State Representative James Talarico, a Democrat representing a district outside Austin and a former middle school teacher, won the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate in Texas on Tuesday, defeating Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett, a Dallas-area attorney and first-term U.S. Representative, in an expensive and fiercely contested primary, the Associated Press reported.
On the Republican side, incumbent Senator John Cornyn and former state Attorney General Ken Paxton will face each other in a runoff scheduled for May 26 after neither cleared the 50 percent threshold for an outright nomination. The race could hinge on whether President Donald Trump decides to endorse one of them.
In a statement following his victory, Talarico was unequivocal about his ambitions: “We are about to take back Texas.” The Democratic candidate, a former seminary student and middle school teacher who regularly draws on scripture in his speeches, held rallies across the state, including in deeply Republican territory.
Talarico received an unusual burst of national attention after CBS declined to air his interview with late-night host Stephen Colbert, reportedly concerned about provoking the Trump administration’s Federal Communications Commission. The incident triggered a surge in campaign donations. He also vastly outspent Crockett on television advertising, leading her by more than 4 to 1 through late February.
No Democrat has won a statewide race in Texas in more than thirty years. Trump carried the state by nearly 14 percentage points in 2024.
Crockett Contests the Results
Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett, who built her campaign around turning out Black voters in Dallas and Houston, refused to concede. Her campaign announced plans to file a lawsuit over voting irregularities reported in Dallas County, her political base. Crockett told supporters briefly that “people have been disenfranchised.”
Such incidents were indeed reported in Dallas County and in Williamson County, near Austin, where voters said they were redirected to different precincts under new primary rules. As a result, polling places were kept open past the scheduled closing time. Paxton’s office challenged that decision before the state Supreme Court, which ordered that ballots cast after 7 p.m. be separated from others pending a final ruling.
On the Republican side, Cornyn, seeking a fifth term, is trying to avoid becoming the first Texas Republican senator to lose renomination. His strained relationship with Trump is his primary liability. He and his allied groups have spent at least $64 million on television advertising since July to shore up his support.
Cornyn did not hold an election night event. Speaking to reporters in Austin, he was blunt about his opponent, warning that a Paxton victory would leave “a dead weight at the top of the ticket for Republicans.”
Paxton, for his part, reminded supporters in Dallas of his recent visit to Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s Florida estate. Paxton, who served as state attorney general from 2015 to 2023 and was a former state senator, remains popular among Texas Republican voters despite being acquitted in a 2023 impeachment trial on corruption charges and facing accusations of marital infidelity from his wife.
Trump did not take sides in the race. Both Republican finalists will now compete for his endorsement ahead of the May runoff.
A Primary With National Stakes
This Texas contest, along with those in North Carolina and Arkansas, launched the midterm election cycle on Tuesday, with control of Congress at stake and against the backdrop of the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran.
Further complicating the picture, Republican state legislators redrew congressional district boundaries at Trump’s urging, aiming to elect more Republicans to Congress. As a result, several Democratic incumbents found themselves forced into primary fights against one another, and new general election battlegrounds emerged ahead of November.
Among other notable results, Republican Representative Dan Crenshaw, a former Navy SEAL, lost his primary to state Representative Steve Toth, who was endorsed by Senator Ted Cruz. Former Major League Baseball star Mark Teixeira clinched the Republican nomination in southwest Texas. Bobby Pulido, a Latin Grammy winner and Tejano singer, secured the Democratic nomination in South Texas.
Credit: Associated Press
