AUSTIN, Texas – After decades of Democratic frustration, Texas delivered the political upset the party had long been waiting for.
Democrats swept across Texas on Tuesday, breaking through the Republican stronghold by capturing a U.S. Senate seat and reclaiming the governor’s mansion. The historic results marked a sudden revival for a party that has spent much of the past three decades struggling to remain competitive statewide.
Voters angered by rising costs and worried about corruption decisively turned away from President Donald Trump’s party. The outcome gave Democrats a powerful opening in a rapidly changing state of nearly 32 million people, home to one of the world’s 10 largest economies. Their gains extended to counties along the Mexican border, where Republicans had recently improved their standing with Hispanic voters, as well as congressional districts drawn to favor the GOP.
“This win is for every Texan who has ever wondered if anyone is ever listening,” Democrat James Talarico said after defeating Republican Ken Paxton, the state’s scandal-plagued attorney general, in the Senate race.
“I heard you. We heard you. And tonight, the world hears you,” Talarico added.
The victory ended a Democratic drought dating to 1994, the last time the party won a statewide contest in Texas. Democrats also elevated two new statewide figures: Talarico and Gina Hinojosa, who defeated Republican Gov. Greg Abbott and is set to become Texas’ first Latina governor. The party captured the lieutenant governor’s and attorney general’s offices as well, reinforcing its long-held belief that population shifts would eventually produce a transformation in Texas politics.
The losses are likely to reverberate nationally. Republicans have relied on Texas during presidential elections as a crucial part of their route to the White House. In Florida, departing Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis acknowledged the scale of the setback.
“Texas has been the most significant Republican state this century. A Democrat sweep of statewide races — and possible capture of the Legislature — takes away one of the anchors of the modern GOP,” DeSantis wrote on social media. “A huge loss.”
Now Democrats face the harder task of turning their election-night breakthrough into governing results.
Hinojosa’s administration could usher in a major political and cultural change at the Texas Capitol. Over the past decade, lawmakers have enacted one of the country’s most restrictive abortion laws, expanded immigration enforcement and loosened gun regulations, even as the state experienced some of the nation’s deadliest mass shootings.
But Democrats did not win by promising a wholesale reversal on abortion, firearms, transgender rights or the use of public funds for private schools. Their campaign centered instead on affordability, opposition to artificial intelligence data centers and attacks on political corruption.
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Hinojosa, a state legislator from a liberal Austin district who spent her childhood in the Rio Grande Valley, also stepped away from the openly progressive identity associated with her time in the Capitol. She minimized culture-war debates and emphasized populist concerns, including an economy strained by Trump’s tariffs and opposition to an unpopular war with Iran.
“The voter have delivered a mandate for change, and it is change they will get,” Hinojosa said. “We will lead with politics of courage, not convenience. Progress will not be halted by partisanship and Texas will bow to no one.”
Along the border, counties that backed Trump in 2024 moved sharply toward Democrats.
The Democratic surge was particularly striking in border communities that had shifted unexpectedly and decisively toward Trump two years earlier. Much of the Republican Party’s recent progress among conservative Hispanic voters vanished in Tuesday’s results.
An AP Voter Poll of more than 5,000 Texans who voted in the Senate race showed Talarico assembling a broad coalition. He won most voters under 30 and a majority of Hispanic voters statewide. Approximately three-quarters of voters younger than 30 supported him, along with about six in 10 Hispanic voters.
The shift was a stark contrast to just two years ago, when Trump carried Texas by double digits.
“Going into 2028, the Republican Party of Texas has serious work to do to begin the process of taking our state back from Democrat control,” said Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who was also defeated Tuesday.
In Dripping Springs, a suburb outside Austin, 63-year-old registered dietitian Karen Sites and her 21-year-old daughter, Sofia, both voted Democratic. They arrived at the polls cautiously, mindful that earlier Democratic predictions about retaking Texas had repeatedly failed to materialize.
Sofia, who has a transgender sibling, said Talarico’s backing of transgender and LGBTQ+ rights helped attract both of them to his campaign. She also cited frustration with Republican policies involving data centers and biodiversity protection.
“I’m hopeful,” she said.
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