Texas Republicans chose Ken Paxton over Sen. John Cornyn this year despite Cornyn’s warning that Paxton could put the seat at risk. Now they have lost it.

Democratic state Rep. James Talarico defeated Paxton, the impeached and acquitted state attorney general. He is the first Democrat to win statewide in Texas since 1994 and the first to win a Senate race there since Lloyd Bentsen in 1988.

The race was the most expensive of the midterms, with more than $500 million spent overall, according to the ad-tracking firm AdImpact.

Paxton easily won the May runoff with a late assist from President Donald Trump, but it quickly became clear he would need significant help to hold the seat.

After the 2020 election, Paxton led a failed lawsuit asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn former President Joe Biden’s victories in the battleground states of Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. In 2023, the Republican-led Texas House impeached him over allegations, among others, that he “misused public resources.” The state Senate acquitted him.

Democrats’ hopes of turning Texas blue had gone unfulfilled for years, and the state had moved further from them since the 2018 midterms and the 2020 presidential election. But concerns about Paxton in both parties helped Democrats end their long losing streak. So did a midterm electorate looking to rebuke Trump.

Talarico capitalized. He vastly outraised Paxton, according to federal campaign finance records, even as Trump and his allies worked to keep Texas red.

That Texas was competitive at all showed how difficult the midterms had become for Republicans midway through Trump’s second term. When the cycle began, Democrats faced a daunting Senate map: Their path to a majority depended on flipping a handful of seats in red states. Texas had long been elusive. Now Talarico has won it.

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