Texas Democrats seized control of the governor’s mansion and a U.S. Senate seat Tuesday night, shattering more than three decades of Republican dominance in Texas. James Talarico defeated Trump-backed Attorney General Ken Paxton to become the first Democrat elected to the Senate from Texas since Lloyd Bentsen left office in 1993, while state Representative Gina Hinojosa toppled Governor Greg Abbott by nearly 700,000 votes to become the state’s first Latina governor, Democracy Now reported.
The double victory marks a political earthquake in a state that has served as the Republican Party’s laboratory for conservative policy. Democrats also captured the lieutenant governor, attorney general and railroad commissioner races, and stand poised to take the Texas House for the first time since 2003, Al Jazeera reported.
Thirty-Three Years Without a Democrat in the Senate
Talarico’s win makes him the first Democrat to represent Texas in the U.S. Senate since Lloyd Bentsen left in 1993. Speaking at his Austin victory rally, the senator-elect framed the outcome as a repudiation of big-money politics. “We just proved that all the money in the world is no match for the people of Texas,” he said. “We just showed that a politics of division is no match for a politics of love.”
The contest drew more than $300 million in spending, the most of any Senate campaign in American history, Democracy Now reported. Al Jazeera put total spending even higher, noting that the figure topped half a billion dollars. Elon Musk alone poured at least $212 million into Paxton’s campaign, with total Musk spending across Texas races nearly half a billion dollars.
“We were the underdogs in this race. We went up against nearly 40 years of doubt and disillusionment. We went up against more than $300 million, more than any Senate campaign in American history. We went up against all the negative ads, smear campaigns, foreign bots and AI deepfakes that money can buy. Those attacks were the final howls of a dying establishment. … We saw it in this race. We saw it in every billionaire-funded attack ad.”
President Donald Trump intervened in the Republican primary to endorse Paxton over incumbent John Cornyn, but the endorsement failed to generate enthusiasm even among Republicans, Al Jazeera reported. When Trump mocked Talarico as a “vagan,” the candidate fired back that he’d “been eating Texas barbecue before Paxton was either indicted or impeached.”
In Houston, Congressman Christian Menefee told election watchers: “Tonight, Texas has restored the hope of a nation. I believe firmly that we can accomplish anything in this country if we just stand together and we fight back against hate and bigotry.” Tech worker Yvonne Nunga, 29, described a generational shift: “This party, this fight right now, is not about left or right. It’s about top vs bottom.”
Hinojosa Defeats Abbott Amid Border Policy Shift
Gina Hinojosa’s victory over Abbott represents a sweeping rejection of the governor’s decade-long collaboration with federal immigration enforcement. A daughter of the Rio Grande Valley, Hinojosa told supporters in Austin: “Everything is bigger in Texas, including the shock of this win. We shocked the world tonight… I am a daughter of the Rio Grande Valley, where the people embody the work ethic and values of our great state.”
A historic political shift in Texas has ended 32 years of Republican control of the governor’s office. Democrat Gina Hinojosa defeated incumbent Greg Abbott to become the state’s first Latina governor, while James Talarico won a U. S. Senate seat, marking a major setback for… pic.twitter.com/qeaLLfDixF
The margin shows a major change in Latino voters, especially young Latinos who switched the Rio Grande Valley, according to Mike Siegel on Democracy Now. An Austin City Council member and founder of Ground Game Texas, Siegel described car horns ringing across the capital. “The Earth shook last night,” he said.
Mike Siegel said getting rid of Greg Abbott, Ken Paxton and also Dan Patrick, the lieutenant governor, just means so much to the people of Austin, the people of Texas. He said these three individuals caused so much harm across the state in so many different ways.
The Latino surge came amid anger over ICE operations Abbott piloted in Texas before they expanded nationwide. The state spent billions on Operation Lone Star border militarization while refusing Medicaid expansion, leaving Texas with the highest maternal mortality rate in the country, especially among Black women, Siegel noted. Hinojosa campaign director Alejandra Peimbert told Al Jazeera the Latino community had been underestimated: “The economy is so bad, and the horrendous things that ICE has done to our community, tearing apart families… I think my community finally had enough.”
From Victory Parties to Policy: The Next Four Years
With Democrats controlling the executive branch and potentially the Legislature, attention shifts to governance. Siegel said Democrats must craft a “Project 2027 for Texas” to reverse the past decade’s damage—restoring public education funding, ending state collaboration with ICE, stopping Flock surveillance cameras, and reining in data center expansion that has jacked up utility rates.
Talarico’s Senate seat gives Democrats a vote in a chamber where they hope to investigate Musk’s role at the federal Department of Government Efficiency. Hinojosa’s election makes her the first Latina governor despite Latinos comprising 40 percent of the population, and a native of Brownsville.
Ronaldo Salgado Araujo voted Tuesday and placed his “I just voted” sticker at the memorial for his father, Lorenzo, a 52-year-old longtime U.S. resident shot and killed by an ICE agent in July. Other voters followed, Democracy Now reported.
Democrats now have four years to deliver. Democrats in Texas have four years to deliver—to show a different way of politics, a different way of government.”
🚨🇺🇸 BREAKING: Decision Desk HQ projects James Talarico has won the Texas Senate race, the first Democrat to take a Senate seat in Texas since 1988 Watch Hinojosa's lead over Abbott in the governor's race underneath it, because a Democratic sweep in Texas changes what every…
