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Democrat James Talarico won the U.S. Senate race in Texas on Tuesday, defeating Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton and giving Democrats the state’s Senate seat for the first time since 1988.
Talarico received 59.1% of the statewide vote, compared with 39.3% for Paxton, who was backed by U.S. President Donald Trump and tech billionaire Elon Musk.
“We defeated Goliath,” Talarico told supporters at a victory rally in Austin.
“In this race, we went up against our own Goliaths. The richest man in the world, the most powerful man in the world, and the entire Washington, D.C. establishment,” he said.
Talarico focused his campaign on lowering everyday living costs while also highlighting corruption allegations against Paxton.
Paxton, meanwhile, argued during the campaign that Talarico’s progressive positions on social issues did not reflect Texas values.
The Texas result was part of a wider Democratic advance in the Senate elections.
Democrat Amy Acton defeated Republican Vivek Ramaswamy in Ohio, while Democrat Cindy Holscher won 51% of the vote against Republican Ty Masterson in Kansas.
Those victories brought the number of Senate seats switching from Republicans to Democrats to five.
Texas also saw a major change in its governor’s race, where Democrat Gina Hinojosa defeated three-term Republican Gov. Greg Abbott.
Hinojosa received 56.5% of the vote, compared with Abbott’s 42.2%, becoming the first Democrat to win the Texas governorship since 1991 and the first Latino elected governor in the state’s history.
Trump criticized Abbott after the loss in a Truth Social post.
“Texas Governor Greg Abbott would not have lost if he hadn’t been a RINO for the last six months of his political life,” Trump said, using an acronym for “Republican in name only.”
Trump said Abbott had “gone back to his original formula,” adding that he did not like the shift.
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