James Talarico defeats Ken Paxton in race for Texas US Senate seat

Houston Chronicle · Casey Murray, John C. Moritz, Megan Kimble · 2026-11-03 12:00 UTC

James Talarico and Ken Paxton face off in the Texas Senate race as voters decide who will win the state's U.S. Senate seat.

James Talarico pulled off a historic upset on Tuesday by becoming the first Democrat elected to statewide office in Texas in decades and the first to win a U.S. Senate seat since 1988.

The Associated Press called the race at 10 p.m. on Tuesday night after Talarico showed commanding leads in counties across the state.

Talarico’s victory over Republican state Attorney General Ken Paxton marks a seismic shift not only for Democrats in Texas but for the party nationwide that has been thirsting to crack the Republicans’ grip on the most reliably red state in the country.

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