Democrat James Talarico Wins Texas U.S. Senate Race Over Ken Paxton

Democrat James Talarico won the U.S. Senate race in Texas, defeating Republican Ken Paxton, according to an Associated Press race call reported by NPR.

Talarico is 37 years old and a four-term state lawmaker from Austin. Paxton is the state's attorney general, the state's top lawyer.

Paxton had won the Republican nomination by defeating incumbent U.S. Sen. John Cornyn in a primary runoff. President Donald Trump backed Paxton in the race, according to Deutsche Welle.

The result ended the Republican Party's three-decade hold on Texas statewide offices, according to NPR. It was also the first Democratic win in a U.S. Senate race in Texas since 1988, according to the Texas Tribune.

Talarico first won elected office in 2018, when he flipped a heavily Republican Texas House district. That district had voted for Trump in 2016.

Paxton's record includes an impeachment, a formal accusation of wrongdoing. The Texas House of Representatives impeached him in 2023. The Texas Senate later acquitted him, clearing him of the charges.

Before the election, the Associated Press had described the Texas Senate race as a tossup, meaning neither candidate was seen as the clear favorite. In an earlier report, the AP said the 2026 midterm election was one of the biggest tests of Republican dominance in Texas in decades.