Primaries set up big races in Texas, North Carolina
What happened
The 2026 midterms kicked off Tuesday with primary elections in three states, including closely watched Senate contests in Texas and North Carolina. In Texas, Democratic state Rep. James Talarico defeated Rep. Jasmine Crockett and will face the winner of a May 26 runoff between Republican incumbent Sen. John Cornyn and state Attorney General Ken Paxton. In North Carolina, Republicans chose Michael Whatley, a former RNC chair, as their candidate to replace retiring Sen. Thom Tillis (R), while Democrats selected former Gov. Roy Cooper. Arkansas also held primaries.
Who said what
“This is proof that there is something happening in Texas,” Talarico told supporters before The Associated Press called the race this morning, when he was leading Crockett 53% to 46%. “Tonight, the people of our state gave this country a little bit of hope. And a little bit of hope is a dangerous thing.” Crockett said she might take legal action after voters were “disenfranchised” by confusing polling rules in her Dallas stronghold that also affected Talarico’s home base in Williamson County.
Cornyn, who was leading Paxton 42% to 41% in a three-way race, said the “flawed, self-centered and shameless” attorney general would be a “dead weight at the top of the ticket for Republicans” if he wins the runoff. The four-term senator’s advancement to a runoff against the scandal-plagued Paxton was “both a credit to and an indictment of the $70 million-plus spent on his behalf,” Theodore Schleifer said at The New York Times.
In other Texas races, Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R) became the first incumbent unseated this season when he lost to state Rep. Steve Toth. Rep. Tony Gonzales (R), embroiled in controversy over an alleged affair with a staffer who killed herself, was forced into a runoff against YouTube influencer Brandon “the AK guy” Herrera.
What next?
The win by Talarico, a “36-year-old Bible scholar who captured national attention” for “using faith-based language to talk about progressive values,” provides “an early indication of the direction that the Democratic Party and its base voters are heading” into the midterms, The Wall Street Journal said. No Democrat has “won a U.S. Senate seat in Texas since 1988,” The Texas Tribune said. So “for all the focus on Texas,” said the AP, the Cooper-Whatley race in purple North Carolina “could have a bigger impact on which party ultimately wins the Senate majority in the fall.”