Former Rhodes Middle School teacher James Talarico handed Texas Democrats their first statewide win in more than 30 years on Tuesday, completing a movement that started eight years ago in backlash to President Donald Trump’s first election.
Talarico defeated a uniquely flawed nominee in Attorney General Ken Paxton, who proved the limits of the GOP’s rightward march.
The race was reminiscent of the last time Democrats came this close — when Beto O’Rourke narrowly lost his 2018 race against Sen. Ted Cruz by about 215,000 votes.
Since then Democrats have struggled to build on his momentum, with President Donald Trump carrying Texas by the largest margin of any GOP presidential contender in history two years ago.
But O’Rourke told supporters earlier this week that this year that Democrats’ party infrastructure has continued to grow since his era, and he praised candidates Talarico and gubernatorial hopeful Gina Hinojosa as “the strongest candidates Democrats have fielded in decades.”
Paxton is part of conservative wing of the GOP that spent years pushing the Texas Republican Party to the right, until finally overplaying their hand in a tough election year.
Eager to remake the GOP in his own image, President Donald Trump helped Paxton unseat the more moderate U.S. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) in the Republican primary — the first time incumbent senator from Texas has ever lost that way.
National Republicans spent months warning that Paxton’s scandal-ridden past could be too much to defend, and wound up pulling resources from other states as they propped up his struggling campaign.
The contest became the nation’s most expensive Senate race on record, but no amount of late in the game spending from Republican PACs could save their nominee.
The race was called shortly after 10 p.m. on Tuesday night.
The final vote total is still being tallied and will likely not be known for several days, but the turnout surpassed the record set in 2018 for a midterm election in early voting.
