reflects the strength of the Democratic wave and a clear punishment vote against the President of the United States, Donald Trump.
The Democrat James Talarico has defeated the Republican challenger Ken Paxton in the race for the Senate, delivering a seat for his party in Texas for the first time in 38 years in these midterm elections.
Until now, the last Democratic senator elected by Texas had been Lloyd Bentsen in 1988. With this victory, Talarico becomes the first member of his party to prevail in a senatorial election in almost four decades and breaks the 14-point advantage with which Donald Trump had prevailed in the state in the 2024 presidential elections.
The seat, held to date by the Republican John Cornyn, was among the key targets that the Democrats needed to wrest back in order to regain control of the Senate, a control that has also been confirmed in this election cycle.
Ken Paxton, the current Texas attorney general, had managed to defeat Cornyn in the runoff of the Republican primaries— with Trump’s explicit support—, becoming the first Texas senator who fails to secure his own party’s renomination since 1970. In 2023, Paxton faced impeachment proceedings for alleged bribery and corruption offenses, although he was ultimately acquitted by the state Senate.
Talarico embodies one of the most advanced expressions of progressivism possible in the Texas political landscape: a Christian Democrat whose campaign website operates like a programmatic manifesto. "It’s time to turn over the tables," he proclaims, alluding to the biblical episode in which Jesus drove the merchants out of the temple.
The day has also dealt a hard blow to Republicans with the victory of the Democrat Gina Hinojosa in the race for the Governorship. Hinojosa has defeated one of the most prominent figures of the Republican Party, Greg Abbott, who has already publicly acknowledged his defeat.
The new governor has achieved a seven-point advantage, a wide margin that represents a symbolic and strategic blow for Republicans in one of their largest vote strongholds, where they had controlled the state administration uninterruptedly since 1995, when George W. Bush took office.
In remarks to the CNN network, Republican representative Dade Phelan has acknowledged the “political defeat” brought about by the “extinction” of Republicans “at all levels of electoral candidacies”.
Along the same lines, he has pointed directly to Trump’s responsibility, by arguing that “voters acted as if he really were on the ballots,” a message he has repeated throughout the campaign. “They ousted every single Republican, at every level of the candidacies,” he lamented. “That’s what happens when you can’t campaign based on policy proposals,” he added.