Talarico Claims Texas Senate Seat, Ending GOP Statewide Run

Texas has elected its first Democratic candidate to a statewide office in three decades, shifting the state's political balance after a contentious campaign.

The Associated Press called the race for state Rep. James Talarico, who defeated Republican state Attorney General Ken Paxton. This outcome ends a 30-year streak in which Republicans controlled all major statewide positions in Texas. Paxton becomes the first Republican to lose a Texas Senate seat since the 1990s.

Talarico, a four-term legislator from Austin, outpaced Paxton in fundraising for much of the year. However, conservative super PACs aligned with Paxton closed the gap by spending heavily on advertising in the final two months of the campaign.

President Donald Trump, a close ally of Paxton, spent millions supporting the attorney general. Trump frequently used Talarico as a national foil for Democrats during campaign rallies. However, the president's declining popularity may have weighed on Paxton, a concern the attorney general raised after Trump campaigned for him in Dallas in September.

Talarico's national profile rose sharply following an interview on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast in July 2025. A subsequent appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in February 2026 went viral on YouTube after CBS declined to air it. That media surge helped transform Talarico into a major fundraiser for his campaign.

Paxton faced challenges from his past, including a 2023 impeachment by the Texas House of Representatives over alleged corruption, from which he was later acquitted by the state Senate. He also battled public scrutiny regarding his divorce from state Sen. Angela Paxton and allegations of marital infidelities.

Talarico campaigned on education issues and opposed efforts to insert religion into public schools. He was a prominent critic of a law requiring a specific Protestant translation of the Ten Commandments in classrooms, a statute now facing multiple federal lawsuits. His victory breaks the Republican Party's long-standing monopoly on Texas statewide elections.