Democrats scored a historic victory in Texas’s midterm elections, winning a U.S. Senate seat and the governor’s race in a state long considered a Republican stronghold. James Talarico defeated Republican Ken Paxton to become the first Democrat to win a Texas Senate seat since 1988. Gina Hinojosa beat incumbent Governor Greg Abbott and is set to become the state’s first Latina governor. Republicans had held the governorship since 1995.
“We have just taken Texas back,” Talarico told supporters after his victory. The former teacher, who was first elected to the Texas House of Representatives in 2018, framed the campaign as a contest between ordinary Texans and powerful interests. Hinojosa also celebrated the result, saying the state had shown that anything was possible. People with Latin American roots account for nearly 41% of Texas’s population.
Hinojosa’s campaign focused in part on the rapid growth of data centers and the state’s technology industry. She accused Abbott of favoring billionaires and the interests of wealthy tech companies over residents, and argued that his tenure had made life in Texas more expensive. Abbott had entered the race with substantial campaign funds and prominent backers, including Elon Musk and an oil magnate.
Musk, who has several company headquarters and the Starbase spaceport in Texas, also supported Paxton with more than $150 million, according to the report. Talarico, meanwhile, received backing from members of the family of former Republican presidents George W. Bush and George H.W. Bush.
President Donald Trump had won Texas with 56% of the vote in the 2024 presidential election and repeatedly campaigned for Paxton. After the results became known, however, Trump criticized Abbott on Truth Social, saying the governor would not have lost if he had not become a “RINO,” or “Republican in Name Only.”
The Dallas Morning News described the result as the end of Texas’s long period of one-party rule. The state remains broadly conservative, the report noted, and uncertainty remains over how Democrats will govern.
Sources: Handelsblatt.