James Talarico Flips Texas Senate Seat Blue For First Time In Nearly 4 Decades

Screenshot/Rumble/KXAN

Democratic Texas state Rep. James Talarico became the first Democrat to win a Texas Senate seat since 1988 during Tuesday’s election.

Talarico ran a tight race against Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in deep-red Texas while the economy and corruption were top issues on voters’ minds. Texas will have a Democratic senator for the first time since June 1993, when former Democratic Texas Sen. Bob Krueger left office.

The race topped $500 million in advertisement spending, making it the most expensive non-presidential U.S. election in history. Republican outside groups and political action committees (PACs) spent over $360 million to support Paxton, while Democrats spent over $133 million on ads to support Talarico through late October.

Tech mogul Elon Musk spent about $212 million to support Paxton, including a $168 million donation to the Senate Leadership Fund, the Senate Republicans’ top campaign arm, which funneled almost all of the cash into pro-Paxton advertisements. Many of Musk’s headquarters, including Tesla and SpaceX, are headquartered in Texas.

Outside groups also spent large sums in other red states, including Kansas and South Carolina.

Talarico raised $64 million in the third quarter, the largest third-quarter haul of any Senate candidate in history. Former Democratic Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke raised a then-record $38.1 million in the third quarter when he ran against Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz in 2018, although he lost to Cruz by a two-point margin, 50.9% to 48.3%.

Talarico stated in 2021 that God was “non-binary” and told a podcaster in May 2023 that he loved transgender children when asked to name something he loved other than his children. He claimed that the biblical account of Jesus’ conception justified abortion.

The Texas Democrat walked back his claim on God being “non-binary” and said he was being “deliberately provocative.” He opposed a bill in the Texas state Legislature that would ban men from competing in women’s sports, although he claimed in September that he did not support trans-identifying men competing with women because it “endangers safety and fairness.”

Talarico expressed support for a gun-licensing system, mandated safety standards for handguns and a ban on modern semiautomatic firearms during a 2020 webinar recording. In the state Legislature, he co-authored two bills that restricted handgun sales and added new regulatory burdens involving concealed carry permits. He supported another bill that would raise the age to buy certain semiautomatic weapons to 21.

The Texas Democrat left the campaign trail for nine days during the first week of October, claiming he had a “nasty case of the flu.”

Talarico campaigned against Paxton’s alleged corruption, which became a top issue for voters. He said during a Fort Worth town hall that Paxton’s net worth shot up while he was in office and argued his legal entanglements should disqualify him from being senator. Paxton’s net worth rose from $174,000 when he first entered the state Legislature in 2003 to an estimated $13 million currently, according to Forbes.

Paxton was accused of misusing the office of the attorney general to protect and assist Austin real estate developer and political donor Nate Paul, who faced federal investigations, by allegedly intervening in lawsuits, issuing favorable legal opinions to protect Paul’s properties and hiring a special prosecutor to investigate claims helpful to Paul.

The Republican-controlled Texas state Legislature impeached Paxton in 2023 on bribery and abuse of power charges, although the state Senate acquitted him.

During the Republican primary, Republican Texas Sen. John Cornyn and his allies referred to Paxton as “Crooked Ken” and called him “corrupt to the core” in one ad. Corruption advertisements were the second most common topic for Democrats after the economy, according to a Washington Post review of more than 8,000 ads.

Paxton said in leaked audio that the Iran war and high gas prices were to blame for his struggling campaign. The price of regular gas in Texas averaged $4.16 per gallon as of Monday, while Diesel was $5.73 per gallon, according to AAA.

Voters largely disapproved of President Donald Trump’s handling of the Iran war, with 65% of Americans saying they disapproved of the conflict and 33% saying they approved, according to a Pew Research Center survey from October. Gas and food prices soared since the Iran war began.