Both the Democratic and Republican races in the state’s Senate primary had been expected to be close. On the Democratic side, James Talarico, a state representative, triumphed over Jasmine Crockett, a U.S. House member from Dallas. Crockett began to cultivate a national profile with a prime-time speech at the 2024 Democratic National Convention and has since become one of her party’s most popular messengers, using an often brash communication style to manufacture viral moments. Talarico, a former public-school teacher, enrolled in seminary while serving as a member of the Texas House of Representatives; he gained national attention after delivering a speech on the state-House floor, in which he criticized a Republican effort to require the state’s schools to display the Ten Commandments.

In the Republican primary, the incumbent, Senator John Cornyn, was forced into a runoff in May against Ken Paxton. Paxton, a MAGA diehard who, as the state attorney general, sued to overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 Presidential-election victory, has weathered a series of recent scandals. In 2023, he was impeached by the Texas House on charges of bribery and obstruction of justice, after allegedly using his office to benefit a Texas real-estate developer. (He was ultimately acquitted by the State Senate.) Paxton’s wife, a state senator, filed for divorce last summer on “biblical grounds,” amid accusations of adultery, which Paxton denies. Nonetheless, President Trump has so far declined to endorse either candidate.

In the Texas gubernatorial primaries, the incumbent Republican, Greg Abbott, won easily, and the Democratic state representative Gina Hinojosa moved on to the general election. Abbott, whose campaign has reportedly raised a hundred and six million dollars, is seeking a fourth term, a feat that would be unprecedented in the state’s history. Trump has endorsed Abbott, praising him for his role in redrawing Texas’s congressional map last year to more heavily favor Republicans.

Before entering politics, Hinojosa, who represents a district in downtown Austin, worked as a lawyer for public-sector union employees. In 2012, after her son’s elementary school faced severe budget cuts, she ran for a seat on the Austin school board, and has made support for public education a major part of her campaign. Her main challengers in the Democratic primary are Chris Bell, a personal-injury lawyer and former U.S. congressman from Houston, and Bobby Cole, a dairy farmer who has never held elected office.