AUSTIN — The blue wave Texas had been promised for years finally crested Tuesday night as Democrats James Talarico, Gina Hinojosa and Vikki Goodwin won the state’s contested U.S. Senate seat, the governorship and the lieutenant governorship.
The wins ended the traditionally red state’s three-decade shutout of Democrats from statewide public office. Along the way, the trio flipped conservative Tarrant County blue, outperformed in South Texas and even picked up traditionally red suburbs north of Dallas.
“From day one to Election Night, James Talarico ran a people-powered campaign — raising record numbers in grassroots donations, garnering millions of views on social media and meeting Texans where they are in every region of the state,” Talarico campaign spokesperson Abbey Swartzwelder told the Current. “This is how we take back Texas.”
Optimism was running high at Talarico’s campaign headquarters heading into Election Night, but few predicted that the top two elected posts in Texas government would also flip.
Talarico — an Austin-area state rep and former San Antonio school teacher led Republican rival Ken Paxton by roughly 2 points since July in RealClearPolitics’ aggregate polling. Over the course of the campaign, Talarico raised $175 million — the largest fundraising haul ever for a campaign without a runoff.
Although Talarico’s campaign spent much of its haul on TV ads, the campaign also heavily prioritized its social media presence, amassing 2.5 million followers across platforms and generating more than 3 billion views of its content.
The campaign also drew on more than 60,000 volunteers, who helped coordinate more than 100 well-attended in-person rallies, some of which featured celebrity speakers such as Hollywood actress Eva Longoria.
The last time a Democrat came this close to winning a statewide seat in the Lone Star State was in 2018, when Beto O’Rourke came within two points of defeating U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz.
However, things were considerably different in 2026. Voters nationwide viewed the midterm as a referendum on the increasingly unpopular President Donald Trump, according to political experts.
What’s more, while Cruz was widely disliked, Paxton went into this cycle’s race with scandals that included an impeachment by the Republican-controlled Texas House, accusations of abuse of office by top aides and allegations of extramarital affairs.
“You could describe Cruz as obnoxious, but not disqualifyingly obnoxious,” Southern Methodist University political science professor Cal Jillson told the Current. “Where I think with Paxton, you do have a disqualifyingly obnoxious candidate, particularly when compared to [Talarico]. Talarico is young, articulate, squeaky clean. And if, as his opponent did, all you’ve got on him is that he is not a beef eater at every meal, that’s not much. The contrast between Talarico and Paxton is so glaring.”
Indeed, even billionaire Elon Musk’s last-minute $160 million donation to Paxton’s campaign couldn’t save the candidate from the wrath of voters.
“Watching a billionaire put in $160 million of his own money to tip a race that looked like it was going the other way by popular vote is a bad look,” Jillson said. “So, I think that Talarico was able to connect Elon Musk and his control of tremendous resources to threats to democracy and to the election and the vote. That came as there was an excitement in the public about what looked like it might be a close race that could give Democrats their first statewide win in a long time.”
While thousands piled into Talarico’s watch party at Austin’s Long Center, another, rather unexpected party was forming on East 7th Street in the capital city for Hinojosa, who’s also an Austin state rep.
Surprise victory
Hinojosa was not supposed to win Tuesday night, becoming the first Latina elected governor in the state’s history. RealClearPolitics’ aggregate polling had her trailing Abbott by more than 2 percentage points for the final weeks of the campaign — results eerily similar to O’Rourke’s 2018 numbers.
While experts say Talarico’s success at driving Democratic turnout helped Hinojosa, she also built on her own base, focusing on pissed-off teachers and parents who felt betrayed by Abbott’s school voucher program, which is projected to cost the state’s public schools about $300 million in lost funding.
She also leaned into an economic populist message by promising a moratorium on data centers, pledging to send Texans a $1,500 “Greg Abbott Corruption Tax” refund and promising to expand health insurance coverage — the latter a major concern among voters in the nation’s most uninsured state.
Abbott, meanwhile, refused to debate Hinojosa, accused her of wanting to bring “Sharia Law” to Texas and warned that she would implement a state income tax — something an amendment to the Texas Constitution makes nearly impossible.
University of Texas at San Antonio political science professor Jon Taylor said the election cycle shows voters’ general ambivalence toward Abbott. Polling showed the incumbent below 50% approval early this year, and his numbers have slid backward since then.
Beyond that, the Abbott campaign’s messaging seemed stuck in an earlier era, when he faced weak and underfunded candidates. Meanwhile, Hinojosa’s team was agile on social media and went on the attack.
“Greg Abbott is the poster boy for term limits, much like his predecessor as governor, Rick Perry,” Taylor said. “You’ve got to think this is his last rodeo, win or lose.”
THC Vikki
Between Talarico’s watch-party rager and Hinojosa’s unexpected fiesta was Austin’s Hyatt Regency, where Goodwin held her watch party.
Goodwin — again, a state representative and, again, from Austin — had a lengthy list of priorities, including health care. However, what seemed to stick in many voters’ minds was her promise to shut down Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s war on weed by sending the Republican home from the capital.
While campaigning, Goodwin visited smoke shops, met with hemp enthusiasts, and told veterans — who make up about 7% of Texas’ total population — that she would make legalizing recreational marijuana among her top priorities.
It remains to be seen whether that approach drove her over the top, but it certainly put her in sharp contrast to Patrick, who seemed to relish his using his control of the Texas Senate’s agenda to roadblock cannabis reform.
William Hunter, the owner of San Antonio-based smoke shop chain Kingpin Kush, told the Current that his shops registered more than 4,500 customers to vote — and vote against Patrick.
Goodwin’s victory suggested many of those newly registered voters showed up.
“[The THC industry] did $5 billion in sales tax revenue for the state last year,” Hunter said. “The problem is that’s $5 billion in revenue not going to pharmaceutical companies or alcohol companies. That’s money that they’re losing, so they’re trying to lobby politicians and kill the industry. The only way we can fight this is we’ve got to get involved in politics.”
What’s next
Talarico, Hinojosa and Goodwin will be sworn into office in January. But Republicans are already exploring options to derail Democratic control.
Texas Senate Republicans have been quietly working on a scheme to strip the lieutenant governor of all legislative powers should Goodwin beat Patrick, according to recent reporting by the Texas Tribune.
Meanwhile, pro-democracy advocates have already warned that Trump and his allies are likely to take legal action to undo Democratic election victories.
However, with Democrats now in control of both chambers of Congress, and a clearly furious population, any effort to dim the people’s will could be met with even more public backlash.
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