It’s election day in Texas, which means voters are heading to the polls across the state to decide who will represent their parties on the November ballot.
Much of the spotlight has focused on the state’s two blockbuster primaries for U.S. Senate. On the Democratic side, U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Dallas and state Rep. James Talarico of Austin are each pitching to voters that they would be the better pick to lead their party out of the political wilderness. Meanwhile, Republican Sen. John Cornyn is trying to fend off a difficult primary challenge from Attorney General Ken Paxton and U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt of Houston, in a race that could head to a May runoff.
But there are plenty of other critical primaries up and down the ballot that will be decided Tuesday. Paxton’s decision to run for Senate has opened up the attorney general’s office for the first time in over a decade, setting off one of several competitive GOP contests for statewide office. And after Texas Republicans scrambled the state’s congressional map last summer, both parties have a number of closely watched contests to decide their nominees for the state’s 38 seats in the U.S. House.
Here are five of the biggest storylines to watch on election day.
Where will John Cornyn stand after a $70 million to boost him?
After months of mudslinging, the Republican primary for U.S. Senate has finally arrived. Cornyn, who has never lost a race in his decades-long career, is fighting for his political survival in a clash against Paxton and Hunt.
Cornyn, running for a fifth term, argues that Paxton, is a liability for Republicans because of his laundry list of scandals. Paxton has made the case that Cornyn is not conservative enough for the more MAGA-fied grassroots voters in Texas. And Hunt argues that he has the right-wing bona fides to win the primary and lacks the baggage to put the seat in danger in the November general election.
Months of sniping among the candidates has led up to today’s primary, but it’s unlikely to end any time soon. With three prominent candidates in the race, no poll has shown anyone garnering 50% of the vote, making a May 26 runoff all but certain.
Already, the primary has become the most expensive in U.S. history, with Cornyn being the biggest beneficiary of the spending. Over $70 million has poured in to boost the senior senator, touting his pro-Trump voting record and attacking Paxton and Hunt. Paxton, meanwhile, has remained relatively quiet. Hunt, who is making his first statewide run and has only served two terms in the U.S. House, has barnstormed the state all year, though he’s drawn criticism for missing scores of votes to campaign.
The Senate primary will be the biggest test yet of the establishment Republican versus farther-right challenger dynamic that has roiled Texas primaries for several cycles. And though all candidates have boasted about their records defending President Donald Trump and pushing his policies, the president, who has said he likes all three, has not weighed in thus far.
Who will be the Democratic standard-bearer?
Texans are set to pick the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate Tuesday in the first truly competitive statewide primary the party has seen in Texas in decades, the outcome of which will be widely watched as a sign of where the Democratic Party might go as it tries to climb out of the political lows of 2024.
U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Dallas and state Rep. James Talarico of Austin, both Democratic stars seen as powerful communicators with national profiles and widespread devotion among the base, are battling for the nomination in a year Democrats see an opening to finally flip Texas. Democrats have pinned their hopes of a blue Texas this cycle on backlash to the Trump administration and the prospect of facing Paxton in the general.
Crockett and Talarico largely align on policy, but are running on vastly different approaches to winning statewide. Talarico’s path to victory relies on winning over independent and right-leaning voters with a big tent and a populist, faith-based pitch framed as a new “politics of love.” Crockett, meanwhile, is trying to galvanize the base and mobilize disengaged Democrats by playing up her reputation as a fighter willing to fight fire with fire against President Donald Trump’s GOP.
In the months leading up to Election Day, the contest grew increasingly hostile as racial tensions flared, with online political commentators and outside spending groups amping up their attacks against the candidate they opposed. Republicans, too, contributed to the division, pushing efforts to boost Crockett’s candidacy under the assumption that she would be easier to beat in November.
The competition at the top of the ticket helped drive enormous turnout during the early voting period. Over 1.5 million people voted early in the Democratic primary, according to VoteHub, more than double the early turnout numbers from the last midterm election.
There is a third candidate running, Ahmed Hassan, who has registered negligible support in polls but whose presence on the ballot makes a May runoff a remote possibility if it prevents either Crockett or Talarico from winning over 50% of the vote.
The race to succeed Ken Paxton
Over the last decade, Paxton has built the Texas attorney general’s office into one of the most powerful conservative law firms in the country. U.S. Rep. Chip Roy and state Sen. Mayes Middleton are leading in the GOP primary to replace him, each vowing to turbocharge the agency’s partisan work.
Roy, a fourth-term central Texas congressman, entered the race with a significant lead, but polling shows Middleton has narrowed the gap. The wealthy oil and gas executive and Galveston state senator has put almost $12 million of his own money into the race, plastering the airwaves and mailboxes with his “MAGA Mayes” message.
Roy and Middleton look destined for a runoff, which promises to be an expensive, bruising battle for one of the state’s most important agencies.
Meanwhile, state Sen. Joan Huffman, a law-and-order Republican from Houston, and former Paxton deputy and Department of Justice lawyer Aaron Reitz are each hoping for a last-minute surge to shake up their comparably dismal polling numbers.
Interestingly, Paxton has endorsed Reitz, but despite this major nod from the current occupant of the office, most polling shows him in the low single digits.
Whoever wins on Tuesday — or in the May runoff, most likely — will face one of three Democrats in November. State Sen. Nathan Johnson, a Democrat from Dallas, and former Galveston mayor and previous attorney general candidate Joe Jaworski appear to be leading the pack. Dallas attorney and political newcomer Tony Box is polling third. That race is also expected to go to a runoff.
Abbott vs. Trump endorsement scoreboard
Gov. Greg Abbott’s name will only appear once, but his influence can be felt up and down the ballot.
The governor has endorsed four candidates who are facing primary opponents backed by President Donald Trump. The Abbott-backed candidates are Nate Sheets, a businessman and honey maker challenging Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller; former state Sen. Kelly Hancock, who is running for state comptroller, a role he’s been occupying in an interim capacity since July; and state Reps. Briscoe Cain and John Lujan who are vying to represent two newly–drawn congressional districts.
On the line for the governor is a bit of political capital and ensuring he has allies leading two of the state’s most important agencies.
Perhaps no contest will be more personal for him than the comptroller one. Hancock’s main rival is former state Sen. Don Huffines, who unsuccessfully challenged Abbott in 2022 in a campaign that attacked the governor’s conservative bonafides. Huffines is heading into Tuesday with a list of endorsements from a variety of Republican party leaders that also includes Sen. Ted Cruz and five U.S. representatives. On Friday night, Huffines, who has been leading in recent public polls, received the endorsement from Trump after the president stayed neutral for months. Hancock has been trailing in third in polls.
The comptroller’s office, often referred to as the state’s chief financial officer, is tasked with writing checks, estimating state revenue and collecting taxes. The office is also responsible for implementing a new $1 billion program to offer parents vouchers they can use to send their kids to private schools. The program marked one of Abbott’s biggest political victories after he helped unseat state lawmakers who had stood in the way of the program in the past — by getting involved in their primaries.
Trump also on Friday night gave his official backing to Miller, who has served as the agriculture commissioner since 2015. In Sheets, Abbott is supporting a first-time candidate to replace a three-term statewide official who has irritated him. But it won’t be an easy contest for Sheets. Miller, whose tenure has been mired by scandals, has twice defeated well-funded primary challenges in the past — and lead in a recent poll by double digits.
Cain, the state representative from Deer Park, is up against Alex Mealer, a 2022 Harris County judge nominee. Meanwhile Lujan, who represents a district in the San Antonio area, will face Air Force veteran Carlos De La Cruz.
Tort reform battles in Texas House primaries
After the intraparty tumult of the 2024 primaries, the battle within the Texas House majority is shifting back to tort reform — a push to make it harder for injury victims to file civil suits.
For more than 30 years, Texans for Lawsuit Reform has been a campaign juggernaut in Texas Republican politics — aligning itself with establishment Republicans who have long dominated the Capitol halls. But TLR’s power slipped in 2024 after several longtime members of the Texas House retired or were beaten in that year’s turbulent primary cycle, driven by backlash to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s impeachment and Gov. Greg Abbott’s focus on passing vouchers.
With the tide favoring more hardline conservatives in the 2025 session, TLR suffered its least successful legislative year in recent memory. The outcomes of Tuesday night’s GOP House primaries will determine whether TLR can rebound in the policy battle over the civil litigation system.
The most expensive state House primaries this cycle have pitted TLR-backed candidates against those supported by trial lawyer groups. The biggest of those races is state Rep. Marc LaHood’s reelection battle against TLR-backed David McArthur.
LaHood, a first-term Republican from San Antonio, became the central target of TLR’s ire last year after his resistance to the group’s legislative agenda scuttled its priority bills. In a letter shortly after the conclusion of the 2025 regular session, TLR President Lee Parsley accused LaHood of being “not philosophically aligned with the business community.”
However, in the last month and a half of the campaign, TLR PAC has scaled back its direct support to challengers like McArthur, instead focusing its attention on preserving the seats held by incumbent or retiring TLR-aligned members.
The group has spent at least $17.6 million on campaigns since the start of 2025. A joint team of trial lawyer and anti-tort reform groups — including the Texas Trial Lawyers Association PAC, Texans for Truth and Liberty PAC and Physicians for Free Market Healthcare PAC — have spent upward of $6.2 million. Some of those groups also support Democratic candidates, opening their GOP candidates to allegations that they are backed by “liberal” donors.
Apart from the LaHood race, the other marquee fight is between Keller Mayor Armin Mizani and business owner Fred Tate for an open seat in northeast Tarrant County. TLR PAC has spent at least $2.2 million supporting Tate while TLR’s opponents have spent at least $1 million boosting Mizani.
Disclosure: Texans for Lawsuit Reform has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
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