The Texas Senate race between the Republican nominee, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, and Democrat nominee James Talarico has been decided. With 70 percent of precincts reporting, Decision Desk HQ has projected that Talarico will take the Senate seat. The first Democrat to hold the seat in 32 years. Talarico is ahead of Paxton 55 percent to 43 percent as of this writing.
An AdImpact report declared a combined $573.2 million in ad spending in this Senate contest, making this the most expensive non-presidential race in U.S. history. Texas voted early from October 19-October 31, and it broke records. Over seven million Texans voted early, shattering an early voting turnout record set in 2018.
After Paxton's May 26 runoff victory against incumbent Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), his candidacy against Talarico was slow to get out of the gate. Talarico set record fundraising numbers, and continued to participate in Hollywood and New York celebrity fêtes where more outside money was poured into his campaign.
As part of his Midterm Blitz, President Donald Trump held three rallies in the state to promote Paxton's candidacy, as well as other Texas candidates. Paxton also received fundraising help from trillionaire, Tesla, and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk with a $158 million cash infusion into the campaign. However, this was not enough to get Paxton over the top.
The Republican Party attempted to make the moniker "Talafreako" stick like glue. Republican and conservative groups consistently hammered into voters videos of Talarico's past statements like, "God is nonbinary," There are more than 47 genders, and his love of transgender children. Talarico being able to rattle off the top of his head his favorite drag queen didn't help matters. Talarico's most sketchy moves: The candidate was MIA for almost 14 days and canceled campaign appearances without explanation. When right-leaning influencers and the GOP began to bring awareness to this, Talarico's campaign claimed he had a bad case of the flu. The campaign staged a re-emergence by Talarico at an Austin music festival.
Despite being a candidate who does not comport with what is normally seen as Texas values, and his questionable and moderating positions, Talarico seemingly managed to convince enough voters that he would govern as a moderate Democrat, so the people of Texas promoted him to the United States Senate.