Early voting begins Tuesday for Texas’s 2026 primary elections, with eyes on the Lone Star State’s competitive Senate primary for the seat of longtime incumbent Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX ).
Texas has candidates all across the state facing competitive primaries, especially due to the mid-decade redistricting effort backed by President Donald Trump that catapulted redistricting across the country.
Texas’s redistricted map creates 30 Republican-friendly congressional seats, compared to just eight districts favoring Democrats, resulting in a five-seat boost for the GOP from its current 25-13 advantage.
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The Lone Star State has the first primary of the year, launching the 2026 midterm elections. Voters will head to the polls beginning Feb. 17, with Election Day set for March 3.
The Texas Senate primary is packed as Attorney General Ken Paxton and Rep. Wesley Hunt (R-TX) aim to unseat Cornyn. The Democratic primary is also shaping up to be a tight one as Texas Rep. James Talarico and Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) aim to flip the seat.
Paxton has positioned himself as the far-right candidate, aiming to label Cornyn as a vote against the party. While Hunt has aimed to provide voters with an option that is not the longtime senator or the scandal-ridden attorney general.
While both Hunt and Cornyn have continued to make the case against Paxton and each other, Texas will remain center stage heading into November, making for both an interesting and expensive race, with the GOP having a handful of other seats to protect. The race seems to be headed for a runoff as each of the three campaigns continues to tout different polling that leans in their favor.
If the race goes into a runoff, the top two candidates will continue to campaign against each other until a second primary election on May 26, where the top candidate will go on to face the Democratic nominee.
On the Democratic side, Talarico is in seminary, studying to become a pastor, and has focused much of his campaign on his faith. The 36-year-old has 1.2 million followers on TikTok and is a former sixth-grade teacher in San Antonio.
Crockett has quickly risen to fame, serving her second term in the lower chamber, as the GOP has strived to make her the face of the Democratic Party. The social media star has focused much of her campaign against Trump, with her launch video being a series of insults the president has said about her.
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Voters in Texas will also have the opportunity to choose between Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX), a conservative firebrand, Texas Sen. Mayes Middleton, and two other candidates in the GOP primary to be the state’s next attorney general.
Roy launched his bid last year to replace Paxton as attorney general, telling the Washington Examiner earlier this year that he wants to bring the fight back to Texas. Democrats also have a few candidates running to be the next attorney general, with state Sen. Nathan Johnson running against two challengers.