Primary season kicks off with high-stakes Senate races in Texas

Voters in three states headed to the polls as the primary season kicked off with high-stakes Senate races in Texas, where a four-term incumbent Republican senator seeks to fend off a primary challenge from the state's starkly conservative attorney general, while Texas Democrats selected their candidate in hopes of breaking their decades-long losing streak in the state. The races mark the opening salvo in what promises to be a fiercely contested election season, with both major parties strategically positioning themselves for control of the Senate and setting the stage for potential ideological battles in the general election. In Texas, the Republican incumbent faces an intraparty challenge that highlights the growing divide between moderate and conservative factions within the party, with the attorney general's staunch conservative platform energizing the party's right wing. For Democrats, the primary represents an opportunity to reverse years of electoral disappointment in the state, which despite its population and economic significance has remained firmly in Republican hands since the last Democratic senator was elected in 1993.