Friday, February 6, 2026

Democrats have a chance to steal a big red state — if they can get out of their own way

There’s an urban legend that Lyndon B. Johnson spread a rumor about his opponent having had an indecent experience with pigs. When a campaign aide told him they couldn’t say that because it was not true, Johnson — a Democrat who repped Texas in Congress for 23 years before ascending to the executive branch — supposedly said, “Of course it ain’t true, but I want to make the son-of-a-b**** deny it.”

Half a century later, Texas Senate races look no less nasty, and it might cost Democrats their chance to win the majority.

Democrats have a legitimate chance to flip the United States Senate in the November midterms. They have their dream candidate in North Carolina in former Gov. Roy Cooper. And for the first time in 30 years, Susan Collins looks like she could lose her seat in Maine.

And Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer pulled off a major catch when he convinced former congresswoman Mary Peltola to run for Senate in Alaska. But even if they win all three seats, Democrats need one more flip to get 51 seats in November.

Enter Texas.

While the Lone Star State has long been a pipe dream for Democrats and they last won a Senate seat in 1988, every element seems to be going their way.

Sen. John Cornyn faces a bruising primary against the state’s ultra-MAGA attorney general Ken Paxton and Rep. Wesley Hunt. Cornyn, a former attorney general and judge, is the exact type of Bush Republican that the base of the GOP now despises.

But Paxton has tons of baggage rooted in his alleged infidelity and 2023 impeachment trial, in which he was acquitted. 

But Democrats are embroiled in their own internal feud that could threaten their already remote opportunity to win the seat. And it comes as early voting begins in two weeks for a March 3 primary.

Last year, Colin Allred, the former congressman who lost to Ted Cruz in 2024, announced he would try to run against Cornyn or Paxton. But when James Talarico, a Democratic state legislator from the Austin area, gained national media attention, he overshadowed Allred.

All the while, Cornyn and Republicans began promoting the idea of Rep. Jasmine Crockett, a Black congresswoman from Dallas who become a liberal media darling for her sharp-tongued attacks on Republicans, running for the Democratic nomination. Crockett announced in December, which prompted Allred to drop out.

Read more here:

By Eric Garcia

Reading list

Daily briefing

White House blames staffer for Trump’s Obama ‘apes’ post and removes video Republican labeled ‘racist’

The White House dismissed the clip as harmless, though it was later deleted, Brendan Rascius, Andrew Feinberg and Eric Garcia report. 

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QUOTE OF THE DAY

Praying it was fake because it’s the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House

Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) responding to Donald Trump sharing a post depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as apes. 

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