Democrat Talarico wins Texas Senate race, first since 1994

Austin — Democrat James Talarico has won the US Senate race in Texas, defeating state attorney general Ken Paxton and becoming the first Democrat to win statewide office there since 1994, media projections showed. The result ends three decades of Republican dominance in America's largest conservative state and deals a heavy blow to President Donald Trump, who had intervened in the Republican primary to back Paxton over incumbent John Cornyn.

"We just took back Texas," Talarico told supporters at a victory speech in Austin, according to Al Jazeera. "We just proved that all the money in the world is no match for the people of Texas." The Guardian reported the jubilant senator-elect declared: "Tonight we defeated Goliath."

The money behind Goliath was considerable. Spending in the race topped half a billion dollars, a record, with the largest share — at least $212m — coming from Elon Musk in support of Paxton, Al Jazeera reported. Musk's SpaceX is based in Texas. Yet Paxton, a close Trump ally whom The Hindu described as scandal-ridden, failed to generate enthusiasm even within his own party.

Texas was the headline of a brutal night for Republicans. In North Carolina, Democrat Roy Cooper defeated Michael Whatley, the former Republican National Committee chairman handpicked by Trump, while Senator Jon Ossoff held Georgia for the Democrats. The Hindu reported the vote amounted to a nationwide judgment on Trump's turbulent second term, with discontent over living costs, tariffs and the US war against Iran — which has driven fuel prices sharply higher — weighing on his party. That economic frustration, visible long before polls opened, now has a price tag in lost seats.

The Democratic sweep in Texas extended to the governor's mansion, where Gina Hinojosa won a race considered a long shot days before the vote. She becomes the state's first Latina governor, in a state where Latinos make up 40 percent of the population.

The next test comes when the new Congress convenes. Democrats are expected to investigate Musk's role as head of the federal cost-cutting Department of Government Efficiency if final results confirm their control — a reckoning that would put the night's biggest spender under oath.