On a November night, as the ballots of Texas's largest cities were still being tallied, a snapshot of the state's Senate contest showed Democrat James Talarico holding a commanding lead over Republican Ken Paxton. It is the kind of moment in which a democracy's arithmetic briefly becomes a story, one that will not be settled until the last ballots from Austin, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio are counted. If the trend holds, Texas would send a Democrat to the Senate for the first time since 1988, a long silence finally broken, though the final word belongs to certified totals yet to come.
Talarico Leads Paxton in Texas Senate Race as Urban Votes Come In
On a November night, as the ballots of Texas's largest cities were still being tallied, a snapshot of the state's Senate contest showed Democrat James Talarico holding a commanding lead over Republican Ken Paxton. It is the kind of moment in which a democracy's arithmetic briefly becomes a story, one that will not be settled until the last ballots from Austin, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio are counted. If the trend holds, Texas would send a Democrat to the Senate for the first time since 1988, a long silence finally broken, though the final word belongs to certified totals yet to come.
As of about 10:30 on election night, the Associated Press count in Texas had Democrat James Talarico ahead of Republican Ken Paxton in the U.S. Senate race. With 58% of the vote tallied, Talarico held 58.1% to Paxton's 40.4%. The figures came from a live-updates feed the Washington Examiner kept running as voters decided control of Congress and several statewide contests.
Much of the vote still outstanding sits in four major cities: Austin, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio. The report characterizes these as blue areas, so the remaining ballots are expected to favor Talarico further.
The stakes are historical. A Talarico victory would make him the first Democrat Texas has sent to the Senate since 1988. The source offers no campaign reaction and does not say whether the race has been called. These numbers capture one moment in the count, and the true result will only be clear once the final tallies are certified.
As of about 10:30 on election night, the Associated Press count in Texas showed Democrat James Talarico ahead of Republican Ken Paxton in the race for U.S. Senate. With 58% of the vote tallied at that point, Talarico held 58.1% to Paxton's 40.4%.
The figures come from a live-updates feed the Washington Examiner kept running as voters decided control of Congress and a number of statewide contests. The Texas item was one entry in that larger stream, and it is short on detail. What it does say is specific enough to be worth reading closely.
The report notes that much of the vote still to be counted in Texas sits in the state's major cities: Austin, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio. The source describes these as blue areas, meaning the remaining ballots are expected to favor the Democratic candidate. Talarico was already ahead when the count stood at 58%, and the outstanding vote was concentrated in places the report characterizes as friendly to him.
The stakes of the result are historical. If Talarico is elected, he would be the first Democrat Texas has sent to the U.S. Senate since 1988. That is a gap of decades in a state where the Senate seats have been held by Republicans throughout that period.
The source does not include any reaction from either campaign, and it does not say which precincts or counties had reported by the 10:30 mark beyond the general point about the cities. It also does not say whether the race had been called. The numbers are a snapshot at a particular moment, not a result.
What to watch next is the remaining count from the four large cities and the final totals once counting is complete. Only a finished and certified tally will confirm whether Talarico's lead held and whether Texas has elected a Democratic senator for the first time in nearly four decades.
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Politics & Governance