Talarico wins Texas Democratic primary as Republicans face runoff – US politics live
📖 Full Retelling
<p>Republican contest in May could provide Democrats with opening to finally win over staunchly red state</p><p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2026/feb/17/sign-up-for-the-breaking-news-us-email-to-get-newsletter-alerts-direct-to-your-inbox?utm_medium=ACQUISITIONS_STANDFIRST&utm_campaign=BN22326&utm_content=signup&utm_term=standfirst&utm_source=GUARDIAN_WEB">Sign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your i
Entity Intersection Graph
No entity connections available yet for this article.
Original Source
9m ago 06.51 EST Midterm primary season begins with Talarico winning the Democratic race in Texas Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog. As the war in the Middle East rages on half a world away, the midterm primary season kicked off with James Talarico winning the Democratic nomination for a US Senate seat in Texas – and a Republican runoff . The contest between Talarico and firebrand Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett was an early test of competing political playbooks for challenging Republican dominance. “We are not just trying to win an election,” Talarico told supporters in Austin before the race was called. “We are trying to fundamentally change our politics. And it’s working.” Meanwhile, the messy Republican primary between the four-term Republican US senator John Cornyn and the Texas attorney general, Ken Paxton , ended in a runoff . A runoff is declared in Texas if neither candidate are able to capture 50% of the vote with just over two-thirds of the ballots counted, Cornyn led Paxton by less than two percentage points, with a third candidate, the rightwing congressman Wesley Hunt capturing about 13% of the vote. Paxton and Cornyn will now face that election on 26 May. National Republicans have been openly fretting that a win by Paxton – a scandal-plagued conservative culture warrior and darling of the Maga movement – would provide Democrats with the opening they need to finally win over the staunchly red state that they have not carried in more than three decades. Meanwhile, in North Carolina, former Democratic governor Roy Cooper and former Republican National Committee chair Michael Whatley won their respective primaries . In deep red Arkansas , where Republican incumbents like US senator Tom Cotton and governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders are expected to hold onto their seats, results came back as expected , with Cotton winning his primary and Sanders, who is running uncontested, always moving forward in the race. In other developments: Senate Republican...
Read full article at source