From the Liveblog of
Wednesday, November 4, 2026
Israel-critic Democrat Talarico wins US Senate seat in Texas in historic flip
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State Rep. James Talarico wins the US Senate race in Texas, according to media projections, defeating US President Donald Trump-backed Republican Ken Paxton to end Democrats’ 32-year statewide losing streak and give his party a major boost in the battle for Senate control.
It was a striking Democratic breakthrough in a state Republicans have long dominated. Trump carried the state by 14 percentage points in 2024. Paxton, the Texas attorney general, has been at the center of controversies that include a 2023 impeachment and a securities fraud case.
Talarico, a four-term state legislator and one of the nation’s top Senate fundraisers, overcame heavy outside spending in the most expensive Senate race of the cycle. He began as an underdog against former US Representative Colin Allred, the 2024 Democratic Senate nominee, who later withdrew to run for Congress again.
Talarico went on to defeat US Representative Jasmine Crockett for the Democratic nomination, dealing a political blow to his former state legislative colleague.
Republicans spent more than $316 million to retain the seat. Republican US Senator John Cornyn was ousted in a primary runoff after Trump endorsed Paxton. Republican leaders had viewed Cornyn as the stronger general-election candidate.
Talarico said in August that he supported stopping arms sales to the Netanyahu government and conditioning military aid “on ending the death and the destruction in Gaza and the West Bank.” He declined to call the crisis “genocide,” noting that the term is being litigated in the International Court of Justice.
The Times of Israel Community.