Round Rock state Rep. James Talarico defeated three-term incumbent Attorney General Ken Paxton in last week’s U.S. Senate race, and in doing so ended something that had defined Texas politics for an entire generation: a Republican statewide winning streak that stretched back 32 years, as KERA reported on election night. Democrat James Talarico won election to the Senate over Republican Ken Paxton, the Associated Press confirmed in its coverage of the electrifying Democratic night in Texas.
The numbers tell the story of how abrupt the shift was. Just two years ago, President Donald Trump carried Texas by double digits. On Tuesday, Democrats won the governor’s office, the lieutenant governor’s office, and now a U.S. Senate seat — the first Democrat elected statewide in Texas since the 1990s. Paxton conceded early Wednesday morning, removing the prospect of a recount fight in a race that had been one of the nation’s marquee contests.
Talarico, a former middle school teacher who represents a Williamson County district in the Legislature, built his campaign on a populist economic message and relentless town halls, riding the same tailwind that carried Gina Hinojosa past Governor Greg Abbott. The two victories are best understood together: Hinojosa ran against the cost of living, data center strain on the grid, and what she called corruption, while Talarico framed the Senate race as a choice between working Texans and billionaire money. Elon Musk spent tens of millions backing Republicans in the state, and Abbott’s campaign spent $180 million since last year, yet the underdogs proved durable anyway.
What the streak’s end means practically is the question Austin is now asking. shifts committee arithmetic and gives national Democrats a fundraising map they have not had in Texas in a generation, since Bob Krueger’s brief appointed tenure ended in 1993. It also complicates Republican planning for 2028, when Texas is expected to again anchor the party’s White House map; a state that suddenly elects Democrats statewide in a midterm is no longer automatic.
Paxton’s loss carries its own lessons. The attorney general had survived impeachment, securities fraud charges that ended in a dismissed deal, and an FBI referral during three terms in office, but a general electorate — not a party jury — finally ended his run. His concession statement avoided claims of fraud, an acknowledgment of the margin, and leaves Texas Republicans without their most prominent legal attack dog in statewide office for the first time in a decade.
For Talarico, the work moves from campaign rallies to committee rooms. He takes office in January alongside Texas’ first Latina governor-elect, with a divided Legislature back in Austin filing bills this week for a session led by Democrats in the House and a Republican majority in the Senate. The 32-year streak is over. Whether it was a one-week anomaly or a realignment will be the arguable question at every Texas dinner table for the next two years.
