Leila Saidane / KUT News
State Rep. James Talarico, D-Austin, speaks at a rally in July against Republicans’ redrawing of Texas congressional map.
Austin state Rep. James Talarico held a slim lead against Dallas Rep. Jasmine Crockett in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate as election results trickled in from across Texas on Tuesday night.
With 95% of counties and 52% of Texas polling locations reporting, Talarico had received 51.8% of the vote compared to 46.9% for Crockett, according to the Texas Secretary of State’s Office.
Results were expected to be delayed in places such as Dallas County, where Crockett is based. A judge there ordered polling locations to stay open until 9 p.m. — two hours after the usual time — because hundreds of voters arrived at polling locations where they thought they could vote, according to KERA. The Texas Supreme Court subsequently ordered all Dallas County ballots cast by voters who got in line after 7 p.m. to be separated.
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A judge in El Paso also ordered polls to stay open past the usual 7 p.m. cutoff time. And there were issues with delays at polling locations in Williamson County, north of Austin.
Either Talarico or Crockett needs to receive more than 50% of the vote in order to avoid a May 26 runoff. The other candidate in the primary, Ahmad R. Hassan, had garnered support from 1.3% of voters.
In the Republican primary for Senate, incumbent Sen. John Cornyn led Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in a race that is headed to a runoff.
The primary winners will compete in November’s general election.
Talarico, 36, is an eighth-generation Texan and a former San Antonio middle school teacher who recently earned his Mastery of Divinity degree from the Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary.
Talarico first won election to the Texas House in 2018, flipping a district then-President Donald Trump had won two years earlier. During the first legislative special session in 2025, he emerged as one of the leaders of a Democratic walkout to protest the Republican-led congressional redistricting. Talarico declared his Senate candidacy soon after the second special session ended in September.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, speaks to reporters after announcing her run in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate, Monday, Dec. 8, 2025, in Dallas. (AP Photo/LM Otero)
Crockett led Talarico in most of the polling, starting months before her formal entry into the primary in December. But Talarico dominated the campaign finance struggle, outraising not only Crockett but even the incumbent Republican Cornyn.
A January debate between Crockett and Talarico in Georgetown showed little daylight between the two candidates on most major issues. Both committed themselves to dramatic reforms, if not abolition, of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and to the impeachment of U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem. Both said they would vote to raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans. And each avoided personal attacks on the other.
That civility didn’t last. Within days, a Crockett supporter revealed that attack ads against Talarico were coming.
In early February, former congressman Colin Allred, who dropped out of the Democratic Senate primary in December, publicly accused Talarico of having referred to Allred as “a mediocre Black man” and endorsed Crockett. Talarico called the allegations a “mischaracterization of a private conversation,” adding he had called Allred’s 2024 Senate campaign against incumbent Sen. Ted Cruz “mediocre,” but not his “life and service.” In her own statement, Crockett said it was “unfortunate that at the start of Black History Month, this is what we’re facing.”
A pro-Talarico super PAC soon launched an attack ad of its own against Crockett, which argued she would be unable to win a general election against the eventual Republican nominee. Crockett released a statement calling Talarico – who has said, if elected, he would fight to ban such super PACs – a hypocrite.
Talarico’s fundraising edge and aggressive ad campaign may have helped him make up for his deficits in polling.