Democratic U.S. senator-elect James Talarico told reporters last week after his decisive win over Republican Ken Paxton that his win was not so much a partisan triumph as a call for something different in Washington, The Dallas Morning News reported.
Talarico said his winning coalition was united by economic frustration and a desire for change.
“People across the political spectrum are hungry for a different kind of politics. Not a politics of hate, not a politics of fear, not a politics of division, but a politics of love,” he said.
When asked if Democrats should concentrate on legislative priorities or investigating the Trump administration, he rejected it as a false choice.
“Our top priority has to be delivering for the people of Texas, for the people of this country,” Talarico said. “They didn't send us to Washington for political retribution.”
Talarico’s six-year term as the state’s first Democratic U.S. senator in more than 30 years begins when he is sworn in on Jan. 3.
Hinojosa set to make key appointments after winning governor’s race
Gina Hinojosa, the Democratic state legislator from Austin who made history by being elected the state’s first Latina governor, is likely to make dozens of key appointments in her first few months of office, the San Antonio Express-News reported. She will be inaugurated on Jan. 19 on the south steps of the Texas State Capitol.
In her victory speech on Nov. 3, Hinojosa promised to fire Texas Education Agency Commissioner Mike Morath on “day one” in office. He likely is not the only appointee of outgoing Gov. Greg. Abbott facing an uncertain future. The governor has the power to reshape Texas government by appointing leaders of the state’s agencies and public university systems, including the boards at the University of Texas, Texas A&M University, and Texas Tech University. She will also appoint a new Secretary of State not long after assuming office.
Hinojosa said last month that she would take each appointment on a “case-by-case basis” to find the most qualified candidates.
“What has happened in Texas is it has become a pay-to-play government, where it is Greg Abbott’s donors who are appointed to everything,” she said.
During her campaign, Hinojosa also vowed to end the state’s $1 billion school voucher program and halt state takeovers of public-school districts. The former Austin ISD school board trustee said she would “work tirelessly to repair the damage caused by the Texas voucher scam and end an era in which our schools are sold for parts.”
While she can’t repeal the voucher program on her own, the new governor can use line-item veto power to eliminate funding for it.
Dems will take control of Texas House in 2027 session
In addition to winning every statewide race on the ballot, Democrats will hold a majority in the Texas House when lawmakers convene in January. The final number of changed seats was still unknown as of two days after the election, with some races still uncalled. The Associated Press reported that Democrats flipped 14 state House seats and led in the eight uncalled races. Winning all eight would give them an 84-66 majority.
The Texas Senate is a different story, with Republicans maintaining their 19-12 majority. There will be two Senate vacancies in January when Democratic senator Sarah Eckhardt of Austin takes over as comptroller and Democrat Nathan Johnson of Dallas becomes attorney general. Lt. Gov.-elect Vicki Goodwin, another Democrat, will preside over the Senate after defeating incumbent Republican Dan Patrick for that historically powerful post.
University of Texas political scientist Joshua Blank said Goodwin, an Austin state representative, will have considerable power even if Senate Republicans unite against her.
“There are certain powers as the presiding officer over the body that Republicans will have a hard time removing from the lieutenant governor,” he said.
Republicans lost ground in rural Texas
The Texas Tribune reported that voters in many of the state’s most reliable red counties either voted for Democrats or stayed home, resulting in Texas Republicans losing considerable ground in rural Texas. About 90 percent of the counties that saw a drop in voter turnout were rural.
Talarico closed the party vote gap in rural counties by about 10 percentage points since 2018 and outperformed Beto O’ Rourke’s 2018 margin in exurban counties by about 15 percentage points.
“This tells us that you can’t take rural Texas for granted,” Drew Landry, a political science professor at Levelland College, said. “Republicans were really trying everything to gin up support, but they didn’t want to talk about the big issues, and they paid the political price for it.”
The largest increase in voter turnout occurred in the state’s border counties, up 8.2 percentage points since 2022, followed by urban counties, up 7.9 percentage points. Rural counties, by comparison, saw turnout rise 1.4 percentage points.
Patrick’s loss could mean change in cannabis laws
Outgoing Lt. Gov. Patrick was a fierce opponent of legalizing marijuana and worked to ban the sale of any products containing THC, the primary psychoactive compound in the cannabis plant. That bill was vetoed by Abbott, but stricter regulations have since been enacted.
Patrick’s defeat could mean a change, since Goodwin campaigned on legalizing marijuana, the Austin American-Statesman reported.
During her campaign, she said that tax revenues from marijuana sales could help fund health insurance coverage for the 5 million uninsured Texans.
However, with the Senate still dominated by Republicans, it remains unclear whether a legalization bill can pass that chamber.
Cruz is now Texas’ only statewide GOP lawmaker
Ted Cruz woke up Wednesday morning as the state’s only statewide elected Republican lawmaker as of January, the Express-News noted, leaving questions about his political future, though he still has four years left on his term.
Cruz campaigned extensively for GOP candidates across the country in a failed bid to save his party’s congressional majorities. On Wednesday evening, he described the midterms as a “Watergate-level repudiation.”
With Democrats taking control of the U.S. Senate in January, Cruz will lose his chairmanship of the powerful Commerce, Transportation and Science Committee. Speculation that he would run for president in 2028 is now leavened with the reality that his full-throated defense of Trump might cause him to rethink that plan, as one conservative radio host said.
“The Texas Republicans are very unpopular right now, and he’s one of them,” Kenny Webster said.
Gary Borders is a veteran award-winning Texas journalist. He published a number of community newspapers in Texas during a 30-year span, including in Longview, Fort Stockton, Nacogdoches, Lufkin and Cedar Park. Email: gborders@texaspress.com.
