The Democratic candidate in the Texas Senate race has a slight edge over his Republican opponent in a new poll released Friday.<\/p>\n
Forty-seven percent of likely general election voters in the state backed state Rep. James Talarico (D) in the poll from Texas Public Opinion Research, compared with 44 percent for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R).<\/p>\n
The survey was conducted after the Republican primary runoff contest<\/a> Tuesday, in which incumbent Sen. John Cornyn lost to Paxton, who had been endorsed by President Trump.<\/p>\n The latest poll follows a decision<\/a> from the Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan election handicapper, to adjust its rating of the race from \u201clikely Republican\u201d to \u201clean Republican\u201d following Paxton\u2019s win.<\/p>\n Nearly a third of the respondents who voted for Cornyn in the runoff indicated in the poll that they will support the Democratic nominee in the November election. A plurality \u2014 44 percent \u2014 of these voters said they will now choose Paxton, and 23 percent were undecided.<\/p>\n In a social media post<\/a> following Cornyn\u2019s defeat, Talarico thanked the incumbent senator for his years of public service and extended an olive branch to his supporters.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t agree on everything, but we both still believe in public service. To Senator Cornyn\u2019s supporters: you have a place in our campaign,\u201d the state representative wrote in the post.<\/p>\n Of the Cornyn voters who said they will now back Talarico, more than half cited the criminal charges against Paxton and corruption concerns.<\/p>\n Paxton was indicted in 2015 on felony charges in a securities fraud case. Republican state legislators voted to impeach the attorney general<\/a> in 2023, and he was later acquitted<\/a> by lawmakers in the Texas state Senate.<\/p>\n The two candidates have ramped up political advertisements targeting one another\u2019s character and campaigns in the aftermath of the GOP runoff.<\/p>\n Talarico\u2019s campaign posted Paxton\u2019s mug shot<\/a> on social media following the state attorney general\u2019s victory and highlighted criticism from GOP state lawmakers from the impeachment vote in another post<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cKen Paxton has a criminal record; I have a legislative record,\u201d the state legislator told MS NOW.<\/p>\n Paxton has criticized the state lawmaker for his previous decision to follow a vegan diet and his comment that \u201cGod is nonbinary<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump weighed in on the fight in a post on Truth Social following Paxton\u2019s victory, calling Talarico \u201cthe worst TEXAS candidate I have ever seen.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cA Strong Open Borders advocate, he is WEAK ON CRIME, believes there are 6 genders, is insulting to Jesus Christ, will never support the Military, was a big Mask Wearer until recently, and is a Vegan who dislikes meat, not exactly a good way to be if you\u2019re wanting to win an Election in Texas,\u201d the president wrote in the post.<\/p>\n Trump also pledged in the post to \u201cdo some nice, big, beautiful rallies for Ken.\u201d<\/p>\n The Texas Public Opinion Research poll was conducted May 27-28 among 1,670 likely Texas voters and has a margin of error of approximately 2.8 percentage points.<\/p>\n Updated at 10:01 p.m. EDT<\/p>\n Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n