---
title: "Talarico Defeats Paxton, Giving Texas Democrats First Statewide Win Since 1994"
description: "Gina Hinojosa also unseated Gov. Greg Abbott, and Elon Musk’s $224 million for Ken Paxton didn’t keep the seat Republican."
author: "rews desk"
published: 2026-11-04T17:58:22Z
modified: 2026-11-05T01:32:07Z
url: https://rews.cc/a/talarico-beats-paxton-for-texas-senate-seat-as-hinojosa-oust-8b40a9
language: en
tags: ["politics", "trump", "ai", "congress", "economy", "us"]
publisher: "Rews (https://rews.cc)"
---

# Talarico Defeats Paxton, Giving Texas Democrats First Statewide Win Since 1994

*Gina Hinojosa also unseated Gov. Greg Abbott, and Elon Musk’s $224 million for Ken Paxton didn’t keep the seat Republican.*

By rews desk · November 4, 2026 · https://rews.cc/a/talarico-beats-paxton-for-texas-senate-seat-as-hinojosa-oust-8b40a9

## In brief

- James Talarico beat Ken Paxton on Tuesday, the first statewide win for a Texas Democrat since 1994
- Unofficial returns show Talarico with 55% to Paxton’s 43%, a margin of about 1.2 million votes
- Elon Musk put $224 million behind Paxton, according to Time
- Gina Hinojosa unseated Gov. Greg Abbott, who conceded and lost by more than 700,000 votes
- Democrats won both chambers of Congress, and Abdul El-Sayed became the first Muslim elected to the Senate

James Talarico, a 37-year-old Democratic state legislator and Presbyterian seminarian, defeated Attorney General Ken Paxton on Tuesday to win a U.S. Senate seat in Texas, his party’s first statewide victory there since 1994.

He won on the same night that Gina Hinojosa, a Democratic state lawmaker, unseated Gov. Greg Abbott and Democrats took control of both chambers of Congress. Mr. Talarico is the first Democrat Texans have sent to the Senate since Lloyd Bentsen won his last term in 1988, six months before Mr. Talarico was born, [Fortune reported](https://fortune.com/2026/11/03/james-talarico-democrat-senator-texas-elon-musk-200-million/).

It wasn’t close. With nearly all polling places reporting, Mr. Talarico had 5,445,121 votes, or 55 percent, to 4,249,752, or 43 percent, for Mr. Paxton, according to [unofficial returns](https://www.click2houston.com/decision-2026/2026/11/02/texas-us-senate-election-results-ken-paxton-vs-james-talarico/). That is a margin of about 1.2 million votes in a state President Trump carried by 13.7 points in 2024. The Associated Press called the race late Tuesday, [Time reported](https://time.com/article/2026/11/04/talarico-wins-texas-senate-race-first-democrat-to-win-statewide-in-more-than-30-years/). The final polls had him ahead by less: a New York Times/Siena College survey showed him up 50 percent to 43 percent, [Houston Public Media reported](https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/politics/election-2026/2026/11/03/565938/talarico-paxton-senate-race-texas-results/).

![A blue Texas silhouette with a curling cream stripe revealing a red eastern section sits against a bright yellow background.](https://rews.cc/img/be1e33d6d16f59851ea3cad4b3af6df50db6d10b.webp)

Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, who lives in Texas, put $224 million behind Mr. Paxton, according to Time, part of $534 million in outside ad spending in which Mr. Paxton held a roughly 2-to-1 edge. A New York Times analysis cited by Fortune put Mr. Musk’s spending at more than $200 million, most of it routed through the Senate Leadership Fund. He gave the super PAC $75 million on Sept. 9 and $83 million on Sept. 23, and each time it moved nearly the same amount into a new group called Texas PAC the next day, The Texas Tribune reported.

Mr. Musk posted on X a little after 1 a.m. “Data centers in space looking pretty appealing right now,” he wrote, [404 Media reported](https://404media.co/american-voters-overwhelmingly-reject-ai-data-centers/).

Mr. Talarico ran mostly on his own money. By early September he had raised $72 million to Mr. Paxton’s $16.8 million. “This Senate seat doesn’t belong to Elon Musk,” he said on the trail.

![A tilted balance scale holds stacks of gold coins on the raised left pan and a folded blank paper on the lower right pan against a teal background.](https://rews.cc/img/0a72a44e1f0f27cd22217935e41bb77776c482ee.webp)

Republicans had been warned. Mr. Trump endorsed Mr. Paxton over Senator John Cornyn, a four-term incumbent, and Mr. Paxton won their May runoff by nearly 28 points. Mr. Cornyn had said a Paxton nomination could cost his party $150 million to $200 million to defend, and after losing he called Mr. Paxton “lazy.” Mr. Trump went to Texas four times in the final month to rally for Mr. Paxton, [Agence France-Presse reported](https://yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/talarico-flips-texas-senate-seat-042452269.html).

Mr. Paxton, 63, was impeached by the Republican-led Texas House in 2023 on bribery and corruption allegations and acquitted by the State Senate. He has denied wrongdoing. He never agreed to debate Mr. Talarico, who offered to let Fox News moderate, making it the first Texas Senate race since 2000 without a debate between the major-party nominees.

The attacks on Mr. Talarico didn’t stick. Mr. Trump called him “Talafreako,” and his campaign put the name on merchandise. In the last days, Vice President JD Vance made a crude joke implying Mr. Talarico is gay. He is not.

Turnout helped. Early voting reached 40.5 percent of registered voters, the highest early rate for a midterm in modern Texas, and more than 7.7 million ballots were cast before Election Day, compared with 5.1 million in 2022. Mr. Talarico led in Tarrant and Collin Counties, suburban places Mr. Trump won by 5 and 11 points.

![A line of people follows a curving cream path toward a dark ballot box surrounded by cream rays against a blue background.](https://rews.cc/img/619e5e86c74a4bbb066e7d796305ab1440544107.webp)

Ms. Hinojosa, 52, made Mr. Abbott’s push for AI data centers a center of her campaign, and he lost by more than 700,000 votes, according to 404 Media, which reported that he had accepted more than $9 million from donors tied to the industry. “There are still votes to be counted, but mathematically, we’re not going to be able to win this election,” Mr. Abbott said as he [conceded](https://www.click2houston.com/decision-2026/2026/11/04/greg-abbott-concedes-texas-governors-race-to-gina-hinojosa/). She will be the state’s first Democratic governor since Ann Richards left office in 1995, [CBS Texas reported](https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/news/texas-governor-election-2026-greg-abbott-gina-hinojosa-results/).

Nationally, Democrats had won 53 Senate seats and led in three more early Wednesday, [Al Jazeera reported](https://aljazeera.com/news/2026/11/4/democrats-win-the-us-senate-what-does-this-mean). By later that day CBS News [counted 54](https://www.cbsnews.com/live-updates/senate-election-results-2026/), with Alaska and Mississippi still uncalled. In South Carolina, Annie Andrews beat the Republican incumbent, Fortune reported.

In Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed defeated Mike Rogers and will be the first Muslim senator, [Al Jazeera reported](https://aljazeera.com/news/2026/11/4/el-sayed-defeats-rogers-to-win-senate-seat-in-michigan). “Donald, I know you struggled with my name,” he told supporters. “So after JD swears me in in January, you can just go on to call me ‘Senator’.” [He takes the oath](https://aljazeera.com/news/2026/11/4/rejecting-hate-abdul-el-sayed-wins-senate-seat-despite-racist-attacks) on Jan. 3.

## Sources

- [Talarico wins Senate race, ending decades of Republican dominance in Texas](https://aljazeera.com/news/2026/11/4/talarico-wins-texas-senate-race-ending-decades-of-republican-dominance) — aljazeera.com
- [American Voters Overwhelmingly Reject AI Data Centers](https://404media.co/american-voters-overwhelmingly-reject-ai-data-centers/) — 404media.co
- [Lone Star turns blue: Democrats Talarico, Hinojosa topple Texas Republicans](https://yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/talarico-flips-texas-senate-seat-042452269.html) — yahoo.com
- [James Talarico wasn’t born the last time a Democrat won a Texas Senate race. At 37, he won one despite $200 million from Elon Musk to stop him](https://fortune.com/2026/11/03/james-talarico-democrat-senator-texas-elon-musk-200-million/) — fortune.com
- [Talarico Wins Texas Senate Race, First Democrat to Win Statewide in More than 30 Years](https://time.com/article/2026/11/04/talarico-wins-texas-senate-race-first-democrat-to-win-statewide-in-more-than-30-years/) — time.com
- [Abdul El-Sayed wins Michigan Senate seat despite racist attacks](https://aljazeera.com/news/2026/11/4/rejecting-hate-abdul-el-sayed-wins-senate-seat-despite-racist-attacks) — aljazeera.com
- [Democrats win Congress: how they did it, and what it means](https://aljazeera.com/news/2026/11/4/democrats-win-the-us-senate-what-does-this-mean) — aljazeera.com
- [Abdul El-Sayed defeats Mike Rogers to win US Senate seat in Michigan](https://aljazeera.com/news/2026/11/4/el-sayed-defeats-rogers-to-win-senate-seat-in-michigan) — aljazeera.com