The Associated Press projected Democrat James Talarico, a state representative, as the winner of the Texas U.S. Senate race. He defeated Republican Ken Paxton, the state's attorney general. The projection came Tuesday night, when an estimated 66.08% of ballots had been counted.
According to unofficial AP results, Talarico had 59.4% of the vote, or 4,091,414 votes. Paxton had 2,688,522 votes, or 39%. Libertarian Ted Brown had 108,280 votes, or 1.6%. Talarico led Paxton by 1,402,892 votes.
The report said the result would be the first statewide election win for Democrats in Texas since 1994. Republicans have dominated statewide elections for more than three decades. Paxton won the GOP nomination by defeating incumbent U.S. Sen. John Cornyn in the primary runoff. AdImpact, an advertising research firm, said political ad spending in the race exceeded $500 million.