The polls closed in Texas at 7 p.m. local time (the state is split between Central Time and Mountain Time) Tuesday, and within hours, one of the state’s most contentious battles in the 2026 midterm elections was over, with Democrat James Talarico prevailing over Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, giving Democrats their first statewide victory in Texas since 1994.
As part of a campaign in the state’s most closely watched race, Paxton embarked on a whirlwind tour across Texas, joined by President Donald Trump along the way. Given Trump’s slumping approval, combined with popular discomfort around Paxton’s scandal-plagued career, Talarico’s lead continued to grow even as Elon Musk pumped cash into the Republican side.
In June, political advisor Mark McKinnon described Talarico in a piece for Vanity Fair as “a rare talent.” “He’s an eighth-generation Texan, a former middle school teacher, and a Presbyterian seminarian. In a state where the Scriptures amount to a kind of civic fixture, Talarico out-Bibles many Republicans,” McKinnon wrote. “What’s more, he is preaching a new kind of message that is not along partisan lines. Here’s a sample: ‘The biggest divide in this country is not left vs. right. It’s top vs. bottom. Billionaires want us looking left and right at each other instead of looking up at them.’”
Democrat Gina Hinojosa defeated incumbent Greg Abbott in Texas’s governor’s race, becoming the state’s first Latina governor, as well as the first Democrat to hold the office in more than 30 years. The last one was also a woman: Democrat Ann Richards, who served from 1991-1995. Richards was the mother of Cecile Richards, the longtime president of Planned Parenthood.
