Trump is Texas toast as ‘Talafreako’ trounces Paxton in stunning Senate rebuke

In a historic victory that will rock Texas politics and pave the way for a Democratic majority in the U.S. Senate, Texas voters have elected Democratic candidate James Talarico, becoming the first Democrat in the state to be elected to the upper chamber of Congress in nearly 40 years.

Talarico is projected to defeat the state’s Republican attorney general Ken Paxton, who was endorsed by President Donald Trump despite investigations, a fraud indictment, an impeachment and endless scandals that were an albatross on his campaign.

Yet the president has repeatedly urged voters to get behind Paxton, who defeated Republican incumbent John Cornyn during the state’s Republican primary, and even traveled to the state to campaign alongside him on October 7 and again on October 19.

The race was among the most expensive Senate competitions in U.S. history with Democrats eying the scandal-plagued Paxton as a key target in a campaign to tip the balance of power in Congress and derail the second half of Trump’s chaotic return to the presidency.

Democratic candidates need to flip four seats, and hold onto their existing ones, to win the majority. Texas voters had not sent a Democrat to the Senate since 1988.

Trump, meanwhile, has repeatedly mocked Talarico as “Talafreako,” compared him to Mad magazine character Alfred E. Neuman and falsely and bizarrely claimed the Democratic lawmaker is a vegan who eats barbecue then vomits from “meat poisoning.” Paxton has also smeared Talarico as “Low-T,” or low testosterone, in an apparent attempt to question his masculinity using right-wing stereotypes that have dominated opposition to Democratic candidates in midterm elections this year.

But Talarico, a Presbyterian seminarian, was breaking fundraising records and energizing voters with a campaign focused largely on a growing cost of living crisis up against a billionaire- and corrupted-corrupted bureaucracy.

Talarico had even been leading several reliably Republican suburban Dallas-area counties that backed Cruz in 2024.

Senator Cornyn congratulated Talarico on Tuesday night.

“I look forward to meeting him and offering my assistance with his transition as he prepares to serve Texans in the U.S. Senate,” he said.

This is a developing story