The Texas Tribune newsroom has reporters across the state tracking the election results. They’ll be posting their observations and analysis below all night.
Here’s are the top things you need to know:
- Gov. Greg Abbott conceded to Gina Hinojosa, in a stunning upset. Hinojosa, a state representative from Austin, will be the first Democratic governor since Ann Richards lost her reelection bid in 1994. She will become Texas’ first Latina governor.
- James Talarico won Texas’ U.S. Senate seat. The Democrat defeated Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican.
- You can see vote totals for all statewide and legislative races here.
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Early voting results so far show Jon Rosenthal outperforming his opponent, Bo French, in counties the GOP commanded in the primary runoff, including Denton and Tarrant in North Texas, and industrial Corpus Christi and Fort Bend counties.
To be at James Talarico’s election night HQ in deep-blue Austin is to be engulfed in cheers every time Steve Kornacki on the big screen shows us a Democratic lead across the country, even though the night is still young. The mood here is festive, with a band playing in the background and kids slurping down Amy’s ice cream cones.
An interesting early data point from the Panhandle: Talarico so far has 29% of the vote in Randall County, which includes Amarillo. Beto O'Rourke got just 20 percent in 2018.
A couple notes as we flood this blog. It is still early. We are still waiting to see early returns from some key counties, like Montgomery, which has long been a reliable Republican stronghold for decades.
In deep-blue Dallas county, Talarico leads the early vote drop, 73% to 25% (+48.) By comparison, Colin Allred won the EV drop here in 2024 (his home county) by 28 percent.
In a highly watched race for Texas Senate District 9, which Democrat Taylor Rehmet flipped in a January special election, Leigh Wambsganss is down but by a tinier margin than other Republicans in the early returns from Tarrant County. The district is partially in the county. President Trump won SD-9 two years ago by 17.4 points. Wambsganss has vastly outspent Rehmet.
In early voting totals out of Tarrant County, County Judge Tim O’Hare is down as are two Republican allies running for commissioners court. O’Hare has authored a playbook to implement far right policies through local government.
Early vote returns from Tarrant County show Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate James Talarico leading Republican AG Ken Paxton by 21 points.
State Rep. Gina Hinojosa, Democrat candidate for governor, leads incumbent Republican Gov. Greg Abbott by 16.6 points.
President Donald Trump won Tarrant County by 5 points in 2024.
Talarico is strongly overperforming Kamala Harris and Colin Allred's 2024 margins in the suburban early vote. He won the early vote drop in Tarrant County (Fort Worth + suburbs) by 21 percentage points, Denton (north of Tarrant) by 9 percentage points and Williamson (outside Austin) by 24%.
We have an early vote drop of 293k ballots in Denton County. This is a bellwether — it voted a hair to the left of the state in 2024; Trump won it by 13%. Talarico leads this drop 53.6% to Paxton's 44.8%. Gina Hinojosa is running about 6 points behind Talarico here, leading the drop 51-48.
A stat I can't stop thinking about: In 2024, nearly one in four Texas votes came from just four North Texas counties — Dallas, Tarrant, Collin and Denton. If you're looking to read tea leaves tonight, I'd start there. More deets from Gabby Birenbaum's suburban reporting: texastribune.org/2026/09/24/texas-paxton-talarico-hesitant-republican-voters
People who got in line to vote by 7 p.m. can still vote. See more about voter rights in our guide: trib.it/5bV9S8
It’s 7 p.m., which means polls have closed across most of Texas. Counties will soon start posting early-vote returns, our first look at how the results are shaking out. Follow along on our live results page: apps.texastribune.org/features/2026/texas-general-election-live-results-2026
Tonight I’ll be watching the race for Texas Agriculture Commissioner. The winner will be the first new commissioner in more than a decade.
This year’s race has been more competitive than in past years. As Eleanor mentioned, rural Texas is angry about data centers. Clayton Tucker, the Democratic nominee for Agriculture Commissioner, tapped into that anger throughout his campaign. https://www.texastribune.org/2026/10/15/texas-election-2026-agriculture-commissioner-nate-sheets-clayton-tucker/
Tonight I’m following who will be elected to regulate Texas oil and gas, an abnormally hot race that folks across the country are now watching as well after Bo French, the Republican nominee, went viral for a racist tweet in September.
French won his runoff matchup against Jim Wright in June, in part thanks to a boost voters gave him in densely populated North Texas, as well as several others along the Gulf Coast. Leaders in that region, including the Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker, have already begun to break with French because of his comments. We’ll see whether the region follows suit. Also watching for Jon Rosenthal, the Democrat, and whether he can sway swing voters that supported Wright.
There’s been a lot of discussion of how big the gap might be between Paxton and Abbott. But another interesting trend to keep track of, in counties that are fully contained in one congressional district: is there a gap between Paxton and U.S. House Republicans? And if so, how big? That can tell us how many reliable Republicans either skipped the Senate race or crossed over to vote for Talarico.
As Eleanor pointed out: There was a lot of anger in rural Texas this year. I'll be looking too see if there is a split between those counties in East Texas, closer to Interstate 35 and the bigger cities, and those in West Texas.
Since the May 26 runoff, we have been reporting on Republicans who supported Cornyn about whether they would back Paxton. To be sure, there are suggestions many have — but some have told us they can’t overlook Paxton’s numerous scandals. We profiled nine such voters in July. You can read about them here: texastribune.org/2026/07/13/texas-gop-voters-john-cornyn-ken-paxton-james-talarico-us-senate
On the Mark Davis Show yesterday, Paxton made his closing pitch to voters who supported John Cornyn in the Republican primary — a group Talarico has been courting.
"How many of John Cornyn’s supporters really want boys in girls’ sports?" Paxton said. "How many of them want trans-ing of children? How many of them want a state income tax? How many of them want an unsecure, open border? How many of them want to eliminate the oil and gas industry? I don’t think those are John Cornyn’s voters. They don’t want that. And so, you can say, oh I’m mad. Well, then you’re contributing to potentially electing a guy that’s for all of that and is against everything that we believe."
