Source: Politics<\/p>\n
AUSTIN \u2014 Democrats\u2019 vision of a blue Texas is finally here.<\/p>\n
James Talarico has been elected a U.S. senator and Gina Hinojosa as governor, the first Democrats to win either office in more than a generation. The four other statewide candidates are leading as ballots continue to be counted. Democrats further down the ballot are leading some red districts, changing the complexion of the state legislature, congressional delegation and courts.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s something that I haven\u2019t seen in decades, that none of us have seen in decades,\u201d said former Texas House Speaker Joe Straus, a moderate Republican.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s an outcome that even the most bullish Democrats didn\u2019t dare enunciate in the late days of the election. But as results have poured in Tuesday night, the party is outpacing its expectations across the country\u2019s second most populous state amidst a national romp.<\/p>\n
Both Hinojosa\u2019s and Talarico\u2019s victory margins came by running up vote counts in Texas\u2019 deep-blue urban centers and while also leading in the largest Republican-led county in the country, Tarrant County. They reversed Republican gains across the Latino-heavy Rio Grande Valley region, an ancestrally Democratic area that had swung hard to the right in recent years. Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez romped to a near-20 point victory in a seat Republicans drew to favor them during last year\u2019s redrawing of the state\u2019s House map, ousting a top Republican recruit who campaigned alongside Speaker Mike Johnson to begin election day.<\/p>\n
It amounts to a set of remarkable results in a state that hasn\u2019t elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate since 1988 and to the governor\u2019s mansion since 1990. In recent cycles, Democrats have tried and failed to flip the state in presidential and U.S. Senate contests but have been largely uncompetitive for state offices. But Tuesday\u2019s blue wave slammed into Texas particularly hard, as it combined frustrations over the economy, immigration enforcement, data centers and corruption with a collapse of Trump\u2019s 2024 coalition.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe reminded voters that Republicans have been in charge in Texas for 30 years. That every problem we have, was caused by Republicans,\u201d Michelle Lowe Solis, chair of the Bexar County Democratic Party. \u201cThey aren\u2019t going to fix the problems, they caused them.\u201d<\/p>\n
As votes continue to be counted, Democrats appear poised to blunt the impact of Republicans\u2019 attempted gerrymander, likely sweeping the Rio Grande Valley congressional seats while holding onto another San Antonio-area district drawn to favor Republicans. In state Supreme Court races, they lead in all four seats up for grabs, potentially turning a 9-0 conservative majority into a 5-4 split. Among the first 36 state house races called by the Associated Press, 34 have gone to Democrats and just two to Republicans.\u201cVoters aren’t dumb,\u201d said Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.), who chairs the Congressional Hispanic Caucus\u2019 BOLD PAC. \u201cEven though the Republicans have tried to cheat with the series of gerrymanders, that has, I think, only made voters in those areas more willing to participate.\u201d<\/p>\n
Talarico\u2019s and Hinojosa\u2019s victories will be felt nationally. Texas Democrats, who have long asked for national money and resources in a state where elections are costly, now have a test case of how to win. And it will bolster their arguments that their state, with 40 electoral votes, should be treated as a presidential battleground.<\/p>\n
Ali Bianco and Jonathan Martin contributed reporting.<\/p>\n