For the first time in three decades, Texas voters bucked single-party rule and elected Democrat James Talarico to serve in the U.S. Senate, sending a clear message to Republicans that they are ready for a change in policies and a change in discourse.
Unofficial election night results showed Talarico toppling former Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton by a significant margin, prompting the Associated Press and CNN to call the race with only about 27% of Texas polling locations reporting on election night.
The stunning, historic and decisive victory was more than enough to secure his place as the replacement for outgoing U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who likely would have been a shoo-in for Republicans had he not lost in the May runoff to one of the most
corrupt politicians to ever come out of the Lone Star State.
"We just took back Texas," Talarico said from his election night watch party in Austin. "We just proved that all the money in the world is no match for the people of Texas. We just showed that a politics of division is no match for a politics of love. And we just sent a message to every billionaire megadonor, every trillionaire megadonor, every corrupt defender of this broken political system in this state, in this country, power belongs to the people."
The victory for Talarico was far from an isolated incident as Texas truly experienced a blue wave with Democrat Gina Hinojosa toppling incumbent Republican Gov. Greg Abbott and other Democrats winning statewide up and down the ballot.
After his historic victory, Talarico appeared behind a "Love Thy Neighbor" campaign sign, underscoring a key theme of his campaign.
Raised a Presbyterian and a theology student who put seminary school on hold while he pursued the U.S. Senate seat, Talarico made his faith a central part of his campaign and shifted gears from the dogmatic, evangelical Christian standard to a fresh perspective where love, charity and grace were more than religious ideals; they became political positions that can be acted on to improve the lives of everyday Texans.
Talarico was able to build on a groundswell of frustration with President Donald Trump's "America First" agenda, which over the last two years has saddled Americans with sky-high prices for groceries and other basic necessities because of unneeded tariffs, increased the price of gas by more than a dollar because of an unpopular war in Iran, and injected a vitriol into American politics that has done the type of damage that will likely take decades to repair.
And unlike his opponent, Talarico's campaign did not rely on megadonors like Elon Musk, who injected hundreds of millions of dollars into Texas races in a bid to keep Trump and his ilk in power, it was a campaign built around everyday Texans backing a relatively unknown state legislator with a dream of unifying Texans.
To be sure, Talarico has an uphill battle as he prepares to take his place in the upper chamber of Congress — the Trump agenda still dominates Washington and Democrats will have to avoid the veto pen to enact any meaningful legislation — but he will be a key piece of his party's attempts to buck Trump and Republicans for the next two years.
The road to the U.S. Senate
Talarico was virtually unknown outside of Texas when he launched his U.S. Senate campaign in September 2025.Before becoming a member of the Texas House of Representatives, Talarico worked as a public-school teacher in San Antonio, where his work with at-risk and low-income students inspired him to consider a career in politics.He was first elected to the Texas House in 2018 at the age of 29 — during his four-year tenure in the Republican-controlled legislature, he served as lead author on more than 200 bills, 16 of which were signed into law. Much of his legislative action was aimed at education and childcare, but his bill capping the price of insulin was possible his landmark work in the Texas Legislature.
When he launched his U.S. Senate campaign, Talarico entered a contentious battle against U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas, who was well-known among Democratic voters and party elites and widely expected to win the March 2026 Democratic primary.
But Talarico quickly gained steam in the contest with multiple newspaper endorsements and an appearance on "The View," which sparked a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) investigation and added to Talarico's growing popularity. He ran afoul of the FCC again when he appeared on an episode of "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" that was broadcast online due to Trump's increased pressure on television networks, especially those promoting Democrats.
The publicity quickly made Talarico a household name well beyond Texas and on March 3 he bested Crockett to advance to the November General Election, which at that time was still a shakeup between Attorney General Ken Paxton and incumbent U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas.
Despite his myriad failings as a viable candidate and doubts among political observers that he could best a populist candidate like Talarico, Paxton won the May Republican primary runoff, ending Cornyn's time in Washington and setting up the Nov. 3 showdown with Talarico.
The campaign between May and November proved to be a scorched earth effort on both sides — Paxton sought to paint Talarico as a radical extremist opposed to traditional Texas values, while Talarico leaned on Paxton's various scandals during his time as attorney general.
The attacks on Talarico proved to hold little water, however, as even Republicans began flocking to his side, unable to even hold their noses and cast a ballot for Paxton, whose campaign lagged significantly behind Talarico's in terms of energy, activity and fundraising, especially in the final days of the campaign.By Election Day, Paxton's campaign appeared dead on arrival and Talarico's star was only beginning to shine.
The long road ahead
Throughout his U.S. Senate campaign, Talarico has left little doubt on where he stands on the biggest issues facing Texans, as well as those plaguing the rest of the United States, such as a growing affordability crisis, underfunded public schools, stagnant wages, a dysfunctional immigration system and ongoing conflicts in the Middle East. All of those priorities will certainly be front of mind for Talarico as he prepares to be sworn into the U.S. Senate on Jan. 3, 2027.
A key platform for Talarico throughout the campaign was eliminating the impact of wealthy donors on American politics, a scourge that has corrupted the country's political system since the landmark Citizens United ruling, which allowed corporations to spend unlimited amounts to influence elections.
Along with refusing corporate PAC money since his 2017 campaign, Talarico's plan for the U.S. Senate includes banning partisan gerrymandering nationwide, prohibiting stock trading by Congress, implementing congressional term limits and reversing the Citizens United ruling.
On the economic front, Talarico's "New American Dream" plan includes repealing tax cuts for the wealthiest 1% of Americans, universal childcare and paid family leave, closing tax loopholes for billionaires, expanding the Child Tax Credit and Earned Income Tax Credit and repealing Trump's tariffs, a major catalyst for the rising cost of groceries in the United States.
Talarico also has a slew of ambitious plans: he hopes to lower the cost of health care by allowing every American, regardless of age, to join Medicare and reversing Trump's disastrous cuts to Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies; he aims to take on big tech by ensuring data centers fund their own infrastructure upgrades rather than passing costs onto local consumers and giving citizens a cut of AI profit growth; and he looks to advance comprehensive immigration reform that includes holding ICE accountable for abuses, creating pathways to legal citizenship for some undocumented immigrants and overhauling the nation's beleaguered asylum system.
"This is a win the size of Texas," Talarico said on election night. "And now we have a mandate the size of Texas. This election was about chasing a vision of what this state can be: Texas public schools that are the envy of the nation; a Texas economy that is second to none; and Texas families that are stronger and healthier than they've ever been."
"It won't happen overnight," he added. "But a giant state deserves giant dreams."
Adam Powell covers government and politics for the El Paso Times and can be reached via email at apowell@elpasotimes.com.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: James Talarico ends 30 years of GOP dominance in Texas Senate race
