On one of the wilder Election Days in recent memory, state Rep. James Talarico defeated U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett for the Democratic Senate nomination while incumbent Sen. John Cornyn and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton will face off in a runoff election on May 26 for the Republican nomination. 

There were hints that the March 3 primaries wouldn’t be super nice, neat and easily decided well before the polls even opened on Tuesday. Extremely tight races for the Republican and Democratic nominations for the Senate as well as some congressional districts and statewide offices meant that voters would be waiting until well into the night for some answers to begin with. 

But then the polls opened in Dallas County.

By the time Tuesday afternoon rolled around, reports began sprouting up, detailing confusion and even “chaos” at some Dallas County polling locations. This year, voting on Election Day meant voters had to visit their assigned precinct location, thanks to the Dallas County GOP requesting separate primaries for 2026. The change from countywide voting to precinct-specific voting caused confusion among residents. People reported being turned away from the polling locations for a number of reasons, as the Texas secretary of state’s office admitted a mix-up on their end likely helped cause some of the Dallas County confusion. 

Around 6 p.m., shortly after Crockett and former U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, a candidate for the newly redrawn Congressional District 33, hosted a joint press conference, a Dallas judge ordered polls to stay open until 9 p.m. A bit later, A man was arrested by Dallas police outside of Paxton’s Election Night HQ with a car full of ammunition. 

What can make an already tight race filled with voter confusion even messier? If you guessed courtroom drama, you guessed correctly. A bit later still, the state Supreme Court blocked the order to keep the polls open, after Paxton’s office claimed it wasn’t given enough notice for the extended hours. The Supreme Court added that votes cast after 7 p.m. needed to be separated from the votes cast by people who were in line before 7 p.m. 

At 9 p.m., as the Republican nomination cemented its runoff status, Crockett appeared at her campaign’s watch party at Club Vivo in downtown Dallas to address the crowd and shed light on the night’s twists and turns.  

“Dallas County should have the second largest voter participation in the state, but we don’t have any of the results because there was a lot of confusion today,” a clearly subdued Crockett said at 9:15 p.m. to the crowded club before eventually adding that she didn’t expect to know the result anytime soon. 

Around 1 a.m. on Wednesday, however, Talarico was declared the winner of the nomination, taking just over 50% of the vote.

There were some less-chaotic, more predictable developments, primarily on the Republican side. By the time 9:45 p.m. rolled around, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick had issued their victory speeches. Another key Republican race many expected to end in a runoff did, with state Sen. Mayes Middleton and U.S. Rep. Chip Roy set to face off on May 26, although Middleton easily outpaced Roy on Tuesday. 

State Sen. Nathan Johnson from Dallas finds himself in a runoff for the Democratic nod for state AG, despite dominating the voting with nearly 1 million votes. The Dallas senator’s two opponents, former Galveston Mayor Joe Jaworski and attorney Anthony Box, however, each received more than 25% of the vote by the time Wednesday morning rolled around, preventing Johnson from exceeding 50%. 

Unlike the race for the Dem Senate nomination, the entire night wasn’t enough time to know the complete results of the race between Allred and U.S. Rep. Julie Johnson for District 33. With 74% of the votes reported on Wednesday morning, Allred held a lead over Johnson, but not a large enough advantage to secure the nomination outright. 

Indeed, the totals only tell some of the story for any election. That certainly applies here. Observer staff writers Emma Ruby and Austin Wood spent hours darting around town on Tuesday night, talking to voters, checking in on the candidates and seeing some of the chaos and headlines unfold in real time. 

Martin Weiss Recreation Center Polling Drama

At 9:10 p.m. a line of around 150 people stretched through the rec center, although it was unclear if their votes would count. At the front of the line, the Democrat election Judge Russell Garner acknowledged the confusion following the Supreme Court ruling. 

“The notification I got on the poll book said to stop all voting and to proceed with closing procedures,” he said. “So I took that to mean to shut it down.” 

He added that he received mixed instructions from those above him as he was also dealing with several “broken down” voting machines. During that time, about 15 people left the line. We reached out to county elections officials to see if this was an isolated issue, but WFAA reported on Tuesday that voters were also being turned away from the Oak Lawn Branch Library. 

Oak Cliff resident Melissa Ruiz, who was wearing scrubs after arriving from work, got in line to vote at Martin Weiss at 5:20 p.m. and finished at 9:45 p.m. she said. She admitted to having “feelings of “frustration” while she watched results come in before she had cast her own ballot.

“It kind of does feel like our time was wasted,” she said. “We took time out of our day to come here right after work, we have not even had dinner. …It didn’t help that the machines weren’t working, it was hot. You’d see people frustrated and they would just walk out.” 

Moving Forward

Unlike the Super Tuesday primary he won easily in 2024, Allred couldn’t strike the triumphant tone he likely had hoped to when he spoke late Tuesday night at the African American Museum of Dallas. 

“When you have the most votes after an election, that’s a good thing,” he said to a group of reporters, staff and supporters. “We’re going to go into this runoff ready to fight for our communities and to fight for working people.”

The former Senate candidate wasted no time in renewing his campaign talking points, doubling down on his criticism of his opponent’s stock trading, saying that he avoided stocks as a congressman, but he soon returned to the dominant topic of the night. As in his earlier press conference, Allred also raised concerns over ongoing difficulties facing Dallas County voters at election centers.

“I want to just begin by saying again that the difficulties that North Texans face in voting today are outrageous and unacceptable,”Allred said.

Rowlett City Council member John P. Bowers appeared next to Allred at the podium and told the Observer that clear communication is going to be vital in the coming weeks.

“I think we have to see what our counties are going to do again, all the different counties in district 33 but it’s a concern to keep your eyes on, but just communicate to voters,” he said. “I think that’s what we ran into a lot today, was just people not understanding what a precinct-based vote was more so than a countywide [election]. So if we can understand the rules and educate the community, I think we’ll be okay.”

State Rep. Venton Jones from Dallas was at the Dallas County Democrat watch party. When asked about what his party needs to do if there is a Democratic Senate candidate while the Republicans wage battle in a runoff. 

“We need to be able to come together and to be able to work to address what we’re seeing right now from the Republicans,” he said “And that’s not only voter suppression, that’s also hitting us in our pocketbooks, hitting us everywhere.”