Surveys indicated Texas Hispanic voters favored Democrats

Two Bush family members backed Talarico; Democrats ousted Texas Gov. Greg Abbott

Surveys taken since late summer indicated that a majority of Texas Hispanic voters disapproved of Trump and that Hispanic voters favored Democrats over Republicans by a significant margin, BBC News reported on November 4, 2026. The same account covered Democrat James Talarico’s defeat of Republican Ken Paxton in the Texas U.S. Senate race and Democrats’ ouster of Republican Gov. Greg Abbott. Many Texas Hispanic voters who spoke to BBC News before the election said Trump’s immigration policies and enforcement actions explained their change of heart.

At a watch party in Austin, the Texas state capital, television projections showed Talarico as the winner. Supporters hugged, kissed and drank to a result many said they had dared not believe would come true. BBC News reported that, for decades, Texas liberals had considered a Democratic win in a statewide race unlikely.

Polls throughout the campaign suggested state legislator Talarico was breaking through with voters and energizing a Texas Democratic base eager for new leadership. Talarico, a former schoolteacher who was little-known until the previous year, made the rising cost of living under Republican leadership a central campaign theme. He defeated well-known Dallas Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett in the Democratic primary and maintained good polling numbers despite negative advertisements, including attacks on past comments in which he supported transgender people.

Talarico also leaned into his religious upbringing. The grandson of a Southern Baptist preacher who spent time in a seminary, Talarico frequently used biblical references in his stump speeches.

Paxton sought to portray Talarico’s views as too progressive for Texas and campaigned alongside Trump on several occasions. Trump made multiple stops in Texas to support Paxton and other Republicans, including in reliably Republican locations. BBC News said the appearances signaled party leadership’s concern about turnout.

Two members of the Bush family backed Talarico. BBC News described the family as a Republican political dynasty whose political launchpad was Texas.

BBC News reported that spending in the race quickly made it the most expensive U.S. Senate race in history, with more than half a billion dollars spent. BBC News also reported that billionaire Elon Musk put $158m (£117m) into a super PAC supporting Paxton’s campaign; Talarico used that point in attacks on Paxton’s campaign.

BBC News also detailed Paxton’s legal history. Paxton’s own party impeached him in 2023 on corruption accusations before the state Senate later acquitted him. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission also indicted him on federal fraud charges, but those charges were later dismissed.

Voters were frustrated by high consumer costs, including the price of petrol, and largely blamed Trump’s tariff policies and the Iran war, BBC News reported. Hispanic voters and people living along the southern U.S. border also took issue with Trump’s immigration policies.

Despite border crossings plummeting under Trump, a development that had previously been popular with Texas voters, polls suggested that his support among Hispanics had weakened significantly. Hispanics make up a third of the state’s population. Surveys taken since late summer indicated that a majority of Texas Hispanic voters disapproved of Trump, many of whom had switched to Trump to help him win the White House in 2024.

Many Texas Hispanics who spoke to BBC News before the election said Trump’s immigration policies and enforcement measures explained their change of heart. The interviewees said the measures had led to citizens being detained and nonviolent offenders being rounded up indiscriminately.

Democrats also ousted Republican Gov. Greg Abbott on Tuesday in another upset, BBC News reported. Abbott’s defeat marked the first time a Democrat had won a race for governor in Texas since the 1990s.

George Washington University political science professor Quardricos Driskell said the combination of Talarico’s victory and Abbott’s defeat was “absolutely historic.” Driskell assessed that Paxton was a major part of Republicans’ downfall and called him an “objectively terrible candidate.” He said the Texas Democratic gains were not merely a referendum and described the broader gains as “A clear distinction that the country wants to go in a different direction.”

Talarico’s victory delivered Democrats their first Senate seat in Texas since 1988 and formed part of a Democratic wave of wins across the United States that helped solidify the party’s full control of Congress, BBC News reported. The outlet described the result as likely the single biggest upset for Republicans in the year’s elections. Texas, the nation’s second most populous state, has long leaned conservative, and policies routinely rolled out there under Republican control were later employed elsewhere, BBC News reported.