Talarico Wins Texas Senate Seat, Ending Republican Hold on Statewide Offices

Democratic state Representative James Talarico has won the U.S. Senate race in Texas, the Associated Press reported on Nov. 3, 2026. The result ends the Republican Party's three-decade control of statewide offices in the state.

Talarico defeated state Attorney General Ken Paxton, a close ally of President Trump. The contest drew heavy spending. Trump and his allies put millions of dollars into the race, and Trump attacked Talarico at campaign rallies across the country, casting him as a national figure for Democrats. Paxton becomes the first Republican to lose a Texas Senate seat since 1990. Paxton had not lost a race since he won a Texas House seat in 2002. He took the Republican nomination by defeating incumbent U.S. Senator John Cornyn in a primary runoff, a contest where Trump endorsed him shortly before voting. Paxton said after Trump campaigned for him at the Republican midterm convention in Dallas in September that he worried Trump's standing could weigh on his own campaign. Talarico, a four-term lawmaker from Austin, tied or led Paxton in most statewide polls beginning in midsummer. He raised more money than Paxton for most of the year. Conservative super PACs aligned with Paxton spent heavily on advertising in the final two months to close that gap. Talarico first drew attention in 2018 when he flipped a state House district that had voted for Donald Trump two years earlier. He taught middle school in San Antonio and studied at a Presbyterian seminary. His campaign centered on education, and he opposed efforts to bring religion into public schools. He spoke out against a law that requires an explicitly Protestant translation of the Ten Commandments in every public school classroom; that law faces several federal lawsuits. Talarico appeared on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast in July 2025 and recorded a February 2026 interview for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. CBS did not broadcast the Colbert interview, and it later drew views on YouTube. Paxton carried his own history into the race. The Texas House impeached him in 2023 over allegations of corruption in office, and the Texas Senate acquitted him. He is also divorcing state Senator Angela Paxton, and the filings cite alleged marital infidelity.

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