Democrat James Talarico has defeated Republican Ken Paxton in Texas, the first time a Democrat has won a US Senate seat in the state since 1988, in a race that became a test of whether money could still decide a statewide contest.

Talarico's victory helped solidify Democratic control of Congress after a wave of wins across the country. Emerging on stage to applause at his watch party, he pronounced: "We just took back Texas."

"We just proved that all the money in the world is no match for the people of Texas," he said, referring to Paxton's campaign, which was backed by Elon Musk, the world's richest person.

"This win, this win is for every Texan who's ever wondered if anyone is listening," he added. "And tonight the world hears you."

The money question

Musk poured $158m into a super PAC supporting Paxton's campaign, a figure Talarico used repeatedly in attacks on his opponent. For decades, the idea of a Democrat winning a statewide race in Texas had felt like a pipe dream for the state's liberals; the party had not won a Senate seat there since 1988.

Paxton's weaknesses were a major part of the story. George Washington University political science professor Quardricos Driskell told the BBC that Paxton was a major part of Republicans' downfall, calling him an "objectively terrible candidate".

Driskell said Talarico's win, combined with another upset on Tuesday that ousted the state's Republican governor Greg Abbott, was "absolutely historic".

A generational shift

Talarico, a former teacher and state legislator, campaigned on public education, abortion rights and affordability. His profile — young, fluent in the language of church and community, and willing to talk about faith in explicitly progressive terms — made him an unusual fit for a state where Democrats have struggled to assemble a statewide majority.

The result suggests that the party's path in Texas now runs through suburban voters and through college-educated women, rather than through the rural areas where it has lost ground for a generation. Whether that coalition can be repeated in a presidential year is a separate question.

It also raises the stakes for the state's Republican leadership. Abbott's defeat and Paxton's loss in the same cycle leave the party without two of its most prominent figures, and it will have to rebuild around a new generation of candidates.

What it changes in Washington

The practical effect is a Senate seat that moves from Republican to Democratic hands, adding to gains in Maine and Michigan. With only 35 of 100 seats contested this cycle, every flip matters, and Texas was the largest state in play.

Talarico will arrive without committee seniority in a chamber where influence is built over years. He has promised to focus on schools and on affordability, both areas where a single senator can shape debate but rarely legislate alone.

His win also gives Democrats a national figure with an unusual biography: a former teacher who quoted scripture while arguing for abortion rights, and who beat a candidate backed by the richest man in the world.

The wider wave

The Texas result was part of a broader Democratic sweep. The party took control of the House, won Senate seats in Maine and Michigan, and saw its voters turn out in suburban districts that had leaned Republican. Markets moved quickly, with the dollar sliding as investors weighed what divided government means for spending and taxes.

For Texas Republicans, the reckoning is immediate: a party that had dominated statewide politics for three decades lost its governor and its Senate seat in a single night. For Democrats, the question is whether the result reflects a durable shift or a reaction to specific candidates.

Talarico's answer, delivered on stage, was deliberately simple: "This win is for every Texan who's ever wondered if anyone is listening." Whether that message travels beyond Texas is the next test.

The Texas result will be studied for years, because it breaks a pattern that had seemed structural. Democrats had not won a Senate seat there since 1988, and the party's national strategy had largely written the state off at the federal level. Talarico's win does not mean Texas is now safe for Democrats; it means the state is contestable under the right conditions, with the right candidate, against the wrong opponent. The Republican Party will have to decide whether to treat the loss as an anomaly or as a warning.

The campaign also tested a style of politics that had fallen out of fashion. Talarico talked about faith and public schools in the same breath, campaigned in churches and on college campuses, and refused to treat the state as unwinnable. That approach drew volunteers who had never worked a campaign before, and it produced a coalition that the party will try to replicate in other Republican-leaning states. Whether it travels is the open question; whether it worked in Texas is no longer in doubt.

The Texas result sits alongside a wave of Democratic wins and a set of national stories that shaped the week, from voting day to chipmaker earnings and the Binance hack case.