The Texas Tribune newsroom has reporters across the state tracking the election results. They’ll be posting their observations and analysis below all night.
Read more Here’s what to watch as Texas wraps its most competitive electoral season in years.
Here’s are the top things you need to know:
- Early vote totals in Texas’ urban and suburban counties are showing very positive numbers of the Democrats. U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico and gubernatorial candidate Gina Hinojosa both showed strong leads in suburban areas that voted for Trump in 2024. Republicans are hoping for strong Election Day vote totals to boost them.
- You can see vote totals for all statewide and legislative races here.
- More than 40% of voters cast their ballots early. That was record early turnout for a non-presidential election year.
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Jasper Scherer
Politics Editor
What’s brewing in Texas right now is almost hard to fathom: In counties across the state, Talarico is leading by margins that, if they hold, would be historic for a Democrat in modern-day Texas. And the rest of Dems’ statewide ticket is running close enough to Talarico that each of their GOP opponents, from Gov. Greg Abbott down to the state courts, appears to be in danger. Republicans will be looking for an epic showing on Election Day to blunt the worst effects of the blue wave, which is looking like a tsunami at the moment.
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Matthew Watkins
Editor-in-Chief
Our election map shows that a lot of rural counties still need to be counted. Those are traditionally red areas. But, of course, they have smaller populations and Republicans have a lot of ground to make up.
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Alejandro Serrano
Politics Reporter
Interesting context as we wait for more returns out of Harris County: Gov. Greg Abbott vowed to spend $25 million to turn Harris County dark red. As of yesterday he had invested some $21 million on ads in Houston, per AdImpact. Part of the thinking was to increase GOP turnout that can help offset any margins. The county, where one in six Texans live, is crucial to both parties’ statewide ambitions.
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Taylor Goldenstein
Enterprise and Investigative Reporter
Over at the Gina Hinojosa watch party in East Austin, the mood is jubilant. The blue LED-lit room is filled with cocktail tables with veladoras, prayer candles, with lotería (a Mexican game similar to bingo) icons for “Gobierna,” the feminine form of governor in Spanish. CNN is playing on two big projector screens, flanking a Texas flag at center stage. When the Texas governor’s race shows up on screen with Hinojosa up by double-digits, the crowd electrifies. They cheer, whistle and whoop. “Go Gina!” a supporter shouts. Later, “Freedom! ’90” by George Michael plays. Fitting because if Hinojosa wins she’d be the first Democrat elected to statewide office since almost that long ago — 1994!
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Carlos Nogueras Ramos
Permian Basin Reporter
One of the questions for Houston Democrat and Railroad Commission candidate Jon Rosenthal in May, following Jim Wright’s defeat against Bo French, was whether he could pick up where Wright managed to make gains.
EV returns in South Texas show he’s certainly made inroads. Look at Nueces (75% of EV returns) and Cameron (70% of EV returns), counties Wright led that Rosenthal has now picked up. In counties neighboring the DFW area, Wood, Smith and Parker counties, French is up by wide margins. French has also an overwhelming EV lead in Midland County, where he’s from.
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Nic Garcia
Deputy Managing Editor for Regional and Local News
Scrolling through congressional race results and CD 23, which stretches across West Texas from San Antonio, Brandon Herrera is lagging behind with nearly 60% of the vote counted. The seat was held by Tony Gonzales before he resigned. Thinking about this article Carlos wrote from the field earlier this year amid Gonzales’ scandals. texastribune.org/2026/02/27/tony-gonzales-west-texas-election-2026
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Gabby Birenbaum
Washington Correspondent
The Harris County early vote is strongly Democratic. Talarico won 66.3% to Paxton’s 32.3%. Just two years ago, Colin Allred won the early vote here by 10%. Democrats have long dreamed of hitting the elusive 60% overall margin in Harris.
And in TX-09, which Republicans redrew to be safely Republican, their candidate, Alex Mealer, is down by 24 percentage points in the early vote to Democrat Leticia Gutierrez.
There’s a real possibility Republicans lose all five of the seats they redrew.
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Kayla Guo
Politics Reporter
The mood at Talarico HQ is electric. No Democratic early vote lead shown on the big screen is too small — though they’ve been staggering so far — to cheer. I feel bad for the band that’s performing behind the crowd, which is glued to the screen.
Read more James Talarico leads Ken Paxton in early returns in Texas’ U.S. Senate race
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Alejandro Serrano
Politics Reporter
Their Democratic counterparts seem cautiously optimistic.
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Gabby Birenbaum
Washington Correspondent
The mood among Republican consultants and stuff, in a word: bleak.
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Nic Garcia
Deputy Managing Editor for Regional and Local News
Our Rio Grande Valley reporter Berenice Garcia just pointed out that Cameron County just posted results. Talarico is winning the county, the most southern in Texas, with 70% of the vote.
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Matthew Watkins
Editor-in-Chief
Stunning early vote totals in Cameron County. Talarico with a 40-point lead from the early vote. Hinojosa with a 37-point lead. Trump won the Rio Grande Valley County by nearly six points.
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Eleanor Klibanoff
Law and Politics Reporter
“Losing my mind.” “I’m stunned.” “Did not see the size of this wave coming.” Political consultants from both sides of the aisle say the early vote results have blown out whatever they were expecting. A lot more results to come, of course, but safe to say this is not going the way Rs hoped
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Nic Garcia
Deputy Managing Editor for Regional and Local News
Speaking of county results, we are still waiting on Harris and Travis, home to Houston and Austin, respectively.
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Emily Iazzetti
Director of Membership
Our full team of Texas journalists is all across the state right now, talking to candidates, voters and election officials to get you the information you want. Your donation tonight supports independent political reporting for Texans. Will you join us?
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Matthew Watkins
Editor-in-Chief
A reader asks: I am following the State election site that is updated every 5 minutes. Why are the numbers on that “official” site so different than numbers being shown on media sites?
Our election results page is powered by the Associated Press, which combines official Texas Secretary of State results with numbers pulled directly from certain counties. Counties are the ones that actually do the vote tallying, and the state compiles the totals from around the state. So in some cases our numbers — and other outlets’ — will be a little ahead of the state’s.
How AP counts the vote
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Gabby Birenbaum
Washington Correspondent
A few Republican incumbents in the U.S. House are probably sweating right now. Keep an eye on Lance Gooden, Craig Goldman and Pete Sessions. And the 32nd Congressional District, which was the safest of the seats Republicans redrew last summer, also looks to be in danger.
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Gabby Birenbaum
Washington Correspondent
With the early vote in in Bexar County, we’ve got some results in the competitive 23rd and 35th Congressional Districts. In 35, Democrat Johnny Garcia won the early drop by 32%. In 23, Democrat Katy Padilla Stout won the Bexar early vote by 15%. Still lots of vote in the red counties of both districts outstanding.
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Alejandro Serrano
Politics Reporter
Early vote tallies from Montgomery County are in. Paxton and other statewide Republicans are up. Again this is a GOP stronghold. Would spell big trouble if Republicans were down.
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Alejandra Martinez
Environment Reporter
Hi there! I am at the Ken Paxton election watch party in Dallas, where there’s an actual cannon representing the Battle of Gonzales — a symbol Paxton used to represent himself as a defender of traditional Texan culture. The polls have closed and reporters and videographers from national, regional and local media outlets are still outnumbering guests. Those who are in attendance are closely watching a big projector screen while munching on popcorn. The mood has dipped a little as early results trickle in showing Talarico leads in Tarrant, Collin and Denton counties — places that are up for grabs in the U.S. Senate race.
Read more South Texas congressional Democrats Vicente Gonzalez and Henry Cuellar glide toward reelection
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