We're about to take back Texas, the state lawmaker said in a brief victory statement. Talarico now advances to a general election likely against either Sen. John Cornyn or Attorney General Ken Paxton, who will head to a May 26 Republican runoff after neither candidate secured a majority in the first round of their primary election.
By rallying behind Talarico, the party sided with someone who pledged to change Washington while finding consensus. The 36-year-old state representative's win over Crockett cements his status as a rising star and will likely make him one of Democrats' most prominent candidates this year. He campaigned with denunciations of 'politics as a blood sport' and an insistence that people want 'a return to more timeless values of sincerity and honesty and compassion and respect.'
Voting in Dallas County, Crockett's home base, was wracked with confusion. Ahead of the election, Dallas and Williamson counties had closed centralized voting centers, which had been commonly used by voters of both parties, at the behest of local Republicans. Some voters reported scrambling to figure out their polling place and district court judges extended polling hours in both counties.
