James Talarico Wins Texas Senate Seat, Ending 38 Years of Republican Holds

Decision Desk HQ projected Tuesday night that Democrat James Talarico will win the U.S. Senate race in Texas, defeating Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton. NBC News made the same projection, and the Associated Press called the race for Talarico.

Talarico led Paxton 58 percent to 40 percent with about 58 percent of votes counted, according to preliminary results reported by Bloomberg. Those figures will move as counties finish counting.

The seat was open. Sen. John Cornyn held it for four terms and lost the Republican primary to Paxton earlier this year.

Talarico is the first Democrat elected to the Senate from Texas since Lloyd Bentsen won reelection in 1988. It is also the first statewide win for a Democrat in Texas since 1994.

Talarico, 37, is a state representative from the Austin area and a former public school teacher. He has served in the Texas House since 2018. Paxton is the state's attorney general. President Donald Trump endorsed Paxton in the primary and campaigned for him in the general election.

The race was one of the most expensive Senate contests in the country, with hundreds of millions of dollars spent by the campaigns and outside groups.

What it means for the Senate

Democrats entered Tuesday needing a net gain of four seats to take the Senate from Republicans, who held a 53-47 majority. Talarico's win is the party's third pickup of the night, after flips in North Carolina and South Carolina, according to election-night trackers. Control of the chamber was still undecided late Tuesday, with several battleground races uncalled.

The projections are not official results. Texas counties were still counting votes late Tuesday, and the outcome will not be final until the state canvass.