Texas Democrats pull off the breakthrough they’ve chased for decades

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For decades, Texas Democrats have dreamt of turning the state blue, rallying around exciting candidates who drew big crowds and big money but could not ultimately overcome the state’s stubborn conservative majority.

On Tuesday, their dream finally came true – and in dramatic fashion.

Not only did Democrats win the state’s high-profile Senate race, but they also captured the governor’s mansion and were on track to prevail in other statewide races. After being shut out of statewide office for 32 years, they were poised to seize most levers of powers in a stunning rejection of one-party rule in the second most populous state in the country.

“You really can’t believe it’s happening, even though we’ve been working so hard to get here,” Rep. Lizzie Pannill Fletcher, a Houston Democrat, told CNN early Wednesday morning. “Just the enormity and the totality of it — I think it’s beyond anyone’s wildest imagination.”

Many Democrats thought it was possible that Democrat James Talarico, a state representative from Austin, could defeat Republican Ken Paxton, the state’s attorney general, in the Senate race. But they were not as sure that Democrat Gina Hinojosa, another state representative from Austin, could unseat three-term GOP Gov.

Greg Abbott, who spent over $140 million against her. And they certainly were not as confident that a third Austin Democrat, Vikki Goodwin, could take out Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, the powerful presiding officer of the state Senate who has used his close relationship with Trump to reshape state politics over the last decade.

But by early Wednesday morning, all three of those Republicans had made concession statements, in scenes that were jarringly dissonant with their years of bravado about stamping out Democratic challengers.

A Democratic strategist who worked for Goodwin, Michael Kolenc, said the candidates were able to capitalize on national issues such as the war in Iran and tariffs in ways unique to Texas.

“Those all increased the idea that costs were a huge problem, and then when you have really bad politicians like Ken Paxton, Dan Patrick and Donald Trump who are all in this corruption bucket, it was really easy to tell voters a story about why the status quo was harming them, harming their pocketbooks and why change was really needed,” Kolenc said.

Even though the national landscape favored Democrats, their ranks in Texas had reason to be skeptical of a breakthrough this year.

Recent history is littered with Democratic statewide candidates who raised the party’s hopes of flipping the state but ultimately came up short. One of the most heartbreaking examples for Democrats is Beto O’Rourke, the former El Paso congressman who thrilled Democrats with his 2018 run against GOP Sen. Ted Cruz but lost by less than 3 percentage points.

“I am so proud of Texas, so proud of this country,” O’Rourke wrote in a text message early Wednesday morning. “A lot of people put in a lot of work over a lot of years to make this happen. And Gina and James did the most — ran amazing campaigns that met the moment and won huge victories.”

Republicans, who have long derided the Democratic stars as too liberal for Texas and beholden to out-of-state donors, were shell-shocked as results came in.

Texas GOP Chairwoman D’rinda Randall said in a statement that the party would “reflect honestly, learn from our setbacks, and come back stronger.” The party’s vice chair, David Covey, was more blunt, writing on X that voters “rejected the Republican status quo” and that the results were “our wake-up call.”

One statewide candidate who lost, Don Huffines, did not hold back at his election night party. He blamed “mushy middle people” but also called out Abbott and Patrick for pursuing their fourth terms during a time of incumbent fatigue.

“I mean, seriously?” Huffines said. “People are tired of the Republicans being in office. They couldn’t campaign on a policy issue. If they campaigned on lowering your property tax, guess what? All that did was remind everybody why you didn’t do it 12 years ago.”

Huffines also lamented that it would be “almost impossible to win this state back,” echoing the longtime GOP warning that a Democratic breakthrough in Texas could be irreversible – and make the state newly important to the presidential election.

“I think this puts Texas right at the heart of the map,” Fletcher said. “I think anybody who knows the presidential politics knows that if you can win Texas and California, you’re a long way toward winning.”

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几十年来，德克萨斯州的民主党人一直梦想着将该州变成蓝色州，他们团结在激动人心的候选人周围，这些候选人吸引了大量人群和大量资金，但最终未能战胜该州顽固的保守派多数。

周二，他们的梦想终于实现了——而且是以戏剧性的方式。

民主党不仅赢得了该州备受瞩目的参议员选举，还拿下州长宝座，并且有望在其他州级选举中也取得胜利。在长达32年的时间里，民主党一直无缘州级公职，如今他们即将掌控大部分权力，以惊人的方式打破美国人口第二大州的单一政党统治局面。

“你真的难以置信这一切正在发生，尽管我们为此付出了巨大的努力，”休斯顿民主党众议员莉齐·潘尼尔·弗莱彻周三清晨告诉CNN。“它的规模之大、范围之广——我认为这超出了任何人的想象。”

许多民主党人认为，来自奥斯汀的民主党州众议员詹姆斯·塔拉里科有可能在参议院选举中击败共和党人、州检察长肯·帕克斯顿。但他们不太确定，同样来自奥斯汀的民主党州众议员吉娜·希诺霍萨能否击败连任三届的共和党州长。

格雷格·阿博特曾花费超过1.4亿美元与她对决。他们当然也不那么有信心，第三位来自奥斯汀的民主党人维基·古德温能够击败副州长丹·帕特里克。帕特里克是州参议院的议长，权力强大，过去十年间他利用与特朗普的密切关系重塑了该州的政治格局。

但到了周三清晨，这三位共和党人都发表了认输声明，这一幕与他们多年来吹嘘要消灭民主党挑战者的豪言壮语形成了鲜明的对比。

曾为古德温工作的民主党策略师迈克尔·科伦茨表示，候选人能够以德克萨斯州特有的方式利用伊朗战争和关税等国家问题。

科伦茨说：“这些都加剧了人们对成本是一个巨大的问题的认识，再加上像肯·帕克斯顿、丹·帕特里克和唐纳德·特朗普这样腐败的政客，就很容易向选民讲述现状是如何损害他们的利益、损害他们的钱包，以及为什么真的需要改变。”

尽管全国形势对民主党有利，但德克萨斯州的民主党人有理由对今年能否取得突破持怀疑态度。

近年来，民主党州级候选人屡屡令人扼腕叹息，他们一度燃起民主党翻盘的希望，最终却功亏一篑。其中最令民主党人痛心的例子之一，便是前埃尔帕索国会议员贝托·奥鲁克。2018年，他挑战共和党参议员特德·克鲁兹，一度令民主党人兴奋不已，但最终却以不到3个百分点的微弱劣势落败。

“我为德克萨斯州感到无比自豪，为这个国家感到无比自豪，”奥鲁克周三清晨在短信中写道。“很多人多年来付出了大量努力才促成此事。而吉娜和詹姆斯更是功不可没——他们开展了精彩绝伦的竞选活动，抓住了时机，赢得了巨大的胜利。”

长期以来，共和党人一直嘲笑民主党明星候选人过于自由派，不适合德克萨斯州，并且受制于外州捐助者。当选举结果出来时，共和党人震惊不已。

德克萨斯州共和党主席德琳达·兰德尔在一份声明中表示，该党将“坦诚反思，从挫折中吸取教训，并变得更加强大”。该党副主席大卫·科维的措辞则更为直白，他在X网站上撰文称，选民“拒绝了共和党的现状”，选举结果“给我们敲响了警钟”。

一位竞选州级公职失败的候选人唐·赫芬斯在选举之夜的庆祝派对上毫不掩饰自己的不满。他指责“软弱的中间派”，同时也批评阿博特和帕特里克在民众对现任官员感到厌倦之际，仍然寻求连任第四届。

“我是说真的？”赫芬斯说。“人们已经厌倦了共和党执政。他们根本无法就政策议题进行竞选。就算他们竞选时承诺降低房产税，你猜怎么着？那只会让大家想起12年前为什么没这么做。”

赫芬斯还感叹道，“几乎不可能赢回这个州”，这与共和党长期以来的警告相呼应，即民主党在德克萨斯州取得突破可能是不可逆转的，并使该州对总统选举变得至关重要。

弗莱彻说：“我认为这让德克萨斯州成为选情的核心。任何了解总统选举政治的人都知道，如果你能拿下德克萨斯州和加利福尼亚州，你就离胜利不远了。”