‘A win the size of Texas’: Democrats celebrate shrinking Republican dominance in a big state

Voters watched results in near disbelief as James Talarico claimed victory in Senate race and Gina Hinojosa was elected state’s first Latina governor

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“This is amazing,” exclaimed Tiffany Dunsmore, 44, the owner of Austin Scavenger Hunt, as the city skyline gleamed in the distance on a balmy night. “I cannot believe Texas went blue!”

For 32 long years, turning Texas blue had been an elusive prize for Democrats in the US’s second biggest state. There were false dawns, nearly men and broken dreams. But on Tuesday the party’s agony finally came to an end.

James Talarico was elected the youngest member of the US Senate, and Gina Hinojosa the state’s first Latina governor. The pair delivered the party’s first statewide win since 1994 and the jewel in the crown of Donald Trump’s midterm humiliation.

The plaza of the Long Center for the Performing Arts in Austin buzzed like a political festival, packed with taco trucks, craft stalls selling handmade ceramics and vendors stitching bandanas on demand. Expectations had mounted as a giant TV screens showed Democrats storming Republican strongholds across the nation.

Then came a great roar of jubilation when, at 10pm local time, it was confirmed that Democrats had claimed the ultimate prize: the Lone Star State. Supporters wearing Talarico T-shirts punched the air and hugged one another. Nearby cars tooted their horns. The weight of three decades had finally been lifted.

The last Democratic senator elected in Texas was Lloyd Bentsen in 1988, the year before Talarico was born, while the state’s last Democratic governor was Ann Richards, elected in 1990. Talarico’s breakthrough, defeating the scandal-plagued, Trump-endorsed Republican, Ken Paxton, helped power Democrats to retake control of the US Senate. Hinojosa, meanwhile, beat the incumbent governor, Greg Abbott, a titan of Texas politics who was running for a record-fourth term.

Lynn Jones, an 80-year-old writer from Round Rock, which is Talarico’s home town, watched the results in near disbelief. “Ann Richards is dancing in heaven right now – with Gina,” she declared. Asked what message the outcome sent to Trump, she answered simply: “It’s over.”

Dustin Hall, a 44-year-old IT worker and journalism student, saw it as a profound restoration of trust. He said of Talarico: “He’s a very honest, very decent person, a Christian who doesn’t use Christianity as a weapon.”

Hall added: “Ken Paxton was bankrolled by Elon Musk and other oligarchs. I do believe that James Talarico will be working for the people of Texas and not for the oligarchs.” He viewed the election as a clear “rejection of the Maga philosophy and the Maga mentality”.

Ziad Fanous, a 59-year-old software company chief financial officer sporting a Talarico campaign T-shirt, said: “I’m so happy, just ecstatic about it. It was wonderful. Texas needed this badly.

“I am surprised by the landslide and that makes me feel so good because it shows there is goodness still with people, that they’re not going to vote for somebody like Paxton, and they’re going to lean towards somebody like Talarico, which is amazing.”

Fanous added: “The biggest thing frankly goes beyond affordability. It’s about corruption on one side and honesty and integrity on the other. I hope that it changes the culture of America back to what it should be.”

Paul Fletcher, a 33-year-old tech worker born and raised in Austin, admitted he never expected to see his home state turn blue. “Commonsense Texans were tired of what has been happening to them in their state for generations.”

He cited rising living costs across Texas’s metro areas as a key driver alongside Paxton’s scandals, adding that the message to Trump and the Maga movement was clear: “Their policies aren’t popular in this country any more.”

Talarico arrived at the venue in his customary outfit: dark jacket, white open-collar shirt and blue jeans. In the main auditorium he spoke from a lectern mounted with a sign that said: “Love thy neighbor”. He was joined on stage by more than a hundred supporters, some wearing caps or cowboy hats.

The Democrat spoke of his tough upbringing, his Christian faith and his hope that Texas, and America, were ready to move on from the Trump era. “We are tired of being told to hate each other,” he said. “It has been 10 years of this kind of politics. Politics as blood sport, politics as trolling and owning, politics as professional wrestling.

“It tears families apart. It ends friendships, and it leaves us all feeling terrible all the time. 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 added: “This is a win the size of Texas. And now we have a mandate the size of Texas.”

It is, indeed, a Texas-sized shock to the US political system in general and the Republican party in particular. Texas was home to former president George HW Bush and is still home to his son, former president George W Bush. Trump won it by 14 percentage points in the 2024 election. Now it is the ground zero of his failure – a loss many Republicans believe might have been salvageable if he had not intervened in the primary to boost Paxton against the incumbent Republican senator, John Cornyn.

Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida, tweeted: “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. A huge loss.”

Yet in 2026, Republicans and their allies had been reduced to branding their Democratic opponent “James Talafreako”, “Tofu Talarico” and “Six-gender Jimmy”, implying falsely he is gay, producing an AI-generated ad showing him dressed in an outfit resembling Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music and falsely claiming that – horror of horrors – he is vegan. None of it worked.

Here Trump’s tactics failed, and the people rebuked him. Sasa Rodriguez, a 53-year-old graphic designer, said: “Everybody’s had enough. We’re not all stupid. Finally, this is happening. On The Daily Show when they go and interview people at Maga events they all just look like a bunch of idiots. We’re not all a bunch of idiots. Even the idiots are not idiots.”