Texas Flips Blue! James Talarico Ousts Ken Paxton in Historic Midterm Win That Shook America | N18g

In an historic victory for Democrats, CNN is projecting the Democrat James Tallarico will win the U.S. Senate seat in the high stakes race in Texas. The four-term state legislator will defeat controversial Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton, who ousted Republican incumbent John Cornyn in the GOP primary battle. This was the most expensive Senate race in the history of the United States, and it marks the first time since 1988. 30 years ago about, that Texas will send a Democrat to the U.S. Senate. We also have another projection that's going to be pretty big. We can project that Democrat Sherrod Brown will win the Senate seat in Ohio. We were just talking about Ramaswamy dragging down Republicans. Sherrod Brown is going to defeat Republican Senator John Husted, who was appointed to replace J.D. Vance after Vance became vice president. Let's go to Aaron Burnett. Who is at Tallarico campaign headquarters, Aaron Burnett, big night in Texas. And they are, Jake, they just, everyone cheering here as you made that call. Guy next to us just saying holy expletive, he just won. The celebration here, as you were talking, they were also chanting about Gina Hinojosa, that call not being made yet. But obviously Tallarico winning the state of Texas, history is made. And it is an incredible moment for these people here and for Texas in terms of history, right? This is history. Aaron, it's a remarkable moment to put in context here. 1998 was the last time that a Democrat was sent to the U.S. Senate. James Tallarico was born the next year. So that really encapsulates this. James Tallarico is a seminarian, a state lawmaker, and a very different kind of candidate running against a very flawed Republican in Ken Paxton. Without Donald Trump's endorsement of Paxton earlier this year, We might not be here. However, the Tallarico winning campaign is also about James Tallarico, not simply about Paxton losing this. The coalition that he worked to build for months and months and months was based on corruption, was based on the economy. It was based on just a sense of anger here. So I'm told that he'll be delivering a speech tonight, really outlining himself as a different kind of Democrat. All right, and now, we'll see here, we'll wait for this crowd here because we are going to make a projection in Texas Governor. Jake, go ahead, make this projection while we've got this crowd here listening. All right, Erin, let's go to Boris Sanchez, who's at our gubernatorial desk. Jake, a huge moment for Democrats in the state of Texas. For how long have they been trying to turn Texas blue tonight? Gina Hinojosa makes history, the daughter of a longtime Democratic State Party chair, a state legislator who made her way into politics through the school board after her son's school was almost shut down because of public funding cuts. She ran on affordability, on education, no surprise there. She defeats Greg Abbott, who is running for a fourth term. Greg Abbott was extremely popular in Texas. He never won a race by fewer than 10 points. And tonight, Gina Hinojosa Makes history not only Flipping the governor's mansion in Austin blue, but also becoming the first Latina governor in the history of the Lone Star State. I'll tell you something. I'm going to throw to Aaron Burnett right now. Aaron, I am old enough to know that for decades, Democrats have been talking about turning the state blue. And here we are. They have done it. This, if anything, obviously the bigger upset in the state of Texas, Lulu, and this is a moment in history for Texas. This is an incredible moment. I never... I never thought I'd see the day, and I can tell you that I have Texas friends and family who never thought they'd see the day when you would have a Latina governor of the state of Texas, and you would be also sending a Democrat at the same time to the Senate. This is a historic moment, and it is not even close. This was a complete rout, and if you think about where they all started, these campaigns were small. Tallarico had no name recognition outside of the state of Texas. Gina Hinojosa, nobody knew her. No one wanted to give her money. And now they are the new governor-elect and the new senator-elect of this state. And I think, and I know, people are crying. All over this, all over the state who wanted to see this day for so very long. I mean, Jonah, it is an incredible moment in history. And you talk about what Lulu is laying out here. But when you just think about this moment, even hours ago, even if there wasn't a narrative, it was maybe Tallarico can pull it out. But people are going to split the ticket. Abbott's going to hold on. Gina Hinojosa coming in as the next governor of Texas is an incredible moment. Waiting to make the point that all this talk about turning Texas blue is silly and it's just going to be one Senate seat, maybe, whatever. But you're talking about like the Texas legislature might go blue. You're talking about all of these down ballot positions, court positions, all that kind of stuff. Like, I'm not saying Texas is now officially permanently blue. But it's a purple state as of tonight, with a bluish hue. And you know who really might take some credit for this too? Elon Musk. Elon Musk put an enormous amount of money into this state, and I've got to tell you... It's the Democrats that got a return on that investment. Almost $200 million, and a lot of it here, and where we are sitting right now, obviously headquarters. It was when those votes started coming in here from Austin that these calls were made possible, and this, of course, is Elon Musk's Texas headquarters. It's one more loss for Elon Musk, and it was a big investment, but it really fed into this corruption message. At the end of this campaign, James Tallarico would say, Texas is not for sale. But we saw something happening here that now makes more sense in Texas months ago when Greg Abbott, the incumbent governor, that's what's also extraordinary about this. She didn't win an open seat like James Tallarico. She defeated an entrenched incumbent governor. When he changed his position on data centers, he was the first Republican to switch his view. He could tell something in rural Texas was happening. It was too late at that point. I mean, this is significant in every respect. The idea of Texas turning blue is more than this election. We are looking forward now. Since we've been covering politics for decades, this has always been discussed. It has never happened. Now this will be a new normal. I'm not saying Texas is going to turn blue in presidential campaigns, but this has changed the national political dynamic. And if you look at the counties as we've been looking at, The whole redistricting effort started right up the street here in Texas. The White House trying to engineer some new maps being drawn. Texas is also going to elect some new members of Congress tonight. So an extraordinary, extraordinary moment. You can see the skyline in Austin behind us. Those buildings are blue. Texas now is blue. As you can see, and some of that redistricting here in Texas, also in Florida, backfiring for Republicans, some of those very areas. And this is a repudiation of President Trump. At the end of the day, it is not only about all the things that we've discussed here, but it is a repudiation of the policies of the president. Right. And right here in Texas, ground zero, Jake, for all of that. Back to you. Well, four of my favorite people, and if it were up to me, I'd clear you and tell you to go get margaritas. But it's not, so let's go back to what we're doing here, because I have another projection for you. In Oregon, CNN can project that Democratic incumbent Senator Jeff Merkley will be re-elected. This is a Democratic hold. Jeff Merkley will be re-elected. So let us take a look at where the balance of power is. Here we are. Democrats have 49 seats. That includes four pickups. Four pickups. Democrats have 49 seats. Remember the pickups are both Carolinas, North and South, Ohio, and we've called Texas. So Democrats have flipped the four seats. Now the night's not over. We don't know what's going to happen. But in any case, we're still waiting for 14 seats remaining.