James Talarico Wins Texas Senate Seat as First Democrat Since 1988

The crowd at the Long Center in Austin was already on its feet when James Talarico walked toward the podium on Tuesday night. Results were appearing on a big screen behind him, according to Le Monde, and the 37-year-old former middle-school teacher raised his voice over the noise: “We just took back Texas!”

Democratic state Representative James Talarico won the United States Senate race in Texas, according to a race call from the Associated Press, as reported by NPR Illinois on 3 November 2026. PEOPLE and Le Monde agree that he defeated Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Tuesday 3 November 2026.

Talarico is the first Democrat to win a Senate seat in Texas since 1988, according to PEOPLE and Le Monde. PEOPLE adds that the specific Senate seat he won had not been occupied by a Democrat since 1961.

Talarico is 37, a four-term state lawmaker from Austin who has served in the Texas House since 2018, according to NPR Illinois, PEOPLE and Le Monde. He is a former San Antonio middle-school English teacher and a Presbyterian seminarian, and the grandson of a pastor, according to Le Monde.

A Seminarian Takes Texas

Le Monde reports that Texas voted overwhelmingly for Donald Trump in 2024, with a 14-point margin over Kamala Harris. Against that background, Talarico avoided divisive identity issues, according to Le Monde, and linked the cost of living to the fight against political corruption.

His campaign focused on education, according to NPR Illinois, and on opposition to efforts to inject religion into the public school system. NPR Illinois reports that he was one of the most vocal opponents of a law requiring the display of an explicitly Protestant translation of the Ten Commandments in all public school classrooms, a law which NPR Illinois says is now subject to multiple federal lawsuits.

Talarico first rose to prominence in 2018 by flipping a heavily Republican state House district which had voted for Donald Trump two years earlier, according to NPR Illinois. National attention followed a July 2025 interview on The Joe Rogan Experience and a February 2026 interview for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, which CBS declined to broadcast but which went viral on YouTube, according to NPR Illinois.

PEOPLE reports that Talarico advanced after defeating United States Representative Jasmine Crockett in the Democratic Senate primary in March 2026. Paxton, according to NPR Illinois, is a close ally of President Trump who had never lost a race since 2002, and who defeated incumbent Senator John Cornyn in a primary runoff, helped by a last-minute Trump endorsement.

Paxton also battled negative perceptions over past scandals involving alleged corruption in office, according to NPR Illinois, which in 2023 led to his impeachment by the Texas House, of which he was subsequently acquitted by the Texas Senate. NPR Illinois also reports his ongoing divorce from state Senator Angela Paxton over alleged marital infidelities, and this article keeps “alleged” in front of both claims.

The Sermon That Went Viral

The faith message that made Talarico nationally known, according to PEOPLE, was a now-viral 2023 sermon in which he called Christian nationalism a “cancer on our religion.” PEOPLE quotes the sermon: “There is nothing Christian about Christian nationalism.”

PEOPLE quotes a second line from the same sermon: “Jesus includes, Christian nationalism excludes. Jesus liberates, Christian nationalism controls. Jesus saves, Christian nationalism kills.”

The campaign also brought attacks, reported briefly and neutrally here as attributed campaign attacks. PEOPLE reports frequent attacks from the GOP, including from President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance, who “took shots at Talarico’s sexuality,” and reports that Talarico, who has been in a relationship with girlfriend Brianna Menard since 2023, called them “cheap personal insults.”

Le Monde reports that he was criticised for having said during 2021 legislative debates that God was “non-binary” and that there were more than two sexes, and that he had since largely distanced himself from those remarks. Le Monde also reports that rivals mocked his testosterone levels, meat appetite, cowboy boots and Chevrolet pickup, and this article reports those only as Le Monde’s account of rivals’ criticism.

Money Against the People of Texas

On victory night, Talarico told the crowd, as reported by Le Monde: “We just proved that all the money in the world is no match for the people of Texas.” Le Monde also reports his message that night about billionaires who own social media algorithms, cable networks and politicians, and who, in his words, want Americans at each other’s throats.

The spending figures in the race conflict between outlets, and they are kept separate here rather than merged into one settled total. Le Monde says Republicans spent $300 million to defend their candidates in Texas and that Elon Musk donated $165 million to fund Paxton’s campaign and television ads, while PEOPLE, citing The Texas Tribune, says Musk spent nearly $190 million on the Senate race. No single independant total is given here, and no final vote percentage or vote total is stated, because PEOPLE’s figures were partial counts with 67% of votes counted.

Readers can compare a separate race in another state in Breaking: Pastor Adam Hamilton Wins Kansas Senate Seat First Democrat Since 1932. Hamilton’s final campaign day is reported in Latest: Adam Hamilton Prays for Trump and Rival on Final Day of Kansas Senate Campaign, and the Texas faith vote is covered in Texas Black Out Sunday: 2,000 Churches Mobilise Black Voters for Midterms.

What Talarico does with a seat Texas had not given a Democrat since 1988 is now the question that will follow him to Washington. His first months there will test whether a seminarian’s language about neighbours, money and power holds its shape in the Senate.

But the most surprising part of this story is yet to come — keep reading.