Historic Election Results in the State of Texas

Folko Mueller

Posted November 7, 2026

On the midterm election night of November 3^rd, we witnessed an unprecedented blue tidal wave across the nation. Texas was very much part of this historic event: With Gina Hinojosa defeating Greg Abbott for governor, and James Talarico replacing John Cornyn in the US Senate, Republicans have lost both the governorship and US Senate seat for the first time since the 1990s.

The last Democratic governor to be sworn in was Ann Richards in 1990, and she only served one term. Lloyd Bentsen left the Senate in 1993 to be Bill Clinton’s Treasury secretary. For the last 32 years, or one generation, Texas has been firmly in the grip of Republicans. This has now changed. As the Guardian stated, Hinojosa and Talarico “delivered the party’s first statewide wins since 1994 and is the jewel in the crown of Donald Trump’s midterm humiliation.”

What happened — US Senate

The US Senate race pitted Democrat James Talarico, who was an educator and Presbyterian seminarian before entering politics, against Republican Ken Paxton, who has been the state’s Attorney General since 2015.

The Republicans ran campaigns that were dominated by weaponized culture war smear tactics peppered with blatant lies. Talarico was portrayed as a vegan weirdo with mental issues who simply doesn’t belong in BBQ-loving Texas. Insults ranged from “Tofu Talarico” to “Talafreako”, which he fully embraced and turned into official campaign merchandise. There were tons of “I’m a Talafreako” t-shirts to be seen at the watch party I attended.

Also flogged to death was a “God is non-binary” statement made when Talarico was speaking on the Texas House of Representatives floor against an anti-trans bill that was about to pass in 2021. In a Twitter/X post at the time, Talarico noted that “Over and over Christians used scripture to justify bullying trans kids. I told them in my faith, God is non-binary.” Opponents quoted the language out of context in campaign ads to further paint him as an outcast that is somehow not in touch with “Texan values.”

The Senate race was perceived as being winnable for the Democrats, as Paxton is not exactly well-liked even by his own party members. What was not expected was the extent of Paxton’s rout. Talarico won with 55.1% of the vote to Paxton’s 43%. Some outlets projected the win as early as 9pm CDT, just two hours after polling stations in Texas had closed.

Paxton got his spot in the contest by winning a primary runoff against incumbent John Cornyn, who has held that position since 2002. One major reason for Paxton’s landslide 28-point runoff win was a social media endorsement by Trump one week before the primary, calling Paxton a “true MAGA warrior,” whereas Cornyn “was not supportive of me when times were tough.”

Obsessed with fealty, this was Trump’s way to return Paxton’s loyalty by upholding the “big lie” that the presidential election of 2020 was stolen. Other members of the Republican Party, however, view Paxton as toxic, given his security fraud indictment in 2015 and repeated accusations of bribery, culminating in a 2023 Republican-led impeachment charge, including allegations of abuse of public trust and obstruction of justice. While Paxton was acquitted of these charges, what is public record is that Ken Paxton entered public service in 2002 with less than $175,000 in assets, is on a yearly salary of roughly $150,000, and his net worth has ballooned to anywhere between $13 and 27 million, mainly in real estate assets. Those assets have shown uncommonly sharp increases in value in 2026. Even a half-wit like George W Bush may concur that this is “fuzzy math”.

What Happened — Governor

The real surprise, however, was Hinojosa’s win, also cresting high on the blue wave. Greg Abbott, who has been serving as the state’s 48^th governor of Texas since 2015, lost by a resounding 52.8% to 45.7% margin. Trump’s message before the mid-terms everywhere was to “vote as if I was on the ballot.” Clearly, voters heeded the President’s advice in this race.

Hinojosa is a former civil rights lawyer for union members. She is of Mexican descent from the Rio Grande Valley, the poorest region in the state.

In the same fashion, Abbott labeled Hinojosa as “the number one most radical leftist in the state House”. He also charged her with wanting to implement “Sharia law” in Texas.

In the end, of course, all of this backfired, since most working people are far too busy dealing with the bread-and-butter issues that caused this nationwide tsunami. In the process, history was written. The last time a Democrat won a Senate seat in Texas, Talarico had not yet been born. Now he will be the youngest member of the US Senate and Hinojosa, the state’s first Latina governor. What is shocking is that it took this long, considering 40% of the population considers themselves Hispanic. Further down the ballot we find Letitia Plummer, who will be both the first Black woman and Muslim to be serving as a Harris County judge. Houston, the largest city in Texas, is located in Harris County.

What’s next?

Talarico intends to focus on campaign finance reform, to reduce the influence of big-money donors like Elon Musk, an “all-of-the-above-energy strategy,” meaning he will continue defending fossil fuel production, while investing in cleaner fuel technologies. He also pledged to serve no more than two six-year terms in the U.S. Senate.

During her campaign, Hinojosa said her main priority is public education. She promised to stop state takeovers of local schools and repair the damage from what she referred to as the “Texas voucher scam,” where public money is used to subsidize private schools.

She pledged to stop the practice of no-bid contracts, where state officials award government contracts to campaign donors and other “friends” without a bidding process, and use the savings to increase teacher pay.

She also intends to end the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness or “STAAR” test, which she claims fails to reliably measure student achievement. The STAAR test is Texas’s statewide standardized testing program that measures how well students in grades 3-8 and high school courses have learned core skills and came out of the “No Child Left Behind” Act from 2021. Most likely, she would not be able to undo this herself. Legislative change, a resolution of federal requirements, and maybe even a change in state law would be required to achieve that.

Hinojosa also pledged to put an immediate moratorium on AI data center construction in the state. This would have a direct impact on Musk’s plans, who left California to become a resident of Texas.

Texas and Immigration

As Texas has always been on the front lines of the immigration/“border security” battle, it’s significant that the two candidates’ campaigns are a bit murkier on this subject. Talarico’s campaign website states that “James Talarico believes our border should have a welcome mat out front and a lock on the door. His plan … hires more Border Patrol agents, cracks down on the cartels, and passes comprehensive immigration reform to fix a broken system.” He has also expressed a willingness to work with Trump to accomplish it and even praised the president’s efforts to secure the southern border. Talarico advocates for major structural and accountability reforms to ICE, while opposing its abolition.

Hinojosa has likewise acknowledged Trump’s success in reducing border crossings while criticizing Abbott’s immigration crackdown, called Operation Lone Star, saying that it “wastes taxpayer funds on political grandstanding.” Operation Lone Star is a joint operation between the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Texas Military Department along the Mexican-Texan border that was started by Abbott in 2021. She has been vocal against the Border Wall, finding it particularly unnecessary in the Big Bend National Park in West Texas. Hinojosa has also publicly criticized ICE practices and state detentions involving children and families.

Musk, the richest man in the world, threw almost half a billion dollars at Republican candidates in this election cycle, of which at least $168 million went to ads backing the despicable Ken Paxton. It is refreshing to see that in the end it was all for naught. There appears to be some resilience still to fascist tech billionaires blatantly trying to tip the scales and determine election outcomes.

While these historic wins are most definitely celebration-worthy, it is important for the organized left to remain vigilant, hold election winners accountable on their promises, and keep pushing those promises and progressive agendas towards their completion.