Winner of the May runoff between Republicans John Cornyn and Ken Paxton to face Democrat James Talarico.
Published March 4, 2026
James Talarico bested state Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett in a costly and fiercely contested Democratic Senate primary in the US state of Texas.
Who Talarico faces depends on a May runoff between veteran Republican Sen. John Cornyn and MAGA favorite Ken Paxton, a race that is expected to become increasingly ugly in the coming months and could depend on whether or not President Donald Trump offers an endorsement.
Texas, along with North Carolina and Arkansas, began the midterm elections on Tuesday with control of Congress at stake and in the context of the war between the United States and Israel with Iran.
A jubilant Talarico told supporters in Austin before the race was called: “We’re not just trying to win an election. We’re trying to fundamentally change our politics. And it’s working.
“This is proof that something is happening in Texas,” he said, adding that the state “gave this country a little bit of hope.”
Crockett’s campaign said it planned to file a lawsuit over election issues in Dallas, and spoke only briefly Tuesday night to warn that “people have been disenfranchised.”
Republicans head to round two
Meanwhile, Cornyn is seeking a fifth term but faces a tough challenge from Paxton, the state attorney general. Cornyn hopes to avoid becoming the first Republican senator in Texas history to seek re-election and not be re-elected.
The Republican race also featured Rep. Wesley Hunt, who finished a distant third and conceded. But the fact that it was a three-way race made it more difficult for any candidate to reach the 50 percent vote threshold needed to win the nomination outright and avoid the May 26 runoff.
All three campaigned on their ties to Trump, who did not win any endorsements in the race. Now, both Cornyn and Paxton will once again compete fiercely to win the president’s favor.
Cornyn faced a tough enough battle not to have a party on election night. Instead, in comments to reporters in Austin, he tried to argue that a Paxton runoff victory would leave “dead weight at the top of the ticket for Republicans.”
“I have worked for decades to build the Republican Party, both here in Texas and nationally,” Cornyn said. “I refuse to allow a flawed, self-centered, brash candidate like Ken Paxton to jeopardize everything we have worked so hard to build over these many years.”
Addressing supporters in Dallas, Paxton noted that he felt like he did during a recent trip to Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s Florida estate.
He also proclaimed: “We demonstrated something they will never understand in Washington.
“Texas is not for sale,” he said.
