Election Day 2026: Texas primaries test Senate and gubernatorial fields
With election day 2026 in focus, Texas voters are sorting through competitive primary contests that could reshape the state’s U. S. Senate and gubernatorial tickets. The balance of contested nominations — and the prospect of a May runoff in the Republican Senate race — has concentrated attention on a small set of high-profile figures.
Election Day 2026: where the Senate races stand
On the Democratic side for U. S. Senate, Jasmine Crockett, a U. S. House member from Dallas, is facing James Talarico, a state representative who once worked as a public-school teacher and enrolled in seminary while serving in the Texas House. Crockett raised her profile with a prime-time speech at the 2024 Democratic National Convention and is known for a brash communication style; Talarico drew national attention after a state-House floor speech criticizing an effort to require schools to display the Ten Commandments.
In the Republican primary for U. S. Senate, the incumbent Senator John Cornyn is running against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Representative Wesley Hunt of northwest Houston. That three-way GOP field is expected to be competitive and is likely to go to a runoff in May. Paxton, who sued to overturn the 2020 Presidential-election result, was impeached by the Texas House in 2023 on charges of bribery and obstruction of justice and was ultimately acquitted by the state Senate; his wife, a state senator, filed for divorce last summer on "biblical grounds, " amid accusations Paxton denies. President Trump has declined to endorse any candidate in the Senate race, saying, "I support all three. "
Gubernatorial primaries and the front-runners
In the governor’s race, the incumbent Republican Greg Abbott is expected to move on to the general election, as is the leading Democratic hopeful, state representative Gina Hinojosa. Abbott is seeking a fourth term and has reportedly raised a hundred and six million dollars for his campaign; his bid for an unprecedented fourth term follows his role last year in redrawing Texas’s congressional map to more heavily favor Republicans, a point President Trump cited in his endorsement of Abbott.
Gina Hinojosa, who worked as a lawyer for public-sector union employees, ran for the Austin school board in 2012 after severe budget cuts at her son’s elementary school and has made support for public education a central plank of her campaign. Her main challengers in the Democratic primary are Chris Bell, a personal-injury lawyer and former U. S. congressman from Houston, and Bobby Cole, a dairy farmer who has never held elected office.
What to expect next
The most immediate calendar item in the context of the Senate contest is the possibility of a runoff in May for the Republican field; that potential runoff will follow the primary votes that are being cast now and will precede the general-election matchups the parties are expected to present at election day 2026. Voters and campaigns will be watching the outcomes in both the Senate and governor’s primaries to map the path to the general election.
