The marquee election on the ballot this year in Texas is for the U.S. Senate seat held by Republican Sen. John Cornyn, who is running for a fifth term.
While no Democrat has won statewide in Texas in more than 30 years, Cornyn's seat is an especially tough nut to crack. The last Democrat to win that seat was Lyndon Johnson, who was reelected to the Senate in 1960 while simultaneously running successfully for vice president.
This year's contest, however, is marked by an especially bitter Republican primary headlined by Cornyn, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt of Houston. Many Democrats believe that provides them with an opening. Numerous polls suggest their best chance will come if Paxton — who has a history of scandals and is in the midst of a high-profile divorce from his wife, McKinney state Sen. Angela Paxton – becomes the GOP nominee.
Two major Democratic candidates remain in the fight for their party's nomination, making it likely the party will choose its candidate on March 3, rather than having to go to a May runoff election. Both candidates, U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Dallas and Austin state Rep. James Talarico, visited Houston in mid-December on their campaigns across the state.
"A competitive primary makes us all stronger"
The pair of visits marked the first campaign swing through Houston by the two candidates since the field was settled on the last day of statewide registration the week before.
RELATED: Here's who will be on March primary ballots in the Houston area
Talarico had entered the Democratic primary in September, not long after the second special session of the state Legislature ended. Crockett declared her candidacy at the last possible moment before the registration period closed in December. Crockett's imminent entry prompted the previous frontrunner, former Dallas congressman and unsuccessful 2024 U.S. Senate nominee Colin Allred, to abandon the field and run for a U.S. House seat held by U.S. Rep. Julie Johnson, another Democrat from the Dallas area.
Crockett had been teasing her entry for months, and polling consistently anticipated that she would be a favorite if and when she declared she would run. Previously, she had hinted that she would likely run for the Senate if courts upheld Republicans’ mid-decade congressional redistricting plan, which targeted her Texas 30th Congressional District, among other majority non-white seats.
Talarico previously served with Crockett in the Texas House of Representatives before Crockett was elected to Congress in 2022. He appeared to harbor no animus over her entry into the contest, even though a Texas Southern University poll released shortly after she joined the fray showed her leading him by 8 percentage points.
"I think competition is a good thing," Talarico said. "It’s good in business, it’s good in sports, and it’s good in politics. I think a competitive primary makes us all stronger for the real fight, which is the general election in the fall. So, I welcome Congresswoman Crockett to the race. She is a colleague of mine. She is a leader in our state, and I look forward to a healthy competition that prepares us for the real battle in November."
At this stage, both Democrats are reserving their fire for the Republicans rather than turning on each other. Talarico said that, if Crockett wins the Democratic nomination, he will support her in the fall "1,000%."
"And I hope, if I win this primary, that Congresswoman Crockett will support me 1,000%," Talarico said, "because we’re on the same team trying to change the politics of this state and end one-party rule in Texas."
Crockett likewise pledged to support Talarico if he wins the primary.
"Oh, absolutely," Crockett said. "There’s no way I’m going to be out there with whatever Republican. That is for sure."
Having made that point, however, Crockett stressed what she argued were advantages she brought to the table compared to Talarico. She spoke of her experience working as a federal legislator as well as a state one. She stressed that she is a lawyer who has tried cases in federal court and would be better placed to work on the selection of judges and oversee the conservative-dominated U.S. Supreme Court. And she pointed to her superior name recognition as something that would give her an edge if she faces the eventual Republican nominee for Senate.
"People are like, ‘Oh, Democrats always say they’re going to expand the electorate,' right? But when you start off and people don’t know you, then that means that the monies have to be used to kind of just get people to know your name."
"You've got to get voter participation up"
Crockett was the first of the two major Democratic Senate candidates to swing through Houston after the candidate registration deadline. Sunday, Dec. 14, found her on stage at two different churches.
"I'm here to tell you that we deserve better," Crockett told an audience at The Fountain of Praise church in Southwest Houston. "We deserve elected officials that understand what it is to serve the people."
Houston Public Media spoke with Crockett remotely following her return to Washington, D.C. Asked about her approach to government, she didn't mince words.
"I take no [expletive] when it comes to making sure that I’m standing up for the people that I represent," Crockett said. "I think that I fit the ‘Don’t Mess with Texas’ theme, but at the same time, I am always willing to work with anyone who wants to do good stuff."
Crockett stressed her record of delivering for her constituents. She countered Republican claims that she was too left wing for Texas by pointing to the number of occasions on which she had worked across the aisle with her GOP counterparts, including Cornyn, on issues ranging from attracting millions of dollars in infrastructure appropriations to combatting fentanyl.
Crockett argued that experience makes her the ideal candidate to carry the Democrats' banner into the general election. She said her strategy was simple: focus on the issues.
"I think where Republicans have really been succeeding is in more of distractions and division, and I think we just need to focus on the issues," Crockett said. "Now, if [voters are] offended that I’ve got a ‘D’ in front of my name, then that’s fine. But I don’t plan to focus on that. I plan to focus on the economy, to focus on health care, to talk about immigration."
To try to snap the Democrats' decades-long losing streak in statewide elections in Texas, Crockett said the answer is to boost turnout among state residents who can vote but typically don't. She pointed to Georgia, which flipped two U.S. Senate seats from Republican to Democratic in 2021, as an example of how Democrats can win in Texas.
"We are one of the lowest voter turnout states in the country. And when you look at what it took for Georgia to actually be successful and get two [Democratic] senators out of that state, it took increasing voter participation," Crockett said." I’ve talked to [former Georgia House Democratic leader] Stacey Abrams about this. I actually helped out on their elections. I went to Georgia and helped out before I was even officially sworn in. And so, I absolutely believe that you’ve got to get voter participation up."
"Peeling people off from the other side"
Three days after Crockett's visit, Talarico took the stage at a town hall meeting at a reception hall in West Houston.
"Before I was a politician standing on stages like this, I was a public-school teacher, I was a public-school teacher on the west side of San Antonio – a beautiful, historic neighborhood, and one of the poorest ZIP codes in the entire state of Texas," Talarico told the audience. "I often joke that teaching middle school is the best preparation for politics."
Talarico said he entered the classroom in the fall of 2011, shortly after the state Legislature had cut more than $5 billion from public education.
"I saw first-hand the impact of those cuts on my students," Talarico said. "I saw class sizes rise. I saw programs get cut. I saw students slip through the cracks. I saw how decisions made in the halls of power hurt flesh and blood human beings."
In a part-time state legislature, where members typically hold a separate full-time job to support themselves, Talarico has spent much of the past few years attending Austin Seminary. While earning his Master of Divinity degree, he made a name for himself as one of the most outspoken opponents of legislation blurring the lines between church and state – most notably Senate Bill 10, a law that mandates the display of an explicitly Protestant translation of the Ten Commandments in all Texas public-school classrooms.
RELATED: As appeals court is poised to consider Texas’ Ten Commandments law, other legal challenges mount
Talarico was also a key figure in the House Democratic walkout last summer to try to stop Republican efforts at congressional redistricting. And while that ultimately passed, Talarico argues he's been effective at blocking other GOP initiatives and achieving positive results.
"I stood up to my Republican colleagues," Talarico said. "I defended our values, I beat bad Republican bills, and I was still able to work across the aisle to pass major legislation that helps working people, lowering the cost of prescription drugs, lowering the cost of childcare, lowering the cost of housing, supporting our neighborhood schools."
Talarico said he recognizes the importance of increasing voter turnout. But he argues that it will take more than that for a Democrat to win statewide in Texas. And that, he argues, is where his experience winning in a dark red district could pay off.
"I flipped a Trump district in Williamson County, Texas, that no one thought was winnable. A Democrat hadn’t won it in 30 years. I did that by exciting Democrats, bringing in new voters and peeling people off from the other side," Talarico said. "That’s exactly what we’re going to have to do if we’re going to win this seat in November."
Copyright 2026 Houston Public Media News 88.7
