TEXAS FALLS: TALARICO DEFEATS PAXTON, ENDS GOP SENATE LOCK SINCE 1988
Democrat James Talarico beat Trump-backed Republican Ken Paxton in the Texas Senate race, grabbing the seat with a decisive margin and snapping a Republican hold that dated to Lloyd Bentsen’s last win.
Paxton, the state attorney general who had just knocked out John Cornyn in the primary, spent the final days warning that the race was existential. “If Texas falls, we don’t have another Texas to move to,” he told supporters. He also said, “If we lose Texas, we lose America.”
Voters delivered the opposite result. The campaign was weighed down by Paxton’s impeachment history, legal fights, and personal baggage that never fully faded. Talarico, the Austin-area lawmaker, ran on affordability and a unity pitch that peeled off enough suburban and independent support.
“This is a politics of unity, a politics of friendship, a politics of love,” Talarico said at a late rally. The seat flips, the streak ends, and the Texas firewall just took a hard hit.
