Quick Summary
- James Talarico received more votes than Kamala Harris and Hillary Clinton.
- Democrats won every statewide race and Republican incumbents lost all state high court races.
- Republican-aligned groups outspent Democrats on ads in every statewide race but still lost.
While Republicans were roundly defeated by Democrats across the country in last week’s midterms, it was Democrat James Talarico’s dramatic defeat of Republican Ken Paxton that encapsulated the scope of the “blue wave” that saw dozens of U.S. House of Representatives districts and at least eight U.S. Senate seats flip to Democrats.
A state legislator, former middle school teacher and liberal Presbyterian seminarian, the 37-year-old Talarico beat Paxton by about 12 percentage points and will become the first Democrat elected to the U.S. Senate from Texas since Lloyd Bentsen in 1988, followed by Democrat Bob Krueger, who briefly held the seat by appointment in 1993 after Bentsen resigned to become then-President Bill Clinton’s treasury secretary.
Gov.-elect Gina Hinojosa also defeated longtime Republican Gov. Greg Abbott.
Here are four surprising facts from the midterm results in Texas.
Ian M. Giatti is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: [email protected].
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