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Scenes form a Talarico watch party in Austin. TheJournal/Hannah McCarthy
texas turns blue
James Talarico and Gina Hinojosa pull off stunning double win for the Democrats in Texas
A changing of the guard in the Lone Star State.
DEMOCRAT JAMES TALARICO, a former schoolteacher and Presbyterian seminarian, won the US Senate race in Texas, becoming first from his party to win a Senate race in the state since 1988.
Talarico defeated the state’s attorney general Ken Paxton, a close ally of President Donald Trump who survived impeachment and years of scandal.
The result was a major setback for Trump, who threw his weight behind Paxton and made the state a campaign priority.
In another political earthquake for the southern border state, Democrat Gina Hinojosa unseated incumbent Texas Governor Greg Abbott.
Hinojosa, a 52-year-old attorney, becomes the first Latina governor of the Lone Star State.
The Texas senate race broke all spending records for a midterm election.
According to the Texas Association of Broadcasters, over $1 billion worth of political ads were placed in Texas for this election cycle. While organisations, known as PACs, supporting Paxton’s bid for Senate have received at least $158 million from South African-American businessman Elon Musk, according to US federal filings.
Ahead of election day, more than 7.7 million Texans or 40.5% of the electorate, voted either in person or by mail.
Many of those were Talarico voters who sought to celebrate his victory at a watch party in Austin, Texas this evening.
“I didn’t think there would be so much international media,” remarks one woman who has been helping with the campaign.
The scene in the Long Centre in Austin, Texas as Democrat Hinojosa unseats incumbent Greg Abbott to be elected governor https://t.co/uAty7mOj0E
— TheJournal Politics (@TJ_Politics) November 4, 2026
Another in the queue at the Long Centre in Austin is an Irish man living in New York who has been volunteering with the Talarico campaign.
He declines to talk to the media, citing his employer, but it’s clear Talarico has captured some of the hope Democrat voters need after several disappointing election cycles.
- With reporting by Hannah McCarthy in Texas
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